Why We Wrote This
Who reports the news? People. And at The Christian Science Monitor, we believe that it’s our job to report each story with a sense of shared humanity. Through conversations with our reporters and editors, we explain the qualities behind our reporting that affect how we approach the news. Behind today’s headlines we find respect, resilience, dignity, agency, and hope. “Why We Wrote This” shows how. The Monitor is an award-winning, nonpartisan news organization with bureaus around the globe. Visit CSMonitor.com/whywewrotethis to learn more.
A Kingdom of Empathy?
When it comes to humanity’s relationship to Earth’s other creatures, does “dominion” really mean “stewardship”? Monitor writer Stephanie Hanes joins host Clay Collins for a look behind the reporting of her recent deep dive into what new research suggests about the richness of animals’ inner lives – and what that might mean for humans’ relationship to them.
A Mother’s Strength
A new writer’s local assignment on a gun violence memorial brought him face to face with a mother whose trying experience, and her telling of it, seemed to underscore an organization’s healing mission. It also showcased his source’s strength, resilience, and agency. In this episode, we break from the conversation format to make room for a writer’s annotation of a interview – used with permission of his source – that informed his reporting.
Reading America’s Shift: Part 2
Covering an incoming administration is about more than tracking the words and deeds of the new chief executive. Plates are shifting from the Cabinet to Congress. That warrants careful reporting, too. It means staying grounded in facts, not engaging in speculation, as a government emerges that is in some ways quite different from Trump 1.0. Washington writer Cameron Joseph, a frequent recent guest, joins guest host Gail Russell Chaddock to talk it through.
Reading America’s Shift: Part 1
In this stretch between Election Day and the inauguration, the United States waits on a president-elect who has a long list of actions to take “on Day 1,” many without precedent, even given his earlier term. What will Monitor coverage of this transition and this presidency look like? How do journalists stay curious and focused on truth? How do they avoid appearing to be condescending? Two Washington-based Monitor writers join guest host Gail Russell Chaddock to talk about the kind of careful listening and deep introspection that good reporting requires. First of two parts.
A Chatty Thanksgiving Primer
Fresh cranberries or canned? Northern pumpkin pie or Southern sweet potato pie? An assembling of intergenerational family members, a handful of friends, or a group of strangers? Almost everything about Thanksgiving, from travel to table talk about politics, has the potential to become fraught. Calm can prevail when a simple sense of gratitude gets its place at the table. The Monitor’s Kendra Nordin Beato joins host Clay Collins to talk turkey and more.
Encore: Respect, Dignity, and Getting Along
Another U.S. election is behind us. Can civility – deep civility, not just politeness – heal divides? Stephen Humphries, the Monitor’s chief culture writer, joined host Clay Collins in this encore episode to talk about his expansive view of the culture beat and about how he came to write about Alexandra Hudson’s book, “The Soul of Civility.” Ms. Hudson, too, joined the 2023 episode to talk further about how to bridge the empathy gap that reveals itself around so many issues.
Why We Went Deep on Sudan
A land war grinds on into another winter in Europe’s east. The Mideast keeps spiraling, old enmity refueled. A U.S. presidential election claims whatever sliver of attention is left. The West tends to forget about the African continent even in less distracting times. But stories from many of its more than 50 countries abound – of wars, yes. Of starvation. But also of human courage and resilience. In this episode, the Monitor’s Peter Ford, our international news editor, joins host Clay Collins to explore the why and how of our recent series on Sudan.
Election Unprecedented, Part 2
Georgia’s voting-rules dispute has been given a lot of attention. So have process changes in other states, along with the standard complexities of mail-in ballot counts and the (now standard, it seems) preelection charges of a “rigged” process. In the second of two parts of a conversation with guest host Gail Russell Chaddock, the Monitor’s Cameron Joseph talks about this presidential election cycle compared with the past two, and about how he works to hold both sides to account in telling the full story.
Election Unprecedented, Part 1
The late-game ouster of an incumbent as candidate, state rules in flux, and back-to-back hurricanes in battleground states? Yes, the 2024 U.S. presidential election sits in a category of its own. Beneath those big factors: a set of wedge issues and a pair of candidates with stark differences of approach and appeal. Monitor politics writer Cameron Joseph joins guest host Gail Russell Chaddock to talk about the work of covering the wild run-up – and bracing for what’s next.
Gaza’s Story, From the Inside
Amid intensifying strife and humanitarian disaster, how do you report a story like the war in Gaza accurately and compassionately? How do you recognize the complexities of a war in which intense suffering exists alongside a powerful humanity and an effort to cling to hope? Monitor correspondents Ghada Abdulfattah in Gaza and Taylor Luck in Jordan join Managing Editor Amelia Newcomb, our guest host, to talk about the challenges they face – and, in Ghada’s case, how she navigates the danger and chaos that confront her every moment of the day.
