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 Fuller View of Taiwan
Western news reports about Taiwan tend to focus on the island’s relationships with global superpowers, notably China and the United States. The people of Taiwan and their history can sometimes get lost in those narratives. Writer Ann Scott Tyson made a return trip to Taiwan to gather more of those important perspectives. Her cover story is a sort of coming of age story for Taiwan, exploring issues of national identity, civic responsibility, and peace. She joins guest host Lindsey McGinnis, the Monitor’s Asia editor, to discuss it.
A Fight Over Students’ Phones
You wouldn’t want your kid toting a television to class. So why allow a smartphone? That’s one take on a big back-to-school issue this year. Another take: Phones can be lifelines in emergencies. Two Monitor writers reported on the perspectives of parents, students, and educators and found a conversation growing that might finally yield some compromise solutions.
Encore: A Zeal for Reels
How does the Monitor’s film critic decide what to review – especially in festival settings? For Peter Rainer, it’s about staying moored by his own long experience and curating with a Monitor audience in mind. After the Toronto festival in 2023, Peter spoke on our podcast about how he does that. The films have changed; the work has not. We’ve reprised some of that episode this week.
A Beat That’s Bigger Than Borders
Hopes, fears, and hard decisions: The stories of would-be immigrants are stories that matter. So, too, are the stories and views of the many other stakeholders in the immigration debate, including U.S. ranchers whose land becomes the first zones of contention. Monitor writer Sarah Matusek is based in Denver, a city that has received thousands of people from South and Central American countries over the past two years. She joined host Clay Collins to talk about reporting a sprawling story with completeness and compassion.
Scenes From the Press Pool
What’s it like being in a president’s presence at big moments? What about at small ones, as when the commander-in-chief offers to buy you a burger? It’s all part of working in the press pool, where a hand-picked gaggle of reporters chronicles the president’s moves in real time and faithfully feeds detailed missives to the wider media. Linda Feldmann, who has cycled through the work for two decades, and Sophie Hills, who’s just getting her feet wet, joined veteran D.C. writer and our podcast’s guest host to describe the work and tell some tales.
An Alchemist of Folk
An Americana-infused folk music revival has been a surging in the United States for years now. Georgia’s Jake Xerxes Fussell has emerged as one of the most singular interpreters of that music and all of its tributaries. Writer (and fan) Simon Montlake, a hard-news reporter most of the time, joins host Clay Collins to talk about why the modest Mr. Fussell is worth discovering – and about what folk music means to the transmission, down through generations, of the cultures it preserves.
Writers’ Read: Drug Use and Compassion
Drug decriminalization is another story that often sets up as a binary debate: It's either a path to societal meltdown or a way to regulate behaviors that appear inevitable, and to stop filling jails. Test cases in three places – Portland, Oregon; British Columbia, Canada; and Portugal – show that solutions require very nuanced thinking. And compassion. Yvonne Zipp, our features editor, introduces this episode, which includes full story reads by three Monitor writers.
On the Run at the Games
When a sports-loving writer gets a shot at covering an Olympic Games, the story becomes one of joyful immersion and inspired output. Ira Porter joins host Clay Collins for this episode about reporting from the Paris Games and finding the human stories that matter most in that sea of competition and aspiration, heartbreak and triumph.
How To Listen to the World
Reporting straight news can be an outsider’s game: Get the facts, look for color, file on deadline, repeat. Gathering news that’s meaningful to readers, news that’s human and relatable, often means collaborating with a region’s own reporters. Two Monitor writers who also co-write stories and edit journalists from across Latin America and Africa join guest host Amelia Newcomb, our managing editor, to talk about balancing the special challenges and opportunities of that work.
A Climate Saga Gets Sticky
Good research can transform public knowledge. It can affect the evolution of public attitudes. But the way in which data and findings are arrayed and framed for consumption matters. A lot. In this episode, Monitor climate writer Stephanie Hanes talks about reporting her story of a climate scientist who had a very public moment of self-reflection – and found himself reflecting on his role as a shaper of a certain narrative.
