Why We Wrote This
Who reports the news? People. And at 海角大神, we believe that it鈥檚 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鈥檚 headlines we find respect, resilience, dignity, agency, and hope. 鈥淲hy We Wrote This鈥� shows how. The Monitor is an award-winning, nonpartisan news organization with bureaus around the globe. Visit CSMonitor.com/whywewrotethis to learn more.
Monitor Backstory: The real Saudi shift
How did a reporter鈥檚 story evolve from being a report on Saudi Arabia鈥檚 economic reorientation to one about that society鈥檚 fundamental, bottom-up change? The Monitor鈥檚 Taylor Luck speaks with host Samantha Laine Perfas about finding in a notebook the scribbled asides that would actually form the heart of his story.
Monitor Backstory: Covering Jan. 6
What happened on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol? The answers are shaded by deeply held perspectives. How can a journalist cover such an event and its fallout without being prejudicial? The Monitor鈥檚 Christa Case Bryant speaks with host Samantha Laine Perfas about the sense of fairness that guides her reporting work, and how that helps define the Monitor鈥檚 approach.
Monitor Backstory: Joy on a Montana shoot
Alfredo Sosa, the Monitor鈥檚 director of photography, relishes fieldwork 鈥� no matter how challenging 鈥� for the humbling connections that it brings. He spoke to the Monitor鈥檚 Samantha Laine Perfas about his rigorous recent assignment to capture the high-altitude work of a wildfire lookout in Montana鈥檚 Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Monitor Backstory: Where education and democracy meet
What does it mean for democracy if the public education system breaks? Host Samantha Laine Perfas and Managing Editor Amelia Newcomb discuss the Monitor鈥檚 latest series, which explores public education, democracy, and the future of America.
Monitor Backstory: Voices of Title IX
Title IX is complicated. Reporting on the 50th anniversary of this 37-word law, the Monitor's Kendra Nordin Beato saw the many and varied ways it reshaped US society. In today's episode, she shares how women have pushed for equal treatment with courage and resilience, inspiring generation after generation. Hosted by Samantha Laine Perfas.
Say That Again: To Build A Voice
For someone with a speech disability, what does it mean to have a voice? In our final episode, we pose the question to two families: one with a husband losing his ability to talk, and another with a disabled son on the cusp of adulthood. Each is looking to technology to help them literally be heard with their own unique voices. At the same time, they remind us that to be human is to be so much more than the sounds we make.
Say That Again: Our Listeners Speak
In this episode, we break format to have a conversation about accent, language, and identity with special guest and recurring contributor Katherine Kinzler from the University of Chicago. We talk about the challenges of overcoming bias, share listeners鈥� experiences (as well as our own), and reflect on the series so far.
Say That Again: Language Lesson
Imagine teaching a language you鈥檙e still learning. Or raising your kids to speak it when you鈥檙e not yet fluent. For communities trying to revive their Indigenous languages, these are daily challenges 鈥� and at stake are both the history and future of their culture. In this episode, we meet educators and parents fighting to give their children their ancestral language, Ling铆t (Tlingit). What does it take to save a language?
Say That Again: Talking Black, With Pride
Language has power. This was a hard-earned lesson for Vivian Nixon and Elaine Richardson, two women who were told all their lives that their way of talking 鈥� talking Black 鈥� was something to be kept out of public and professional spaces. This episode follows their separate journeys to embrace the history, beauty, and breadth of Black English, and liberate long-buried parts of themselves in the process.
Say That Again: Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Legally, you can discriminate against someone because of their accent. Dominic Amegashitsi found this out firsthand when he first came to the U.S. from Ghana to start a new life. This episode follows his journey to communicating more confidently, and examines our assumptions about what it means to communicate well in one of the most important spaces in American life: the workplace.
