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 鈥� and found himself reflecting on his role as a shaper of a certain narrative.
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.
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Photography does so much to humanize reporting. What does it mean to come at stories quite literally through the 鈥淢onitor lens鈥� that this show explores? A longtime staff shooter who has made images in more than 80 countries and on every continent, Melanie Stetson Freeman talks with host Clay Collins about joyful moments and sobering ones, and about how the people and places she encounters still bring surprises after all of that travel and all of those years. This is an encore presentation of a 2023 episode.
Everyone loves a good counternarrative, especially when the prevailing narrative is a dire one and the counter offers credible reasons for hope 鈥� backed by data that bears up to scrutiny. In this episode, writer Troy Aidan Sambajon talks with host Clay Collins about a crime-stat story that became something more. It鈥檚 a validation 鈥� with some big caveats 鈥� of community policing, community agency, and the central ingredient: a willingness to try building trust.
What鈥檚 happening in women鈥檚 sports besides Caitlin Clark? A lot. Two years to the week since this podcast soft-launched with a conversation with writer Kendra Nordin Beato on Title IX鈥檚 50th anniversary, we offer an update. This encore episode adds some discussion of how much has transpired in all three braids of the Title IX story: women in education, women in college sports, and progress in fighting sexual harassment and abuse. Hosted by Clay Collins.
Urban tree loss is a widespread phenomenon that has been addressed, with different degrees of success, in cities from New York to Nashville. For multimedia reporter Jingnan Peng, a story about a tree-planting initiative in Louisville, Kentucky, became a story about rebuilding community trust. He spoke to host Clay Collins for this episode, which includes encore material from a 2023 show on Jing鈥檚 coverage of another greening-of-cities phenomenon 鈥� compact Miyawaki forests 鈥� and a discussion about how a multimedia reporter matches storytelling format to story.
Maybe it鈥檚 because she came up through the Monitor鈥檚 Points of Progress franchise. We like how Erika Page, our Madrid-based writer, frames one big part of her beat. 鈥淚t鈥檚 [about] looking for where creativity and ingenuity and humanity are in operation,鈥� she tells host Clay Collins in this episode. 鈥淏ecause once you start to look for these things, you kind of start to see them everywhere.鈥� A return guest on this podcast, she talks this time about reporting from northern Spain on a particular brand of capitalism that workers appear to believe in.
Capturing the nation鈥檚 mood in the hours after 9/11. Trading parts of a Soviet Army uniform for some 鈥淐IA trinkets.鈥� Keeping that one big foster beagle no one else would have. All are episodes in the writing life of Peter Grier, a 45-year Monitor veteran whose quick mind and economy of language have brought Washington politics down to earth for Monitor readers (and no doubt still will, sometimes, even from retirement). For this episode, he spoke with guest host Gail Chaddock, a Monitor alum and fellow D.C. traveler, about his rich Monitor career.
To some degree, members of one major political party or the other have historically swung into distrust mode when it comes to elections 鈥� typically (and predictably) when their own parties have been down. What鈥檚 different now: One side is stuck on denialism. That鈥檚 despite a lack of evidence that fraud exists on a scale that could change an election, especially on the national level. Veteran Washington-watcher Peter Grier joins host Gail Chaddock to talk about mistrust 鈥� and about the fact that it might not really run nearly as deep as many seem to think.
What might help give Black women more agency and control around their care when it comes to maternal health? It鈥檚 a realm in which positive outcomes have historically (and significantly) lagged behind those for other groups of women. In this episode, writer Cameron Pugh talks about reporting on how birth doulas may be one key to restoring some expectant mothers鈥� trust in a medical system that has a long history of underserving them. Hosted by Clay Collins.
What does it take to run a democratic election in a nation of 1.4 billion people? Well, time, for one thing. And as the 40-plus-day process has been elapsing, Monitor correspondent Fahad Shah has confronted his own logistical challenges 鈥� including a (literal) landslide. What鈥檚 more, he鈥檚 worked with his editor, Lindsey McGinnis, to frame coverage as a Monitor story, not just a play-by-play from the polls. In this episode, guest host Lindsey talks to Fahad about this high-stakes election and the high-wire work of exploring it through the lens of trust.