How does the Monitor鈥檚 film critic approach the work of identifying what to review, and how? For Peter Rainer, it鈥檚 about intelligent curating, and staying moored by his own context-rich experience 鈥� even amid buzz around topics like 鈥淏arbenheimer,鈥� or the question of whether superhero movies are a scourge. It鈥檚 about serving his audience by filtering the noise that can overshadow the works themselves. Peter spoke with host Clay Collins about how he does that 鈥� with a bonus anecdote about a surprising encounter with Quentin Tarantino.
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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How does the Monitor report fairly on the rising number of important U.S. politicians who are reaching advanced ages 鈥� and getting ever greater media and public scrutiny over issues of mental acuity? Two longtime Washington reporters, Linda Feldmann, the Monitor鈥檚 D.C. bureau chief, and Gail Chaddock, guest host and former congressional correspondent, discuss how not to get swept up in a prevailing narrative.
Talk about seeing the forest for the trees. When Jingnan Peng, a multimedia reporter as well as regular producer of this show, caught wind of a forest-planting project near our Boston base, he grabbed his video camera and a drone. The story he ended up filming: that of Maya Dutta, whose work with Biodiversity for a Livable Climate has her creating Miyawaki forests. For this episode 鈥� partly an encore of one in which Jing described his approach to videography 鈥� Jing spoke to host Clay Collins about how he found this story, why it鈥檚 a natural Monitor piece, and how it fits his oeuvre.
Journalists on the culture beat often get to be on hand for big events. Usually they can see them coming. As Season 2 of the Welsh football series 鈥淲elcome to Wrexham鈥� rolls out on FX, the Monitor鈥檚 Stephen Humphries relives a May assignment that dropped him into the stadium where a low-tier team would notch an improbable victory. He tells guest host Kendra Nordin Beato about the surge of fan identity that the team鈥檚 win gave to its sleepy hometown 鈥� and to a larger community beyond.
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.
What does it take to report on a disaster sensitively, safely, and through a Monitor lens? How can a reporter find credible hope for eventual renewal amid devastation? Writer Sarah Matusek spoke to host Clay Collins about reporting from West Maui immediately following the Aug. 8 fires 鈥� and about finding generosity and agency in abundance.
Debates have been a part of American politics at least since the Lincoln-Douglas Senate tilt became, perhaps unfairly, kind of a standard-setter. Some (Kennedy-Nixon) have been media moments. Some (Bentsen-Quayle) have spawned sound bites that ricocheted through a race. They can entertain. They can inform. As a new debate season kicks off, what does it mean to size them up for substance? Veteran Washington reporter Peter Grier spoke to guest host Gail Russell Chaddock.
Small-group learning has been around for a while. It got a boost from pandemic learning pods. Are microschools 鈥� essentially modern-day one-room schoolhouses 鈥� effective? Education writer Jackie Valley joins host Clay Collins to discuss her reporting on an emerging trend that one proponent says is about 鈥渂uilding a civil society from scratch鈥� 鈥� and that others hail as a transformational, bottom-up movement that could ultimately help reform U.S. education.
Honest, well-presented data ought to be ironclad. In what some have dubbed a 鈥減ost-truth鈥� age, however, numbers can be dismissed simply for not matching a chosen narrative. Jake Turcotte builds graphics and data visualizations for the Monitor. He spoke with host Clay Collins about the importance of arraying data that presents information in a way that鈥檚 credible, digestible, and a tool for helping readers make up their own minds about complex stories.
A new museum went up this summer in Charleston, South Carolina, at the site of Gadsden鈥檚 Wharf. From this spot, through which thousands of enslaved people were forced, writer Ken Makin reported a story of progress toward reclamation 鈥� and of hard work left to be done. He spoke with host Clay Collins about the transformation of this harrowing place, and about how it left room to celebrate a culture鈥檚 will to thrive.