Why We Wrote This

“I grew up in Gaza, loved it – and complained about it for most of the time.” From that honest starting point of resilience, writer Ghada Abdulfattah, a contributor to the Monitor since the start of the latest conflict in Gaza last October, has produced a remarkable series of stories from the conflict zone. Moving to stay ahead of airstrikes, she has brought to Monitor readers a rare and important...

What does it take to weave a creative nonfiction tale that’s engaging and universal enough to draw readers all the way through? Owen Thomas, a longtime editor of essays for The Home Forum at the Monitor – and now a contributing essayist himself – joins host Clay Collins to talk about that question, and about how his work aligns with the Monitor’s mission to find and celebrate the humanity behind e...

Whether prepared or uttered on the fly, the campaign statements of former President Donald Trump often appear to be at least as fiery as his 2016 rhetoric. It’s impossible to ascribe intent. Some see unvarnished truth; others hear dog whistles that they fear will yield trouble. For this episode, guest host Gail Chaddock spoke with Linda Feldmann, a veteran White House reporter, on the challenge of...

Pressure from the South on the U.S. southern border is real. But over the past decade, more and more people from Mexico and beyond – people who had initially pictured their futures in the United States – have by choice or circumstances ended up instead building successful lives in Mexico. “I just finally felt wanted,” one source told Mexico City-based writer Whitney Eulich, who describes her repor...

A notoriously slow legal system, within a culture that has let auteurs become demigods, gave rise to what one French film star’s agent apologetically called “a sacred monster.” Paris-based writer Colette Davidson wrote about a slow shift in trust – from transgressors to accusers – that may finally bring some accountability in a nation wrestling with sexual abuse scandals involving some of its cine...

Partisan side-taking is real. But it isn’t the whole story. When you get way beyond the Beltway and filter out the manufactured distrust that’s cultivated by those on the extremes, you can often find public thought moving in the same direction on important issues. And you can find data to support that movement. Marshall Ingwerson, a special contributor and former editor of the Monitor, explored a...

When the Monitor began planning a series focused on trust, Texas-based writer Henry Gass immediately thought of “the freeze.” Three years after a winter storm devastated the state’s unique power grid, experts say the grid has become more reliable, more weatherized. There hasn’t been a repeat of the widespread outages. But “it’s deep in the Texan psyche now to worry about the grid,” a source told H...

Ahead of a major museum retrospective on the thriving Harlem of the 1920s and its often overlooked artists, the Monitor’s cultural commentator toured that upper Manhattan neighborhood to get a better sense of the Harlem of today. He found an neighborhood that venerates its historical heroes while nurturing new ones. He found pride and purpose. Ken Makin joins host Clay Collins to talk about the st...

AI and education might appear destined to be in conflict. Generative chat and video set up as tempting cheats, ones that might be somewhat transparent for now but that are rapidly gaining in sophistication. Education writer Jackie Valley spoke with host Clay Collins about schools that are countering fear of misuse by incorporating forms of AI in responsible ways that also deepen learners’ engageme...

News always answers the “what.” That’s important. But a news organization built to elevate humanity also has a mandate to go much deeper, to look at what’s really driving the news. Monitor Editor Mark Sappenfield joins host Clay Collins to talk about a current Monitor focus on trust, and about how serially focusing on universal values that need attention – as well as on global news – can help make...

Sweden is, of course, more complex than the Utopian collective that some have long considered it to be. That’s not to say that its societal emphasis on better living doesn’t persist. Writer Erika Page reported from around Sweden on the aspirational concept of “lagom” – essentially, a life kept in balance. She tells host Clay Collins about the reporting, and what it showed about a Scandinavian conc...

American politics tends to meet with broad-brush depictions. That has colored perceptions of Evangelical Christians as always being in lock step with right-wing Republican views. But while there are clear overlaps, that’s not the whole story. Harry Bruinius, a religion and culture writer for the Monitor, joins guest host Gail Chaddock to talk about his recent piece on post-Evangelicals – including...

What’s work life like at the center of conflict coverage? It’s highly collaborative, by necessity. It calls for attention to more than the reportable news points that map a war’s course. It means keeping humanity at the center of the story. Ken Kaplan, the Monitor’s Mideast and diplomacy editor – and a close observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for nearly four decades – talks with host Cla...

What goes into writing about a handful of candidates’ monthslong presidential runs? Working tactically to gain the up-close access that brings insights into not only the nuances of the behavior and messaging, but also the public response. That’s the heart of the story. Guest host Gail Chaddock, a veteran of the game, chats with a Monitor rising star, politics writer Story Hinckley, just ahead of p...

Call it the Climate Generation. Its members born since 1989, it’s the demographic cohort with the most to gain from climate action and the most to lose from inaction. The Monitor sent a team to four continents to report for the better part of a year. In this “making of” episode, guest host Clara Germani, the project’s leader, speaks with staff writers Sara Miller Llana and Stephanie Hanes about th...

Monitor readers love books. That adds to both the joy and the difficulty of serving as the publication’s books editor – and upholding a legacy of smart coverage. April Austin joins host Clay Collins to talk about what it’s like to be a literary gatekeeper, how reviewers get matched to books, and what job a Monitor review should aim to do for a busy reader.

Grammy-winner Taylor Swift has inspired a record amount of Spotify streaming, notched Billboard firsts, inspired a Harvard course, and – oh, yeah – been named Time’s person of the year. But she’s more than a pop culture and economic juggernaut. She's also the de facto president of a pro-girlhood community that, in its best and most inclusive applications, empowers people to connect. Writer Isa Mey...

Mass shootings enter and exit the U.S. news cycle with an almost numbing regularity. How can a reporter cover gun violence, one of the hottest hot-button issues in the nation, with fairness and respect? Can any hope be found amid the eruptions that dissolve into a cycle of thoughts and prayers, of debates over rights, restrictions, and root causes? Correspondent Patrik Jonsson spoke to host Clay C...

In this re-topped encore episode, writer Harry Bruinius reflects on his exploration last Thanksgiving of the effects that letters of gratitude can have on senders and recipients alike. For this Thanksgiving, he speaks with host Clay Collins about how he has been thinking about that story and its subject since – and about tapping into the enduring power of gratitude, even in especially troubling ti...

The recent elevation to U.S. House speaker of a relative unknown set off a wave of declarative side-taking. Some pointed to hopes for civility and responsible government. Others to controversial stands on social issues and the division they can sow. For our senior congressional writer, the news meant sifting factual accounts of Mike Johnson’s words and actions, and not getting caught in the effort...

Can civility – true, deep civility – save what can sometimes seem like a broken world? Stephen Humphries, the Monitor’s chief culture writer, joins host Clay Collins 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, joins this episode to talk further about how to bridge the empathy gap that re...

Where does Israel’s pursuit of Hamas go next, and what does it mean for the broader Israeli-Palestinian struggle? Ned Temko, a veteran Mideast-watcher, joins host Clay Collins to talk about a region that demands command of context to cover – let alone analyze – fairly. Ned offers a high-altitude look at how this latest round of violence has, in a way, returned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to i...

How does the Monitor’s film critic approach the work of identifying what to review, and how? For Peter Rainer, it’s about intelligent curating, and staying moored by his own context-rich experience – even amid buzz around topics like “Barbenheimer,” or the question of whether superhero movies are a scourge. It’s about serving his audience by filtering the noise that can overshadow the works themse...

A hot war in the Middle East rightly owns international headlines now. But Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to deeply affect daily lives – including those of the very young. This year, a third of Ukrainian students are going back to in-person classes full time, in places where their schools can be called relatively safe. Writer Dominique Soguel spoke to host Clay Collins about the work of reporti...

How does the Monitor report fairly on the rising number of important U.S. politicians who are reaching advanced ages – and getting ever greater media and public scrutiny over issues of mental acuity? Two longtime Washington reporters, Linda Feldmann, the Monitor’s D.C. bureau chief, and Gail Chaddock, guest host and former congressional correspondent, discuss how not to get swept up in a prevailin...