The Christian Science Monitor Daily Podcast

It was an oppressive, pitiless July day, when Barbara Mack saw a man who was homeless, red-faced and limp, on her way into a central Florida convenience store. Ms. Mack went inside, grabbed two bottles of water, called out to the cashier that she’d be right back, and gave a bottle to the man outside. Her story reminds us of what generosity looks like, and of how we want to be but sometimes forget because we’re tired, rushed, and hot. Also: today’s stories, including how schools plan to navigate the upcoming year, what a new hard-line president means for Iran, and how COVID-19 rules are impacting elections. Join the Monitor's Dave Scott and Samantha Laine Perfas for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

This week’s United Nations’ climate change report illustrates how while it’s too late to stop the Earth from heating up, it is not too late to prevent the most dire scenarios from becoming reality. Also: today’s stories, including ‘Driving the Green Book’: Black history, hospitality, and entrepreneurship, how Colorado hopes resort towns can be worker-friendly, and ‘The God Beat’: Journalists reflect on questions of meaning and transcendence. Join the Monitor's Yvonne Zipp and Jing Peng for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

Who should be the caretaker of Africa’s cultural heritage – the Africans who created it, or the Europeans in whose museums it has long been displayed? Also: today’s stories, including whether China can find a market solution to its outsize carbon emissions, how ranchers are battling drought, and the Olympic moments one reporter is bringing home. Join the Monitor's Amelia Newcomb and Ken Kaplan for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

We remember the Labour legend, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. Also: today’s stories, including Bipartisan efforts against wildfires, New York politics sees diverse – female faces and In France, an old tradition meets innovation. Join the Monitor’s Trudy Palmer and Clay Collins for today’s news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

Messaging is a difficult balancing act, particularly around the pandemic. How can leaders balance authority and transparency, and, in that, build credibility and trust? Also: today’s stories, including the sense of home among the Refugee Olympic Team, a new series examining American history through Black cuisine, and how to keep dictators and corrupt governments accountable. Join the Monitor's Mark Sappenfield and April Austin for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

Canadian Siera Bearchell has a gender qualities message that’s gone viral. In a TikTok video uploaded last week, Ms. Bearchell says people talk to her daughter, Lily, “completely differently” when they identify her as a girl. “They always comment on how pretty she is, her dress, how she’s so beautiful,” says Ms. Bearchell. It won’t solve this chronic problem, but here’s a start to countering such stereotyping. Consider the girls of the Tokyo Olympics, who are portraits of speed, strength, agility, and grit. Also: today’s stories, including a look at Beirut a year after the devastating port blast, political divide over public health in Michigan, and values of free expression and “neutrality” at the Olympics. Join the Monitor's Dave Scott and Molly Jackson for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

Ian Simpson was photographing fighter jets taking off at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a U.S.-run base in England when he and a group of enthusiasts noticed something coming from the back of the plane: sparks – lots of them. They contacted the pilot and his crew, who hadn’t yet noticed there was an engine problem, and all returned safely. Also: today’s stories, including how in the push for police reform, small steps are no longer enough, Haiti’s history of resilience – beyond coups and natural disaster, and what it’s like to report at the Tokyo Olympics. Join the Monitor's Kim Campbell and Ken Kaplan for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

In a bid to retain employees who are working at home, companies have gone out of their way to make accommodations, including for those with disabilities. The big question is whether those accommodations will continue. Also: today’s stories, including the Florida city painting a different racial portrait of America, why Cubans are asking for “Homeland and Life,” and what Sunisa Lee’s Olympic gold medal means for Hmong Americans. Join the Monitor's Laurent Belsie and Kendra Nordin Beato for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

As prices of cars skyrocket, a spotlight-averse man in Awandaw, South Carolina, is carefully matching generosity to need. Also: today’s stories, including; Shifting thought in the two camps with starkly different views of vaccines and the pandemic, Asian Americans respond to violence with renewed pride and a political reawakening. Join the Monitor’s Clay Collins and Ashley Lisenby for today’s news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.

This morning in Tokyo, America’s Sunisa Lee won gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition. Her golden moment, it seemed, had revealed no hidden superpower, but rather what has always been there, waiting for the world to notice. Also: today’s stories, including a small county’s big role in the war on drugs, how, to curb urban flooding, China is building ‘sponge cities’, and why Katie Ledecky’s gold represents something bigger at the Games. Join the Monitor's Mark Sappenfield and Molly Jackson for today's news. You can also visit csmonitor.com/daily for more information.