The Christian Science Monitor Daily Podcast

A poll released this month by Gallup found that, for the first time in its surveys, Americans lean generally toward more immigration, rather than less. Also: promoting female composers in classical music, and the best audiobooks of July. Join the Monitor's Clay Collins and Rebecca Asoulin for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

What’s the best way to play professional sports during a pandemic? There are two models now being live-tested in the United States. Also: today’s stories, including how scientists are shifting gears, a critical look at recycling, and points of progress from around the world. Join the Monitor's Dave Scott and Samantha Laine Perfas for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

It’s amazing how life-altering – and far-reaching – a modest effort to break pandemic ennui can be. Take the young man who, while browsing recently in the ReMARKable Cleanouts warehouse in Norwood, Massachusetts, asked if he could play a piano – and charmed shoppers with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” A worker posted the moment to Facebook, and a much larger audience was soon smiling, some even offering to buy him the piano. ReMARKable owner Mark Waters decided to gift an even better one – if he could figure out who the player behind the face mask and hoodie was. He did a local news interview – and John Capron came forward. Also in today’s news: Chinese spies, racial statues, and a Muslim member of Israel’s parliament. Join the Monitor's Amelia Newcomb and Peter Grier for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

Out of crisis comes opportunity, the saying goes. For Abraham Walker, that meant moving his family from New Orleans to northern Virginia. Also: today’s stories, including 99 days of lockdown in South Africa, making sense of the conflict in Portland, and new findings on pandemic prevention in Warsaw's Nazi ghetto. Join the Monitor's Jessica Mendoza and Jingnan Peng for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

A great leap forward for environmental justice might be possible in the current moment. Also: today’s stories, including how GOP candidates in close races try to play to the middle, a look at Siberia’s unprecedented forest fires, and a profile on an Israeli social entrepreneur building “communities of kindness.” Join the Monitor's Noelle Swan and Noah Robertson for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

What does wealth look like? For most of human history, it looked a lot like shiny things that humans pulled from the ground. But that’s changing. Also: today’s stories, including the new pandemic threat to the economy, President Donald Trump and Joe Biden spar for “tough guy” mantle on China, and global resisters of police brutality advise American protesters. Join the Monitor's Mark Sappenfield and Jessica Mendoza for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

Are masks the key to reopening the economy? Also: how one Georgia city beat back COVID-19, the women making NASA’s spacesuits work for women, and the story behind Little Free Pantries. Join the Monitor's Dave Scott and Kendra Nordin Beato for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

Climate change might lack the gravitational pull of pandemic and racial justice – the twin suns of so many recent news cycles – but it keeps showing up (it’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the Arctic). And both public and political thought about attacking it appears to be shifting. Also in today’s news: harsher military justice for Black troops, John Lewis, and adjusted Olympic training. Join the Monitor's Clay Collins and Eva Botkin Kowacki for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” That’s the title of one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems. It might also apply to Chi Chi, a pet cockatiel lost, and then found. Also: today’s stories, including how the U.S. bungled the pandemic, recovery for Minneapolis’ small businesses, and the significance of Black athletes transferring to HBCUs. Join the Monitor's Peter Grier and Rebecca Asoulin for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.

When hackers took over the Twitter accounts of luminaries like Bill Gates and Barack Obama, the social media platform responded by preventing millions of verified users from posting. Public figures disappeared from Twitter timelines, leaving ordinary people to cheer the sudden loss of power by elites. One user tweeted: “What if America got along like #UnverifiedTwitter right now?” Also: today’s stories, including a look at the complex task of reviving the economy, what happens when half a state is deemed to be tribal land, and the rappers leading Tunisia’s revolution. Join the Monitor's Jingnan Peng and Noelle Swan for today's news. For more information, visit csmonitor.com/daily.