One community’s struggle to come to terms with enormous loss became a powerful story about forgiveness – including of people not quite ready yet to forgive. That made it the most universal of stories. Reporter Sara Miller Llana spoke with host Clay Collins about her process, and about producing the hardest story she’d ever done.

This year’s Oscar nominations delivered a nope for “Nope.” And Viola Davis was overlooked. But there were five nods for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Commentator Ken Makin spoke with host Clay Collins for an update of this encore presentation of our Black Hollywood episode from December. It’s Ken’s take on what this year’s Academy Awards tell us about a slow path to progress and representation.

Actively reporting from Ukraine, and with a foreign correspondent’s pedigree that includes stints from Rwanda to Kabul to Fallujah to Mogadishu, Scott Peterson has developed a deep skill set around covering conflicts with humility, respect, and sensitivity. He spoke with host Clay Collins about why Monitor war stories are different.

Public-school teachers run on passion for their work and for the kids in their classrooms. That work is vital to a thriving society. But teachers also are widely regarded as being underpaid – often moonlighting to get by. A Monitor education writer looks at a push to create a higher baseline for compensation in a story that really extends to equality and fairness. Hosted by Clay Collins.

The notion of assistance in dying as an act of mercy is ancient. Now it has become part of a global debate that’s taking a variety of forms, and that ultimately is about what a caring society truly looks like. How a team of Monitor writers parsed that, with care and compassion. Hosted by Samantha Laine Perfas.

Is there a credible counternarrative to the sense that industrial-grade partisan brinkmanship is all that’s on tap in U.S. politics? Francine Kiefer talks about reporting an Alaska story that shows how cooperation and respect might be a way forward. Hosted by Samantha Laine Perfas.

How does a political reporter go about gathering vox pop that’s meaningful – authentic personal perspectives that contribute value to stories, and don’t just parrot pre-cooked talking points? Story Hinckley speaks with host Clay Collins about the persistence, balance, and respect that the work requires.

Every storyteller has a favorite medium. For the Monitor’s Jingnan Peng, it’s videography that carries that special power to humanize his reporting and drive stories home – especially stories that bring respect to underdogs and marginalized groups. Revealing their agency brings Jing joy. Hosted by Samantha Laine Perfas.

Popular uprisings, and hints of more. Stories of struggles that seem to run in unending cycles. How does a news organization committed to finding evidence of shared human values keep a constructive framing? Peter Ford, the Monitor’s international news editor, spoke with host Clay Collins about the challenge.

Hollywood might not have had a “tipping point” year when it comes to diversity. But Monitor columnist Ken Makin acknowledges that the year reflected a continuum of progress for representation. In this episode, he speaks with host Samantha Laine Perfas about how some of the year's top hits – including “Wakanda Forever,” “Till,” and “Star Wars” – expanded the genre of Black storytelling.