Why We Wrote This

What might help give Black women more agency and control around their care when it comes to maternal health? It’s a realm in which positive outcomes have historically (and significantly) lagged behind those for other groups of women. In this episode, writer Cameron Pugh talks about reporting on how birth doulas may be one key to restoring some expectant mothers’ trust in a medical system that has a long history of underserving them. Hosted by Clay Collins.

What does it take to run a democratic election in a nation of 1.4 billion people? Well, time, for one thing. And as the 40-plus-day process has been elapsing, Monitor correspondent Fahad Shah has confronted his own logistical challenges – including a (literal) landslide. What’s more, he’s worked with his editor, Lindsey McGinnis, to frame coverage as a Monitor story, not just a play-by-play from the polls. In this episode, guest host Lindsey talks to Fahad about this high-stakes election and the high-wire work of exploring it through the lens of trust.

“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 perspective. In this writer’s read format episode, Ghada shares her observations about a war like no other she’s seen. Then she offers a full read of her recent story on how women, in particular, have been affected.

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 every story we tell.

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 sizing up Mr. Trump’s speech. How it’s interpreted by fervent fans – and by impassioned detractors – will help decide a critical U.S. election.

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 reporting, from Tijuana and Mexico City, at the top of this episode. Our special-format show also includes full-story audio, voiced by the writer.

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 cinema icons. Hosted by Clay Collins.

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 counternarrative. In this episode, he joins guest host Gail Chaddock to discuss.

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 Henry. Rebuilding trust will take time and work. For this experimental, alternative-format episode of our weekly podcast, we go host-free – letting the writer set up the story he reported before reading the story in full.

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 staggering power of being there – and about the many ways Harlem draws from its past to shape its future.