Why We Wrote This

What does it take to report on a disaster sensitively, safely, and through a Monitor lens? How can a reporter find credible hope for eventual renewal amid devastation? Writer Sarah Matusek spoke to host Clay Collins about reporting from West Maui immediately following the Aug. 8 fires – and about finding generosity and agency in abundance.

Debates have been a part of American politics at least since the Lincoln-Douglas Senate tilt became, perhaps unfairly, kind of a standard-setter. Some (Kennedy-Nixon) have been media moments. Some (Bentsen-Quayle) have spawned sound bites that ricocheted through a race. They can entertain. They can inform. As a new debate season kicks off, what does it mean to size them up for substance? Veteran Washington reporter Peter Grier spoke to guest host Gail Russell Chaddock.

Small-group learning has been around for a while. It got a boost from pandemic learning pods. Are microschools – essentially modern-day one-room schoolhouses – effective? Education writer Jackie Valley joins host Clay Collins to discuss her reporting on an emerging trend that one proponent says is about “building a civil society from scratch” – and that others hail as a transformational, bottom-up movement that could ultimately help reform U.S. education.

Honest, well-presented data ought to be ironclad. In what some have dubbed a “post-truth” age, however, numbers can be dismissed simply for not matching a chosen narrative. Jake Turcotte builds graphics and data visualizations for the Monitor. He spoke with host Clay Collins about the importance of arraying data that presents information in a way that’s credible, digestible, and a tool for helping readers make up their own minds about complex stories.

A new museum went up this summer in Charleston, South Carolina, at the site of Gadsden’s Wharf. From this spot, through which thousands of enslaved people were forced, writer Ken Makin reported a story of progress toward reclamation – and of hard work left to be done. He spoke with host Clay Collins about the transformation of this harrowing place, and about how it left room to celebrate a culture’s will to thrive.

How much more effective is journalism when its practitioners take extra care to account for local perspectives and practices? And what does it mean when media organizations stay with their stories over time? Xanthe Scharff’s reporting in Malawi in 2005 and then again this year helps answer both questions. She and her recent colleague Madalo Samati – a mentor Xanthe met when she shifted from reporting to actively participating – spoke with guest host Amelia Newcomb.

How does a Mideast reporter find, amid recurring conflict, stories loaded with humanity and shared values? Amman-based Taylor Luck, a return guest on this podcast, works to balance credible hope and the cycle of setbacks wrought by hard regional realities. He spoke to host Clay Collins about a generation bent on bringing change – and about what he’s seen while producing datelines from Tunisia to the West Bank.

Charges of politicization are nothing new. But what goes into keeping Supreme Court reporting fair at a time when the justices themselves are making headlines over issues of ethics? Writer Henry Gass and his editor, Yvonne Zipp, join guest host Gail Chaddock for a look at covering the sometimes surprising session that just ended – staying glued to SCOTUSblog and reporting smart stories ahead of decisions from the places where the human impact of those rulings is most acutely felt.

In rural China, millions of elderly farmers are getting by despite a dwindling government pension reserve. In some ways, it’s a story of desperation. But on a reporting swing deep into northern Shaanxi province, the Monitor’s Ann Scott Tyson found it also to be one of resilience, perseverance, and agency. She spoke to guest host and show producer Jingnan Peng.

A long-awaited report to California’s legislature by a reparations task force is fueling broader conversations, at institutions and among individuals. The Monitor’s commitment to exploring the issues means considering – fairly and factually – a wide range of views. In this episode, writers Maisie Sparks and Clara Germani speak with guest host Trudy Palmer about how the work of recording perspectives and changes of heart shaped their own understanding of this complex story of justice, dignity, and transformation.