Why We Wrote This The Christian Science Monitor

Maybe it’s because she came up through the Monitor’s Points of Progress franchise. We like how Erika Page, our Madrid-based writer, frames one big part of her beat. “It’s [about] looking for where creativity and ingenuity and humanity are in operation,” she tells host Clay Collins in this episode. “Because once you start to look for these things, you kind of start to see them everywhere.” A return guest on this podcast, she talks this time about reporting from northern Spain on a particular brand of capitalism that workers appear to believe in.

Capturing the nation’s mood in the hours after 9/11. Trading parts of a Soviet Army uniform for some “CIA trinkets.” Keeping that one big foster beagle no one else would have. All are episodes in the writing life of Peter Grier, a 45-year Monitor veteran whose quick mind and economy of language have brought Washington politics down to earth for Monitor readers (and no doubt still will, sometimes, even from retirement). For this episode, he spoke with guest host Gail Chaddock, a Monitor alum and fellow D.C. traveler, about his rich Monitor career.

To some degree, members of one major political party or the other have historically swung into distrust mode when it comes to elections – typically (and predictably) when their own parties have been down. What’s different now: One side is stuck on denialism. That’s despite a lack of evidence that fraud exists on a scale that could change an election, especially on the national level. Veteran Washington-watcher Peter Grier joins host Gail Chaddock to talk about mistrust – and about the fact that it might not really run nearly as deep as many seem to think.

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.