Why We Wrote This The Christian Science Monitor
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- News
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Who reports the news? People. And at The Christian Science Monitor, we believe that it’s our job to report each story with a sense of shared humanity. Through conversations with our reporters and editors, we explain the qualities behind our reporting that affect how we approach the news. Behind today’s headlines we find respect, resilience, dignity, agency, and hope. “Why We Wrote This” shows how. The Monitor is an award-winning, nonpartisan news organization with bureaus around the globe. Visit CSMonitor.com/whywewrotethis to learn more.
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Writer’s Read: A Different Border Tale
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.
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#MeToo, French Edition
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.
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A Narrative Missed by the News
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.
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Writer’s Read: Trust and the Texas Grid
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.
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Finding the Soul of Harlem
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.
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Artificial Intelligence, Real Learning
AI and education might appear destined to be in conflict. Generative chat and video set up as tempting cheats, ones that might be somewhat transparent for now but that are rapidly gaining in sophistication. Education writer Jackie Valley spoke with host Clay Collins about schools that are countering fear of misuse by incorporating forms of AI in responsible ways that also deepen learners’ engagement and joy.
Customer Reviews
A perfect companion to Monitor journalism
Why We Wrote This is a smart and informative peek behind the scenes of The Christian Science Monitor’s award winning journalism. I’m a fan.
Stronger
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It’s About Time
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