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Why We Wrote This

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

news & politics

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Monitor Backstory: Where education and democracy meet

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/06/17

What does it mean for democracy if the public education system breaks? Host Samantha Laine Perfas and Managing Editor Amelia Newcomb discuss the Monitor’s latest series, which explores public education, democracy, and the future of America.

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Monitor Backstory: Voices of Title IX

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/06/10

Title IX is complicated. Reporting on the 50th anniversary of this 37-word law, the Monitor's Kendra Nordin Beato saw the many and varied ways it reshaped US society. In today's episode, she shares how women have pushed for equal treatment with courage and resilience, inspiring generation after generation. Hosted by Samantha Laine Perfas.

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Say That Again: To Build A Voice

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/04/13

For someone with a speech disability, what does it mean to have a voice? In our final episode, we pose the question to two families: one with a husband losing his ability to talk, and another with a disabled son on the cusp of adulthood. Each is looking to technology to help them literally be heard with their own unique voices. At the same time, they remind us that to be human is to be so much more than the sounds we make.

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Say That Again: To Build A Voice

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/04/13

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Say That Again: Our Listeners Speak

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/04/07

In this episode, we break format to have a conversation about accent, language, and identity with special guest and recurring contributor Katherine Kinzler from the University of Chicago. We talk about the challenges of overcoming bias, share listeners’ experiences (as well as our own), and reflect on the series so far.

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Say That Again: Our Listeners Speak

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/04/07

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Say That Again: Language Lesson

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/21

Imagine teaching a language you’re still learning. Or raising your kids to speak it when you’re not yet fluent. For communities trying to revive their Indigenous languages, these are daily challenges – and at stake are both the history and future of their culture. In this episode, we meet educators and parents fighting to give their children their ancestral language, Lingít (Tlingit). What does it take to save a language?

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Say That Again: Language Lesson

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/21

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Say That Again: Talking Black, With Pride

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/14

Language has power. This was a hard-earned lesson for Vivian Nixon and Elaine Richardson, two women who were told all their lives that their way of talking – talking Black – was something to be kept out of public and professional spaces. This episode follows their separate journeys to embrace the history, beauty, and breadth of Black English, and liberate long-buried parts of themselves in the process.

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Say That Again: Talking Black, With Pride

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/14

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Say That Again: Whose Job Is It Anyway?

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/09

Legally, you can discriminate against someone because of their accent. Dominic Amegashitsi found this out firsthand when he first came to the U.S. from Ghana to start a new life. This episode follows his journey to communicating more confidently, and examines our assumptions about what it means to communicate well in one of the most important spaces in American life: the workplace.

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Say That Again: Whose Job Is It Anyway?

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/09

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Say That Again: Hey Ma, I’m On TV!

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/02

Diversity in media isn’t just about the way characters look; it’s also about how they sound. The creators of “Molly of Denali” knew that when they started producing the animated kids’ show about the adventures of an Alaska Native girl. We talk to producers about what it takes to meaningfully portray Indigenous peoples on screen. And we meet a family in Fairbanks, Alaska, who share with us what it’s like to finally see their own experiences – and hear their people’s voices – represented in ways that

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Say That Again: Hey Ma, I’m On TV!

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/03/02

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Say That Again: You Are How You Sound

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/02/23

After years of trying to blend in as a Los Angeles transplant, Cynthia Santos DeCure realized she had all but lost her Puerto Rican accent. So she set out to reclaim it. Across the country, Amy Mihyang Ginther struggled to find her voice as a young girl living in one world – the mostly white community she grew up in – while yearning for another – the Korean family who gave her up for adoption. Each woman’s story is a journey to discover what our voices say about who we are and who we could be.

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Say That Again: You Are How You Sound

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/02/23

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Introducing: "Say That Again?"

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/02/22

What do our voices say about us? “Say That Again?” is a new podcast series about how our identities and experiences shape how we sound – and how the way we speak can be a source of pride, resilience, and shared understanding. New episodes weekly beginning Feb. 25.

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Introducing: "Say That Again?"

Why We Wrote This ·

2022/02/22

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Holiday Episode No. 5: Joy

Why We Wrote This ·

2021/12/23

Home Forum contributors Murr Brewster and Robert Klose were the top-of-mind answers to Monitor editors’ question: “Who should we bring to the table this holiday season to discuss joy?” Listen as the two writers talk about how, for them, joy requires that you be your authentic self. And that you keep moving, and looking.

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Holiday Episode No. 4: Hope

Why We Wrote This ·

2021/12/23

In August, the United States left Afghanistan after 20 years. The Taliban poured in. Monitor writers Scott Peterson and Ann Scott Tyson spoke about how Ann managed to find light in this dark situation – in the brave work of PARSA’s Afghan National Scouts. She knew one the organization’s leaders, Marnie Gustavson, and got in touch. “It became apparent,” Ann says, “that this story was important to tell.”

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