2019
November
08
Friday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 08, 2019
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Peter Grier
Washington editor

Today we explore the burdens of conscience that veterans carry, the historical precedent for presidents and back-channel diplomacy, rugby as a reflection of inclusion in South Africa, the role of the Sabbath as sanctuary in modern life, and the power of music to capture the zeitgeist of tumultuous times.

But first, the Donald Trump presidential era has been something of a golden age for the sale of political books.

Just look at the latest New York Times bestseller list and you’ll see what that means. A book of satirical Trump poems by the actor John Lithgow, and a pro-Trump book by journalist Lee Smith titled “The Plot Against the President,” are both in the top 10 for sales of e-book and print nonfiction.

But today I’m going to highlight another big book hit. No, it’s not that new one by an anonymous alleged Trump insider.

It’s the Constitution of the United States.

Sales of the Constitution have risen by double digits since 2016, according to NPD BookScan, a publishing sales tracker. Buyers have snapped up an average of nearly 20,000 copies a month since President Trump took office.

Apparently, at a time of constitutional strain, as the Democratic-led House and the Republican chief executive struggle to establish their powers relative to each other, lots of Americans want to see for themselves what the nation’s founding document says about our situation.

Maybe that will help us find a way out of the nation’s polarized morass.

“Regardless of your political affiliation,” says NPD analyst Kristen McLean, “there is no doubt that our current political climate has done wonders for constitutional engagement.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

A deeper look

Ann Hermes/Staff
Ryan Berg, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran twice deployed in Iraq, stands outside the Concord Vet Center on Oct. 25, 2019, in Concord, California. Mr. Berg is a founding creator of Returning Veterans of Diablo Valley, which serves veterans in Northern California.

The Explainer

Jerome Delay/AP
Captain Siya Kolisi holds up the Webb Ellis Cup commemorating the Springboks' Rugby World Cup win during a victory parade in Soweto, South Africa, Nov. 7, 2019.

The Ten

How people use the Commandments in daily life
Ann Hermes/Staff
Laura Nash stands in Beth Judah Temple as she prepares to attend a Shabbat service on Oct. 18, 2019, in Wildwood, New Jersey.

The Monitor's View

AP
Recently released inmate Donnie Crow, left, walks from a correctional center in Taft, Okla.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
The small islands in Lake Victoria off the coast of Uganda have been home to fishermen and their families for centuries. But in 1998, one of these communities was relocated in order to make room for a different home: the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a haven for rescued and orphaned chimps confiscated by wildlife officers who found them living as pets or being sold on the illegal market. Today, there are 50 chimps on the island, each with its own personality and distinctive facial features. Tourists can take a 45-minute speedboat ride across the lake to reach the 100-acre tropical rainforest sanctuary. Our group is met by a smiling guide named Boris Waiga. Chimps are “as strong as five Rambos,” he says.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us today. Keep an eye out Monday for a special audio issue for Veterans Day, featuring an interview with Martin Kuz on the fallacy of the “broken vet.” We’ll be back Tuesday with a dispatch from the unprecedented protests in Lebanon.

Before you go, we have a quick note for the graphic that appeared with the Nov. 5 story “Surveying hope: Can US instill optimism in regions of ‘despair’?” The standard deviations have been corrected for the effects on life satisfaction of being “employed full time” and of “unemployment.” The correct numbers are 0.01 and -0.04, respectively. And in one map, two states no longer are outlined in red for the highest “deaths of despair”; the deaths are high in those two states, but not in the top tier.

More issues

2019
November
08
Friday
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