2024
March
21
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

March 21, 2024
Error loading media: File could not be played
 
00:0000:0000:00
00:00
Clayton Collins
Director of Editorial Innovation

Christa Case Bryant, the Monitor’s senior congressional correspondent, doesn’t bite on easy narratives – those binary ones that become red/blue fealty tests.

Days after Mike Johnson became House speaker last October, Christa joined our podcast to talk about laying out sharply different perspectives without amplifying them, instead sifting evidence of words and deeds. 

“We shouldn’t be surprised that it’s hard to get it right in the first week of the first month,” Christa said then. “We as journalists will be doing that in the weeks and months to come.” 

Speaker Johnson has been learning by layers, too. Today, Christa takes stock of how he’s doing. Ukraine wants aid. Washington needs funding. The stakes are high.


You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.

Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Taylor Luck
A man and his son walk out from Haram Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary compound, following afternoon prayers on the ninth day of Ramadan, in Jerusalem, March 19, 2024.

Today’s news briefs

Shawn Thew/AP
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the Capitol, March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Alejandro Martínez Vélez/Europa Press/AP/File
Spanish government ministers embrace after the approval of a law allowing trans youth to change their gender in legal documents, during a plenary session in the Congress of Deputies, Madrid, Feb. 16, 2023.

Patterns

Tracing global connections
Courtesy of Cataldo Maria
Cataldo Maria works as a welder in Savannah, Georgia, Feb. 22, 2024. He tried trade school and then branched out on his own, rather than attending college.

Points of Progress

What's going right
Staff
Staff

The Monitor's View

Reuters
Fans of Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani posed with his image outside a stadium in Seoul, South Korea, before a March 20 game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Viewfinder

Mark Schiefelbein/AP
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (right) presents Ghost Army member Bernard Bluestein, of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, with the Congressional Gold Medal during a Capitol Hill ceremony to honor members of the secret World War II-era unit, March 21, 2024, in Washington. At left is fellow Ghost Army member Seymour Nussenbaum of Monroe Township, New Jersey. The top-secret 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, as it was formally known, was activated Jan. 20, 1944, and undertook 22 large-scale operations that deceived or manipulated the actions of German forces using such tools as fake radio traffic, inflatable tanks, and sound effects. The unit included artists, photographers, and engineers, and is credited with saving thousands of lives.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for being with us today. Tomorrow, Whitney Eulich goes deep on one of the U.S. southern border’s least-told stories: For many migrants, the United States still represents the promised land. But along the way, some have found home – and success – in Mexico. Our weekly podcast will include Whitney’s thoughts on the assignment, and her full audio read. 

More issues

2024
March
21
Thursday
CSM logo

Why is Christian Science in our name?

Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Explore values journalism About us