Mackenzie Farkus

Taylor Luck, an Amman, Jordan-based writer for The Christian Science Monitor, recently joined Christa Case Bryant, the Monitor’s editor, on our Daily podcast to talk about his dynamic beat. This episode of “Why We Wrote This” begins with a reprise of that conversation, followed by a curation of excerpts from Taylor’s previous appearances on this show. Those include Taylor’s account of his career’s beginnings, more anecdotes from the field, and a discussion about his sense of a restive region’s yearning for stability.

If you've seen the 2000 film “Almost Famous,” you might think you know Cameron Crowe's story.

Filmmaker Cameron Crowe digs into his past as a chronicler of rock ‘n’ roll idols and explores his pivot to the movies.

The cranberry, with its short seasonal star turn, has a compelling history as a North American fruit. Growing the crop is a tricky business – climate-sensitive, naturally collaborative – with some old practices but also a compelling cast of innovators. In this episode, food writer Kendra Nordin Beato goes deep on the tart, red orb. Also included: An encore excerpt from last year’s show with Kendra on the history of Thanksgiving food. And on the side-dish skirmish over how cranberries should best be served. Hosted by Clay Collins.

Movies about aliens have fascinated audiences for decades. But two new movies about alien life – “Project Hail Mary” and “Disclosure Day” – led Monitor culture writer Stephen Humphries to wonder, What does our fascination with aliens tell us about our views of humanity? In this writer’s-notebook variation on our “Why We Wrote This” podcast, Stephen shares excerpts of his conversations with three of the experts in his recent story.

The life of jazz virtuoso Alice Coltrane has often been overlooked in favor of her husband, the late John Coltrane, one of the most influential figures of jazz.

Michelle Geffken's color-filled home, in a leafy neighborhood by the Boston area's oldest arboretum, is a veritable museum for typewriters.

It began with a swipe on the dating app Tinder. Silvia, a lonely single mother of three sons and owner of a successful dental clinic, matched with

When box office sales plummeted during the pandemic, conventional wisdom held that members of Gen Z might not return to the movie theater. Instead, young people are both creating hit content and filling seats for the in-person experience.

Daniel Sneider was the Monitor’s Moscow bureau chief 35 years ago this month when Kremlin hard-liners grabbed Mikhail Gorbachev at a dacha in Crimea, during in a short-lived coup attempt. In this special episode, we surface some newly unearthed archival Monitor Radio audio and talk with Dan about what Monitor multimedia reporting looked like (and sounded like) in 1991, about what the story of that era presaged, and about the qualities of Monitor journalism that Dan still holds dear. Clay Collins hosts.