21 in ‘21: Does a Pandemic Define a Generation?
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For many societies, 21 is a significant age. It’s a period of promise and potential, of leaving behind childhood to forge a way into the world. So what happens when a global pandemic stalls that momentum?
Twelve young adults answer that question in the Monitor’s new special global report, “21 in ’21.” Our reporters spent three months following 21-year-olds in 11 countries as they navigated the pandemic and the ways that it’s changing the world around them.
This episode of “Rethinking the News” features Ryan Lenora Brown, the “21 in ’21” lead reporter. She talks about how the project came to be, the diversity of experiences among the 21-year-olds, and the common threads they all share – wherever they are in the world.
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I’ve worked with Sara Miller Llana for many years now, and it’s been a happy study in the kaleidoscope of qualities that make a great journalist. Curiosity, for sure. An eye for a good story. Energy, because the news stops for no one. And persistence – sometimes with a smile, sometimes leaning in on the grit.
But with Sara, there’s more: compassion and an unshakable commitment to listening to and understanding her sources. It’s something that radiates out from the stories she’s reported from three international posts.
When you listen to our conversation, as I hope you will, you’ll hear her appreciation for the people she interviews, her love for getting to know what matters to them, and her effort to convey that to you, her readers. She has boundless enthusiasm for diving into new subjects and tracking the shifts in more familiar ones. In the end, whether she’s writing about transracial adoptees or Canada’s “lobster wars,” it’s all abou
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Monitor editors hear from a lot of writers who are eager to break into our pages. Many of them we just canât accommodate.
But when I opened my email this past June, a proposal from a potential columnist stopped me in my tracks.
No one at the Monitor had ever heard of Ken Makin before he reached out to us. But as I read through his proposal, I was struck by the feeling that I was talking to a Monitor journalist â we just hadnât met him yet.
By now, of course, many of our subscribers know Kenâs work. He has become a frequent contributor since that initial column on the historical roots of the rage and frustration that we saw spilling onto the streets in the wake of George Floydâs killing.Â
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The first thing that struck me about Francine Kiefer was her intensity. She was the Monitorâs congressional correspondent at the time, and I remember thinking Iâd never seen anyone get so excited about their beat. She happily gushed about the staff at the press gallery, readily gave advice on getting quotes from members of Congress, and constantly assured me that the Hill overwhelms everyone at first.
I was also struck by how Francine could sustain such passion after decades on the job. She s been a reporter for about 30 years, most of them with the Monitor. Besides Congress, sheâs covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, and multiple White House administrations.