‘From Midwest to Middle East’: Taylor Luck on keeping an open heart (audio)

I’ve been working closely with Taylor Luck, the Monitor’s correspondent in the Arab world, for five years. But we only met in person this summer. That’s how it often goes in journalism. To seal what had been only a long-distance friendship, I took this former Cubs and White Sox fan (an even-handed childhood!) to his first game at Fenway Park.

Another thing about journalism. Sometimes you fall into the best jobs, and well-prepared reporters fall into the best stories. One great pleasure I have as Taylor’s editor is having him excitedly pitch a story he just stumbled upon, whether it’s in his travels around Jordan, where he lives, or elsewhere in the Arab world.

He can do that, and he can deliver on what we are trying to achieve with our Monitor brand of journalism, because he is prepared. At a very human level, he understands the people – their lives, their passions, their philosophy, their dreams, their thinking. And he can recognize when something is new, or shifting.

And all that because he, literally, speaks the language

AUDIO TRANSCRIPTRelated links:Where an ancient Jewish-Muslim coexistence enduresThe Islamist who would be presidentAfter Christchurch, Muslims ask: Are we safe in the West?