Altruism is a theme in today’s package. Argentines displeased with rising costs of basic necessities are responding to protest crackdowns from the government by banding together to offer financial and emotional support to each other.

In Japan, people like Murai Masakiyo have dedicated decades to running toward disasters like earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis to provide food staples and necessities to their countrymen. “Those who volunteer at a disaster site ... accumulate their experience and build a civil society,” Mr. Murai tells the Monitor.

And in his latest novel, British novelist Ben Brooks weaves the tale of a father who alters the course of his family’s future by challenging it to do the greatest possible good in life.