Telling The Story

When I started this podcast nine years ago, I assumed at some point I would interview Greg Bledsoe. At the time he was the reigning two-time NPPA national Solo Video Journalist of the Year. He was one of the most talented photojournalists in the country AND one of the most talented writers in the country. → The post PODCAST #86: Greg Bledsoe, solo video journalist, on the Family Geography Project appeared first on Telling The Story.

Last spring, when so many of us were frightened and nervous at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world of journalism and the world as a whole felt chaotic and upended, Reshma Kirpalani leaned in. She cold-emailed a hospital group in south Florida to see if she could obtain access to its COVID unit, through videos shot by its employees. She received that access and embarked on a half-hour documentary ... that ultimately turned into five half-hours of an episodic series. She convinced her bosses at the Miami Herald and its parent company, McClatchy, to enable her to focus entirely on this project. And just as she was about to start putting it together, Kirpalani learned she had been laid off. McClatchy decided to eliminate Kirpalani's video team. For Kirpalani, it meant the end of not only regular paychecks but also the documentary she had poured nine months into producing. Or, at least, it would have meant the end ... if she hadn't fought to finish it. Kirpalani convinced her bosses to let her stay

I've done 83 episodes of the Telling the Story podcast and, in the process, interviewed nearly as many talented storytellers and journalists. Episode 84 is different. This time, I interviewed someone on the other side of the camera - someone who was the subject on an in-depth story I produced late last fall. Her name is Emily Chan. She's the co-owner of JenChan's restaurant in Atlanta. I did a five-minute story about the restaurant last year, spotlighting hers to represent the challenges faced by so many in that industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. I spent six shoots in two weeks with Chan, and I was able to tell a compelling, all-encompassing story as a result. Last month I learned the story had won an NPPA Best of Photojournalism award for Hard Video Essay. When I posted about it on Facebook, Chan responded with a lengthy comment that included the following sentences: "This interview still haunts us...and not in a negative way; it simply captured our vulnerability - which is truly every small business own

On his first day covering Twin Cities protests after the death of George Floyd, photographer Ed Ou briefly became the news. Ou says he was set up with a group of journalists as curfew hit. He says state troopers fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades. Ou was hit in the head and received four stitches in the hospital. That night, he still filed a report for NBC News. And days later, after many journalists had left, Ou found a story unlike any I've seen from that time. Earlier this month, NBC News released online Ou's half-hour documentary, "The Intersection: Fatherhood at the Heart of George Floyd Square." It's a beautiful work of journalism, and frankly, the less I say beforehand, the better. But it's embedded right here: It's the latest gem in a spectacular career that has taken Ou to multiple continents and earned him national honors. Ou is my guest on Episode 83 of the Telling the Story podcast. → The post PODCAST EPISODE #83: Ed Ou, visual journalist, on finding detail in documentary ap

Quick confession: I honestly don't remember when I first heard about Lynsey Weatherspoon. It might have been last spring, when one of her photos of the George Floyd protests in Atlanta went viral. It might have been in the fall, when she popped up taking portraits of major political candidates across Georgia. I'm not sure how she came into my orbit, but I'm glad she did. I've been inspired ever since. In this past year, Weatherspoon has documented some of the most important moments and people in Atlanta and America. She took what the Guardian called one of "the best photographs of 2020," and she contributed to some of the most esteemed media outlets in the country. All the while, she has remained someone who in her words is "called upon to capture heritage and history in real time." The third word of her bio is the hashtag #queerblackgirl, and she makes sure to amplify voices of each of those communities. She operates with intention, both in her assignments and with the impact she looks to make on the world.

After conducting this interview - and then listening back to it - I felt fired up to go out and tell a story. I wanted to pick up my camera, put on an N95, get in my car, and do something great. That's the result of 45 minutes chatting with Tomas Hoppough. He's a solo video journalist with Scripps National, but that hardly describes the variety and quality of his work. He travels roughly every other week, mostly alone, with mirrorless cameras and lenses and the goal of two longform stories per trip. He succeeds in that goal, and then some. He produces docu-style pieces that are vivid in both characters and aesthetics. Tomas is my guest on Episode 81 of the Telling the Story podcast. In the podcast, I mention several of Tomas' stories. Check them out here: Rising in Minneapolis: a powerful series of pieces with photojournalist Drew Snadecki in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd Guns Down, Gloves Up: a half-hour special turned in less than two weeks after a powerful program in Virginia → The post PO

There’s a line I sometimes recite when I feel I’ve reached a professional roadblock. It’s a punchline from an eighth-season episode of Seinfeld, where George Costanza is trying to spin his meager life triumphs amid countless failures into a grand success story. “You know,” he says, “if you take everything I’ve accomplished in my entire life and condense it down into one day … it looks decent!” When I watched two decades ago, I laughed with everyone else. We’re supposed to laugh at George. The line is meant to mock him. But these days, it’s become somewhat of a mantra, a reminder of the power of the big picture. When I feel stagnant in my career, I reflect on what I’ve accomplished and discover a lengthier list than I realized. When I’m shooting a story and don’t feel like I’m capturing what I need, I aim to stay focused and remember I might feel differently by day’s end. In the moment, I often dwell on mistakes and failures. In the aggregate, I see a career that, condensed into a few paragraphs, looks decent.

The "origin story" is a superhero movie staple: how one everyday individual discovered extraordinary powers and realized her or his destiny of defending the city, country, world, or galaxy. In the journalism world, Tiffany Liou has one of the most inspiring origin stories you'll hear. She didn't go in J-school. She took a job in marketing. But she felt a pull towards news. She picked up an internship at a local affiliate but never quit her day job. She did both, overnighting as an assignment editor on the other side of the Bay Area. Eventually, she left the West Coast for a producer/MMJ position in West Monroe, Louisiana. That's how she started. Now she's an accomplished storyteller at one of the top storytelling stations in the country, WFAA-TV in Dallas. Liou is my guest on Episode 79 of the Telling the Story podcast. In this episode, we discuss Liou's origins in the field, but we mostly dive into her life today: as a solo video journalist during a global pandemic. It's changed and challenged all of us. Lio

The first time I met Neima Abdulahi, it was her first week at our station, WXIA-TV in Atlanta, and I was asked if she could shadow me for a day. But I quickly learned: Abdulahi is nobody's shadow. She grew up in Atlanta and returned professionally three years out of school. As a one-woman crew, she turned daily stories like everyone else, but she kept her eye on a grander goal: becoming a voice for the city she loved, the music she embraced, and the many cultures she represented. She produced a half-hour special about the Atlanta hip-hop scene. She did a longform story about Migos. She looked back with relentless reports on the infamous Atlanta child murders of 1979-81. This summer, she provided some of the most thoughtful and textured coverage of the death of civil rights icon John Lewis. Abdulahi is an example on how to develop and amplify your voice. But she hasn't just done so on-air. She has used that momentum to build up an online following, specifically on Instagram, that has allowed her to go part-tim

I think many of us are reckoning with our roles as journalists - and questioning some of the supposed set-in-stone practices of the profession. We're thinking more about representation, and we're examining where we fall short as both individuals and outlets in covering the communities we serve. I like to think I've been on a constant path of reckoning in this area for many years. I continue to evolve, and so does the world - and the world of journalism. I try to use this space - the blog and podcast - to bring discussion and conversation where it might not always exist. I found a thoughtful conversation partner in Kainaz Amaria. She's the visuals editor at Vox, and she's the 2020 recipient of the NPPA's John Long Ethics Award, given to "an individual who has, through his or her efforts, upheld, shaped, and promoted ethical behavior in all forms of visual journalism." She works diligently to promote representation in both the stories she oversees and the journalism circles in which she runs. Amaria is my guest

For five months, the Telling the Story podcast has been delayed by current events - both external in the world (COVID-19) and internal in my life (the arrival of my second daughter!). But it returns now - and with an all-star guest. Chris Hansen is a senior photojournalist at KUSA-TV. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a standard-setter in finding beautiful, innovative, and thoughtful ways of shooting and editing stories. Since the pandemic - with numerous restrictions on where he can shoot video and how he can conduct interviews - Hansen has found new ways to persevere. Take this story, where he interviewed neighborhood residents on their front lawns with the help of their cell phones. Or this one, where he used the drone to capture and illustrate the emptiness of Denver's streets during a stay-at-home order: Hansen is my guest on Episode #76 of the Telling the Story podcast. He is also a speaker at the upcoming NPPA Virtual Video Storytelling Workshop, taking place August 7 & 8 online. I'm directing the

Best Documentary. Best National Feature Documentary. Best Minnesota Made Documentary. Audience Award. Audience Choice. Best Production Design. Best Director. Film festivals nationwide last year piled accolades on "Love Them First: Lessons From Lucy Laney Elementary," a feature-length documentary produced primarily by two journalists from one Twin Cities TV station. Lindsey Seavert and Ben Garvin had each worked at KARE-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul for several years when they embarked on a series of stories about a local elementary school. That series quickly became the foundation for a documentary, and that documentary has since left an extraordinary mark on the education world. Its main character, Lucy Laney principal Mauri Melander Friestleben, has even appeared on the Today Show. You can watch "Love Them First" right here. Seavert and Garvin are my guests on Episode 75 of the Telling the Story podcast. "With a flicker and another flicker, you can set the world on fire and create systemic change," Seavert tol

The most powerful 60 minutes I watched last year came from two storytellers at their best. John Sharify has won umpteen awards through a reporting career that has spanned decades. Joseph Huerta is assembling an equally impressive resume as a photojournalist, now at WFAA-TV in Dallas. Last year, for their final story together at KING-TV in Seattle, Sharify and Huerta produced an hour-long documentary about a man named Bob. That man, 75 years old and diagnosed with terminal cancer, had chosen to end his life. Bob Fuller planned to utilize Washington's Death with Dignity Act to request a lethal dose of medication on a date of his choosing. Several months before that date, Fuller reached out to Sharify to see if his story was worthy of being told. Sharify knew he wanted to tell it. He teamed with Huerta to produce "Bob's Choice," which is available in full on YouTube. It is stirring, touching, moving, and just about every other emotional adjective you can name. It is also musical, downright funny at times, and a

Most of my guests on this podcast are in local news, because most of my audience are reporters, photojournalists, and solo video journalists in local news. But I was reminded again watching the winners of this year's National Edward R. Murrow awards about the fascinating, compelling work on the digital front. How does that work come about? Perhaps it comes from a side of the industry that had to re-examine its definitions of storytelling. It's so important to see how the standards have evolved for audiences who don't distinguish between the types of content they receive. Solana Pyne is setting those standards. Her work with the Quartz video team employs many of the tactics that traditional storytellers embrace, but she doesn't stop there. Her team produces work that bends boundaries but brings journalistic chops. Last month, their joint production with Retro Report about the future of gaming - received a National Murrow award. Pyne is my guest on Episode #73 of the Telling the Story podcast. "It's easy to pre

I think very hard about who to ask as my guest on the Telling the Story podcast, but in recent years I've developed a clear litmus test: Has this person found a passion within this profession? Look through my past few interviews, and you'll find a series of journalists who understand what they love about storytelling - and have made conscious decisions to steer their careers toward that love. Forrest Sanders carves out time on his days off to produce the kinds of memorable features that garner national honors. Adrienne Broaddus leads with faith and calls herself a "hope dealer." Olivia Loomis Merrion and Emily Kassie are innovators and documentarians who find causes worth covering. Kristin Dickerson has carved her own fascinating path. She's currently an anchor/reporter at the NBC affiliate in Dallas, but she's also an Emmy- and Murrow-winning storyteller who invested in her own DSLR camera and shoots her own stories. (The above photo is with the Gracie Award, which she won in 2018.) Starting in August, her p

If only Sam Raimi were on social media. Then perhaps the acclaimed director of The Evil Dead, A Simple Plan, and the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man series would learn of how one of his earliest movies influenced one of today's most talented journalists. Forrest Sanders watched The Evil Dead as a student and became enamored with Raimi's shot composition and pacing. He developed a passion for shooting and editing that evolved into a career as a solo video journalist. Today Sanders has his own honors: numerous Emmys, two new regional Edward R. Murrow awards won last week, and a variety of accolades from the NPPA. This past year he was named its National Solo Video Journalist of the Year. Sanders is my guest on Episode #71 of the Telling the Story podcast. I loved this conversation. Sanders has quickly become a leader in the storytelling community, and he speaks with both introspection and clarity of purpose. We chatted about the power of early influences, the need to fuel your passions, and the way to carve your own p

I began to nice it sometime in the last few years. New reporters or interns would arrive at WXIA-TV in Atlanta, meet me, and ask how long I'd been with the station. "I'm going on nine years." Eyes would widen, followed by a six-letter word that was either being used as a question or a comment: "Really ..." I immediately felt the need to defend myself. These days, having reached ten years, I still occasionally get the impulse. But whenever I do, I come back to a fundamental truism of my outlook about my job: I just want to keep growing. Weeks like this one remind me how much. On Tuesday, my work received four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. I had won Murrows before but never more than one in a given year. These stories reminded me how much I've grown since I arrived in Atlanta ten years ago. I share similar perspective on Episode #70 of the Telling the Story podcast. This is a non-traditional episode, featuring the reading of a recent blog post instead of a longform interview with a journalist or storyteller

If you've read this blog regularly in the past year, you probably already know: I love being a dad. We welcomed our daughter nearly nine months ago, and my life has been permanently transformed. So has the desire to balance my time at home with my time at work. I wrote about these subjects in the recent issue of News Photographer magazine. I didn't realize what would stand alongside my column on the next page. It was a piece from Autumn Payne, a photographer and videographer at the Sacramento Bee, titled, "Yes, you can raise a family and do killer photojournalism, too." I read it. I loved it. Payne's words spoke to me as a new parent, even if she's a few years further in the process. She wrote around raising her four-month-old daughter while maintaining a foothold in the world of journalism. Check out her web site. She's crushing it. Payne is my guest on Episode #69 of the Telling the Story podcast. This is a worthy conversation, for new parents and for those who plan to one day become parents. Even the most

The following podcast episode made me uncomfortable. I communicate for a living, and my trade is words. I stare frequently at blank cursors on my computer screen because I haven't found the exact word to properly convey an adjective, identifier, or emotion. I wade into controversial waters with caution, because I know how certain words can be interpreted in unintended ways. So when I invited Noelle Walker, an extraordinary and accoladed reporter for KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, to discuss life as a woman in journalism in 2018, I knew it would require her to be vulnerable - and for me to join her. I would need to challenge my own assumptions and choices, including with words. I would need to accept the ways in which I might be a part of the problem. I would need to avoid presuming to already understand what the problem might be. I would need to worry less about saying the wrong thing or using the wrong word and worry more about keeping my mouth shut and listening. I would need to live in the uncomfortable. Bu

"See the invisible." Adrienne Broaddus used this phrase early during our interview, and I instantly got it and loved it. She was discussing her approach to covering Hurricane Florence, which she did for a sister station in the Carolinas instead of her home station, KARE-TV in the Twin Cities. The award-winning reporter spoke of the people she met at a homeless shelter and said, "The people who were there, I wanted their voices to be heard. That's one of the foundations of great journalism." She used her time in North Carolina to find individual stories and unique details that weren't getting covered amidst the macro focus of the storm. It defines her approach in general, and it indicates a reporter who is confident in her voice and how to utilize it. Broaddus is my guest on Episode 67 of the Telling the Story podcast. I reached out to her weeks before Florence, intending to discuss different topics. Broaddus had just captured a pair of Salute to Excellence awards from the NABJ. She had also just spoken at the