There have not been many true constants in my life, but public radio is one of them. Morning Edition and All Things Considered were the soundtracks to my childhood mornings and afternoons; Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Ask Me Another, and This American Life were the first podcasts I subscribed to as an adolescent; and half of my college experience was shaped by my time spent working as an intern at the local NPR member station.
As much as I wanted to work in radio and journalism, my true passion was storytelling. Nevertheless, in the frantic shuffle of daily news coverage, general assignment reporting, and meeting deadlines for publication and broadcast, I found myself starting to focus more on the job than the stories I was telling.
Knowing that I was looking to improve my craft, several people whose advice I trust, including my news director, recommended I look into the Next Generation Radio Project. When I was informed that I was a finalist, I had just enough time to feel shocked before I realized I needed to start working as soon as possible to find a subject for my story pitch. Two days before the finalist application deadline, I finally connected with a potential source and worked feverishly in my time off of work to refine my pitch, sending the application in with just a few hours to spare.
Once I’d been selected and spoken with my mentor, Kyle Stokes, it became apparent that my original story idea would not be an option for logistical reasons. With the start of the project fast approaching, I would need to find a new story subject.
Thanks to a suggestion from the incredible Brian Munoz at St. Louis Public Radio, I was able to connect with Avian Duke of Sk8 Liborius just before this project started, kicking off a week that prompted me to think about why I tell stories.
This week, I got the chance to explore the husk of a church-turned-skatepark with someone who spent hours upon hours of his life there. Standing among the burnt timber and broken glass with him, listening to him talk about what the building meant to him, I got a good reminder that journalism is more than just the daily grind of reporting stories, writing articles, and reading newscasts. The people whose voices we lift up are the reason we tell the stories we do, and spending a week telling a story with someone else’s words was a good reinforcement of that idea, both literally and figuratively.