The one thing I really miss from my working life as a reporter and show host is interviewing people. In all honesty, I probably still ask way too many questions of the people I meet, despite being retired and ‘off duty.’ To be entrusted with people’s stories is a responsibility, and to ask questions freely is a joy. The lessons from talking with so many people of different ages and backgrounds, about their finest moments or sometimes their worst, are an honor and an invaluable education.
When I worked on the Today Show many years ago, the celebrity interviews were always enjoyable. Actors, musicians, authors were usually there to promote a project and knew that a national stage was valuable and therefore brought their A-Game. In the last ten years of my career, when I hosted New Day Northwest, a local Seattle talk show, celebrity interviews could be a little different. You could tell when people didn’t really think it was worth their time. So, when big stars went out of their way to be open and generous, even on a small stage, it said a lot about them AND about how to treat people.
For example, actors Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, and Ewan McGregor were all fun, delightful, and friendly with the crew and the audience. Comic genius Leslie Jordan (RIP) was so preposterously charming that he stayed beyond his interview to take part in a cooking segment and performed a pratfall that left me breathless with laughter. Actress Julie Andrews, a legend and star of the first movie I’d ever seen, The Sound of Music, was literally everything you would hope—elegant, funny, down to earth, with megawatt charisma. Each of these stars, and loads of others, showed a grace that touched everyone there, and created joyful, lasting memories. For me, the takeaway was that showing up with a little ‘extra’ can make somebody’s day. You just need to be undistracted, kind, and chipper. It will make your day as well.
Another genre of interview was more sensitive. Trying to shine a light on social issues, New Day sometimes featured people who had experienced true horrors. Survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. People who had suffered devastating child abuse. Families of missing people or of those lost to crime, drug addiction, and injustice. These conversations are delicate. My job was to get to the truth of the matter, in four minutes, on live TV. But it was also my job to be empathetic, to listen closely, and to treat people as I would wish to be treated. I will literally never forget Anthony Ray Hinton, wrongly convicted of a double murder and imprisoned on death row for 28 years, finally exonerated and released in 2015. He wrote a memoir and became an advocate for criminal justice reform.
He told me he still couldn’t stretch out to sleep because he was so accustomed to curling up on a cot in a small cell, but he rejected bitterness because life was so precious. The truth is in those details, told with incredible courage by people who want to spare others pain. Their sharing feels sacred to me. The opportunity to learn and grow from stories other than your own is a gift never to be overlooked.
A narrower group of interviews took place with Olympic and professional athletes, including Gold Medal winning swimmer Summer Sanders, Olympic champion and WNBA All Star Sue Bird, Super Bowl winning Seahawks Doug Baldwin and Michael Bennett, mountain climbing legend Jim Whittaker, and many more. The astounding commonality was not just competitive drive but a dedication to skill that required ignoring all outside noise, putting in maximum effort, and focusing almost solely on the tiny, incremental improvements that could separate them from other world class athletes. Maybe just a tenth of a second stood between them and ultimate victory. It’s something the best of the best almost universally embrace. So, forgive me, as former Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson used to ask, why not us? There’s magic in quieting a noisy mind, blowing off the things you can’t change, and building tiny improvements into our lives, no matter how old we are.
Honestly, I do miss conversing with so many people each day. I enjoy my retirement, don’t get me wrong. But if we run into each other, maybe you’ll humor me and answer a few dozen questions. Thanks in advance!
Margaret Larson retired as host of KING 5‘s “New Day Northwest.” Her impressive 35-year career included stints as a London-based foreign correspondent for NBC News and as a news anchor for the Today Show, as well as a reporter for Dateline NBC and anchor at KING 5.
Connect with Margaret Larson at:
- http://www.facebook.com/margaretlarson.newday
- @Margaret_Larson on Instagram
