Plus: How We Survive the News

0:04What's happening, Slatesters? It is Friday, which means our plus friends and family get a little extra something in the feeds just for them. And today, that extra something is extra special. Because last week, I had the great joy of collaborating with some friends at the Reveal podcast and the WNYC show on the media for a live event in Richmond, Virginia. We recorded this at Virginia Public Media. They have a beautiful new building in downtown Richmond. We had a terrific conversation. It was me with Al Letson, the host of Reveal, and Michael Lowinger, one of the hosts of OTM. It was all about how we are keeping up with and breaking through the relentless news cycle.

0:42It was a whole vibe. Next time, come out and support us. Anyway, these guys are awesome. I think you're going to have a great time listening. So enjoy and support your local public radio station.

0:58Hey, Richmond. What's up? I'm Mary Harris, and I have a question for all of you, and you can just shout it out. You don't have to look for a mic or whatever. We can just be comfy here. How do you guys feel about the news right now? Crazy, is that what you said? Anyone else want to like agree, disagree, thumbs up the noise, noisy. Okay. Tiring. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. What do you, too many commercials show me the Instagram funny stuff. Yes. Okay. One hundred. Would you know, go, what'd you say? Anxiety provoking. Yes. Yes. Every push alert. don't you feel like it's like ah like what is that why are you calling me um okay I agree I just want to say like I agree that's like why we're here um so I host Slate's daily news podcast but um I understand this anxiety really deeply and I gotta say that this is a change I feel like as someone who's done news for many two three decades like so I started out I um I worked at ABC News.

2:10I worked at WNYC, New York Public Radio. And at those places, you would tell people you worked there. And they would say like, oh, that's cool. Or like, oh, I have like a tote bag from there. And you'd be like, yeah. And now I tell people I host a daily news podcast. And the reaction is very, very different. And when I was writing this, I was trying to describe the reaction you get from people. And the first thing I thought was like, it's as if you told them your cat died because it's like sad but manageable. Do you know what I mean? Like you're just sort of like, yeah, that's like too bad for you.

2:49But it's actually not that. It's kind of worse. And now I'm going to tell you something really personal, which is so I have a 12-year-old daughter. She's wonderful. But when I was pregnant with her, I got cancer. And so I was treated for cancer as I was pregnant with her she's fine she's fine she's fine yeah that's that's her yeah I'm fine I'm fine thank you for asking but so you can see there like I'm bald my baby has more hair than I do when she was born but I was walking around New York City with like this like visibly pregnant okay like big but also like a shaved head and people would just give you space they would just be like, I don't know what's happening there, but I don't really want a part of it.

3:37That is the reaction I get when I tell people I host a daily news show. They're like, oh, okay. That is tragic for you, but also that was your choice. So yeah, I get it. Yeah. And this is a face I made while I was actually podcasting recently that my producer found Madeline. Madeline, thank you very much. I was doing an interview about Max Miller, a sitting congressman in Ohio who's credibly accused of some very awful things. And that is the face I make when I'm doing that kind of podcast. Yeah. So we asked all of you, you may know this, to fill out a survey to tell us how you felt. Because obviously I'm carrying a lot of feelings into this right now.

4:23But we don't want this all to be projection. So if you haven't filled it out, you can still fill it out. and what that will mean is that I won't be very surprised by what happens next, but that's kind of fun. Do you want to go to the next slide? Okay, yeah. So the results are, drumroll please. Thank you. Okay, so we asked people what they looked at for news. A lot of you are doing the traditional news and a lot of you are doing podcasts, and can I tell you the one result that surprises me? It's like no one here said chat GPT, which bless you all. for not saying that.

5:05Thank you. Someone just added their results. Yes. Okay, next slide. How trustworthy do you find the national news? Somewhat trustworthy in the lead there. Not particularly trustworthy is number two. Damn, that hurts. Like, but thank you for the honesty. We need to see it. Very trustworthy gets 7%, two of you. Thank you, I think. Next slide. How trustworthy do you find Virginia Public Media? Very trustworthy. That is where we are. And I know that maybe you think that this is just because you're here and you want to be nice to your hosts, but I think it's real. Okay, next slide. How do you feel when you look at the news?

5:51This is kind of what I asked you at the top, right? And most of you said exhausted. then skeptical one of you said angry which I get it too but none of you said empowered none and I like I feel that in my soul right like I um I had a producer once who told me that my next job after being a podcast host should be unitarian minister uh so that's like uh something that kind of bugs me but anyway next slide fill in the blank the news is to what these days and And relentless and emotional are the top two here. But also repetitive, much of the same. No one says it's boring, so that's good. That's something.

6:40Okay, is this the last one next, I think? One more. One more. Okay, this was something I was really curious to see what you guys said about it. We asked, would the world be better with more news or less? And you guys, I got to say, you kind of surprised me by saying more. 62 % of you said more news options instead of fewer. That's it for now. And if you want to hear the rest of this episode, the way to do it is to subscribe to Slate Plus. Unlock Slate Plus now by going to slate.com forward slash what next plus.