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PODCAST EPISODE #72: Kristin Dickerson, anchor/reporter, KXAS-TV

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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 path swings toward a new journey: Dickerson and her husband are quitting their jobs to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain, visit Israel and India, and bring cameras for the whole trip.

Their goal? Produce a project about faith.

It’s an appropriate subject for Dickerson. This kind of decision requires faith. And her journey to it is powerful … and best told by her.

Dickerson is my guest on Episode #72 of the Telling the Story podcast.

I won’t give much away, but I will say that Dickerson provides one of the most open, heartfelt interviews I’ve had on this podcast. I greatly admire her, even if I can’t see myself taking such a seismic leap. As we discuss in the podcast, any journalist can find ways to take their own leaps – seismic or otherwise – within the confines of one’s life and job. There’s always room to push toward your passion.

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PODCAST EPISODE #60: Ryan Oliveira, photographer, KXAS-TV

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Late March and early April mark the start of awards season in TV news.

For me, they mark the start of grabbing my popcorn and watching TV news award-winners.

I love watching and learning from the best in my business. Last week I published my annual “5 lessons learned” piece from the first-place stories in the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism Video Awards.

This week, I interviewed one of the big winners for Episode #60 of the Telling the Story podcast.

Ryan Oliveira is a photojournalist at KXAS-TV, the NBC affiliate in Dallas/Ft. Worth which last year captured four National Edward R. Murrow awards and this week was named a Peabody Awards finalist. The station knows storytelling. This year, amidst a tremendously talented team of journalists, Oliveira stood out.

He did so with sensitivity.

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3 GREAT STORIES: Starring street ball, Selma, & the iPhone

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Every week, I shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.

The Carver Mobb (1/21/15, SB Nation): How fitting that, on the week of the Super Bowl, the most powerful piece of football-related writing focused on a different league.

Forget the 90,000,000 words written about Deflate-Gate. Check out this 4,000-word piece from Ivan Solotaroff about a New York City street football league that can be far rougher than the NFL:

If all sport is ritualized warfare, it’s often difficult to distinguish the two in rough-touch. That’s particularly true as playoffs approach, when midfield fights emptying both benches can involve fans, referees, even league commissioners, usually aging veterans of the sport. “City” (short for the Bronx’s Coop City/City Island League) was the most desired Chip, until recruiting refs became difficult and the commissioner’s tires were slashed.

This is a masterful and powerful story from SB Nation Longform, as Solotaroff works as both tour guide — explaining the rules, format, and stakes of the league — and profiler — providing poignant portraits of the athletes and others involved. He writes beautifully at every step.

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3 GREAT STORIES: Starring Mark Cuban, Nick Beef, and Phil & Harvey

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Every week, I will shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.

I cannot remember the last time I traveled somewhere that had triple-digit weather.

But this past week, I took a two-day jaunt to Dallas for a story about the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It was a powerful experience … and hot, definitely hot.

Perhaps I am in a Dallas state of mind, but I chose two Dallas-related stories — one of which indirectly relates to JFK’s assassination — to lead off this week’s “3 Great Stories”. The final story takes us to the Twin Cities for a landmark moment, covered in tremendous fashion by the video wing at the area’s biggest newspaper.

All three stories features wide, multi-dimensional windows into their main characters.

Mystery from the grave behind Oswald’s, solved (8/9/13, New York Times): Among the circles of relevance surrounding JFK’s assassination, Nick Beef probably lands as far from the center as possible.

For nearly half a century, “Nick Beef” has simply been known as the name on the gravestone immediately beside that of Lee Harvey Oswald. No one was sure whether “Nick Beef” was an actual person, let alone whether said person was still alive.

Now, we know.

Nick Beef is alive, and he is actually a self-described “non-performing performance artist” living in New York. He reveals himself to Dan Barry of the New York Times; through Barry’s paragraphs, he comes off as quite the morbid soul.

Something else happens in Barry’s article. Dealing with a subject — the assassination — that has been dissected so many times through the years, Barry examines a man whose own story is relatively unremarkable. The mystery of Nick Beef winds up more fascinating than his emergence.

But Barry does not try to oversell his subject. He simply recounts Mr. Beef’s story in a way that allows us to get to know the man in question, and he solves an age-old mystery in the process.

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