Former longtime “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd is my guest on the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” which is out today.
Todd talks about what he has been doing since he left NBC News earlier this year, his thoughts on the state of journalism, and how to make it in such a crowded media space. We also talked about his vision for how to help save journalism (think local sports!), and even some surprising and critical comments about former President Joe Biden.
And we talk about something many in the media are facing these days, which is how to reach an audience at a troubling time when so many are trying to avoid the news.
Todd told me, “I think about it all the time. I want people to have a similar feeling listening to my podcast as I do after I listen to Bill Simmons, which is I feel like I learned something, I feel like I laughed at something, I didn’t feel like I wasted my time. But I felt like I enjoyed myself.”
Todd continued, “The problem with politics today is that some of the topics aren’t very enjoyable, and I do worry about depressing people too much. My mother’s a pretty good check on that. She’ll be like, ‘Well, that was a dark episode.’ God bless my mother, but you know, the glass barely has condensation on it in her house sometimes. The glass isn’t just half empty. It has been shattered. But I’m mindful of that. I miss the pre-Trump era, when you could have a little bit of fun with politics. I feel like we’ve punished fun. And in some ways, Trump sucked the fun out of it, which is … innocence is lost sometimes, right? And it just is what it is. But I am mindful of that. It’s also why I think the best way to reach these people that want to tune out, is to go back and cover stories that help them live their lives.”
There’s much more in our interesting conversation. So check out the podcast. Aside from watching on YouTube, you can also find the show on Apple, Spotify, and most places where you find podcasts.
