July 12, 2022 • 32 mins
Today, host Louis Carr speaks with Glenn Marshall, Journalist and reporter at WGN-TV.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of a Blueprint Men
something where we have consistently given men a prescription book
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness and relationship.
(00:28):
And today are special guests is w g N reporter
Glenn Marshall. Welcome, Glenn. Thank you Lewis for having me.
Man is a lazing opportunity. I really appreciate We appreciate you,
and uh, we're so excited to have you. Uh to
sort of tell us about your journey to where you
(00:51):
are now to w g N. But Glenn, so where
did you grow up? Uh? So, I grew up in
the south summer as a Chicago I'm from Matthison, Illinois'
about thirty minutes outside of Chicago, UM grade school, high school,
everything there. I went to college in Illinois, Northern Illinois University,
(01:12):
and I got my starting journalist here in Chicago. So
it's like a full three sixty coming back here to work.
So being uh in the media. Was that always a
dream of yours that? Did somebody convince you along the way?
Did you run into a waymaker they convinced you that
that's something you should do or was that always a
(01:33):
dream of yours? No? I definitely ran into a waymaker
because my ultimate goal. My dream was to do acting.
And my parents was like, we can't support you going
to college to a theater degree because we don't know
what that's gonna do for you in the long run.
So my best friend's father used to always tell us like, man,
but you got you got wits, you know you should
(01:53):
do radio. I looked into radio, and I saw that
radio doesn't make any money. So I just went to
school and got into product ship and someone to introduced
me to someone that worked at a local station here
in Chicago, and I started the internship there and I
was like, you know, you could be a reporter. I
was like, okay, sure, and so I started training to
(02:13):
be a reporter. And sure enough, after a year after
graduating college, I started reporting in TV in Springford, Illinois.
So that was my first job. And how long did
you stay in Springfield? I was there for a year,
in three months, and then I moved to Boston and
was there for four years report and then I moved
to Atlanta. I was there for two years, and I
(02:33):
just moved back to Chicago last year. So, uh, well, well, Glenn,
you've had some pretty good markets, you know. Uh. I
went to school in Des Moines, Iowa, and uh I
have a journalism degree. But I didn't, you know, want
to work in some of them small towns in Iowa. Right,
So I thought, because I was an athlete, I was
(02:54):
gonna come straight to Chicago and get a job at
w g N or ABC or CBS. Clearly that didn't
work out for me. But uh, your journey was a
little different than what I had received. You were only
in a small town for a year and a half. Yeah,
it was not even a year and a half. It
was a year in three months. Um. And the reason
(03:14):
why it was a year and three months because I
got fired for my first job to teach. Okay, all right,
now we're getting down to it. Okay, I mean you
just bored Glenn. I thought you spre born at the
Boston I don't know you got fired. Yeah, I got fired.
I got fired on my day off too. So Glenn,
(03:37):
what did you get fired for um because my station.
I'll be honest with you, I've been through a lot
when it comes to journalism. I've felt with racism, I
thought felt with discrimination, all those type of things. But
I got my job to Sprink Form Illinois. I was
literally hired to replace the black man that was retired,
and so I was the only black male at the
(03:59):
state far as like production, on camera and hr wherever.
I was the only black man walking through those halls.
I dealt with a lot, but deal doing with that
because springfor Illinois is not what Chicago is when it
comes to the progressiveness, it's totally different out there. The
little country is Uh, they're very conservative in their ways
(04:22):
and it could be racist. Um. I went through a
lot of things while I was out there. A couple
of months into my job there, my manager came to me,
until they you think you're so big and bad because
you come from Chicago and this is like somebody that's
coming to learn and grow. And I was like, I
don't think I'm to get back, but I was thinking
that I'd still be in Chicago. I also didn't take
(04:44):
anything like my mentors. They always taught me to be respectful,
but stand up for yourself. And they were expecting someone
to come in and be like a pump at the station,
to be the yes guy and take the heat and
blows and this is a certain how you're supposed to
do those type of things, and I followed that way
and it just didn't match. I had the station trying
(05:06):
to set me up multiple times as far as like
to fire me. It got so bad to the point
where HR came in. And then the last time that
they tried to set me up, it was like, we
need to just separate, we need to just walk away
from this, and so they let me go. It was
really crazy. Yeah, So I ended up staying in Springfield
after that for another nine months. My pastor. My pastor
(05:30):
got me a job at the church UH installing toilets.
I went from delivering the news to installing toilets and
then from there, big big difference, big difference. And from
there I went to become a rehab counselor for a
(05:51):
drugby HAALF facility in Springfield, Illinois. Well, I was working
with teams and I did that for like four months
until I got the call to move to Boston to
report out there. So I've been through some things. Definitely
been through some things, but it didn't it didn't never
stop my journey. So so, Glenn, when you got to Boston,
what area of the news were you sort of focused on?
(06:15):
So that was what we call the general assignment reporter.
So I did everything. It came to sports, politics, uh,
community stories, whatever has happened, breaking news, I covered it all.
I covered the her Aeron Hernandez trial. I covered the
Boston Arathon bombing trials. I covered the Super Bowls. I've
(06:35):
done one on one interviews with Super Bowl athletes, UH,
NFL athletes, basketball and NBA athletes. I've done it all
in Boston. Wow, Wow, congrats. And and now you're here
in Chicago. Now I'm there in Chicago doing the exact
same thing, except we cover a lot of crime in
the morning. Yeah, Glenn, tell us about that. Uh, and
(07:01):
how have you navigated that whole landscape, because it's not
like the safest place for reporters either. No, it's really
not like something I haven't I'll take that back. I
just thought about it. I have had my run ins
where I felt like my life was in endangered in
the field. Chicago is a very interesting place because you
(07:24):
see so much potential here, UM, but it's clouded by
so much of the violence, so much of everything that's
going on in our communities, and it's like our communities
don't have any help. UM. It went for months on
end where every single day I was either outside of
a police station or I was outside of a hospital,
(07:46):
every morning covered in a shooting or something happening where
someone was injured or someone died. UM. In Chicago, are
numbers would just be crazy for weekend violence. Sixty people shot,
fifteen killed UM one night, UH Sunday, on a Sunday morning,
Now I'm covering the story breaking news, twelve people shot
(08:08):
at a party. It's like these are what you would
call UM mass shootings. It's gotten to the point where
the associated press basically almost had to change how they
that describe a mass shooting in in that existence of
the definition of that term because of how many it
is happening, and how months of the violence is happening,
(08:30):
and how many people are getting killed at one time.
The situations UM in Atlanta, it's like a black community.
It's black. Everything is black there. I didn't we covered shootings,
but it wasn't like this. UH in Boston. We covered shootings,
but it wasn't like this. I don't know what it
is has happened. I know violence is up across the country,
(08:51):
but specifically with Chicago, it's just been extremely, extremely crazy
with how much is going on. So it's the difference
between Chicago, Atlanta, Boston just the actual larger numbers here,
or is there some other difference I would I would
definitely say, like Chicago is a bigger city, so you
(09:13):
do have more people. But I still don't give that, uh.
I don't use that as an excuse for our violence
because at the point in time, Boston went through a very,
very tough time with violence back in the nineties, eighties
and nineties. You would go through Dorchester, Mattapan, or other
(09:34):
communities within Boston and it's like lock the doors that
run through the red lights. I'm in the South Loop
and I'm driving to work every morning. It's like, man,
make sure I locked my doors, and I'm gonna look
around and run through this red lights. Like you get
to work safe because I don't know what's happening on
the streets. Sometimes I wake up and I see police
lights flashing and we're on our morning call and I
(09:57):
was like, yeah, suching, such happened at this court. I
was like, yeah, I'm looking at it right now. From
what I see. Why I don't go to bed try
because I wake up early in the morning to well,
I wake up early for work. Um, so I have
to be in a there by like six thirties sometimes
and I'll go to bed, try to go to sleep,
and it's like I'm in you know, a decent area,
(10:18):
but I still hear gunshots cars zooming by. I had
a seventeen year old kid just shot in a lay
just a couple of months back at three thirty in
the afternoon right here. And this is this isn't a
bad area. I lived right next to the Bear Stadium
Soldier Field. It's just like, we don't I don't know
what's going on over here, and I don't know what's
(10:38):
going on in the city. But something definitely has to
change with the mentality that it's quicker to pick up
a gun than to solve your problems. Respectful way, We'll
be right back with more of my interview after this
quick break. So, how how does the station's sort of
(11:06):
balance between the violence and other sort of news that
needs to be reported Uh, you know, we all watched
the news and most stations opened up with the violence,
So how do they sort of balance that with all
the other things? Tell us how that sort of works.
(11:27):
So I think like my station does a great job
of balancing because we do a lot of stories that's
happening in the community as well. We show a different
side to what's going on in the community. You have
to do that. I have people send me stories all
the time like this person is doing this, or toy
drives are happening here because of Christmas and we're out
there coming. You have to have that balance this show,
(11:50):
like hey, it's not just bad here. And then we
also asked the hard questions. I can remember getting in
front of the superintendent and saying, you know, what's happening,
what do you what is the what are what are
the reasons for so much violence? Uh? When you talk
to parments, what our parents saying, and getting those hard
answered questions, in those hard questions answered, it's very key
(12:11):
because people need to understand that yes, this is a
south side it's a west side situation, and all this
stuff has happened, but it's affecting all of us. And
as you see the past couple of weeks, we've seen
a lot of this violence happening downtown. I talked to
a mother of a child was shot downtown last week,
thirteen years old, downtown, hanging with her sister and gets
(12:35):
shot because of all this violence that's happening here. And
she's just like, I don't know what to say, but
parents need to figure out what's going on with their kids.
Know where your child is at, what your child is doing. Like,
this is a community issue. You know, back back when
you were young, if you got in trouble, you probably
(12:55):
get in trouble at school. Somebody, a parent, let's talk
to you and say something to you. Now, the community
has scared of these kids. These kids are running the
blocks in the streets. And it's not like they're seventeen
and eighteen years old. We're talking about ten year olds
that are out here carjacking people. Tend eleven. You're so
far away from getting the driver's license, but you're out
(13:17):
here doing that is ridiculous to me. So so len,
let's let's pivot, uh for a moment, and let's talk
about the industry where social media is so prominent and awful.
Lot of people look to social media to sort of
get their news. How do you guys sort of navigating
(13:38):
that world where you're competing with meta slash Facebook and
then which has so many reporters that are not qualified reporters.
How do you guys sort of you know, navigate through
that landscape of news that is being reported via individuals
(13:59):
and other outlets do social media versus what you do
on a day to day basis. I'll say this. When
I started as an intern in Chicago back in two
thousand and eleven, I had just got a Twitter handle.
People didn't know what was going on with Twitter. It
was like, yeah, just get a Twitter handle and just
had it. Um. Now that is the main way that
(14:24):
I connect viewers. That's Twitter all morning. I don't have
people telling me, oh, man, I love the turtleneck that
you have, what I love this time, or that's a
crazy story where you said this thing wrong, or that's
not how you pronounced that that city and people love
to interact. That's the way that we use social media
is to interact with people and let people see that
(14:45):
we're real humans just like you are. We just cover
the So a lot of people love to see my dog,
so my Instagram is full of my dog, pictures of
my dog and things like that. But people connect and
know you. So when I'm out in the street, people
will take pictures, put it on Twitter, tag me and
things like that. It's all about connecting with people and
showing that you care. Now it's not just let me
(15:07):
get in front of this camera, tell you the news
and then that's the end of it. Now we have
to connect with you. I have some people that I
talked to every single day, and then it is probably
one of my friends, but it's just a social media friend.
I wouldn't know about saw face to face, but I
talked to them every single day. It's the craziest thing ever,
But that's where we are with technology right now. People
(15:27):
want news and they want a fast and quick an instant.
So like, if I'm covering a breaking news story something happened,
I'm gonna put a couple of pictures up on social media.
People will interact with their ill interact. Somebody may say, hey,
I know we'll injured to that. I'll get a story
from that person there. It's been a lot of times
where someone has sent me messages saying I know that
you were covering this, that was my cousin, or I
(15:49):
know somebody that was there and I get connected and
get the full story from someone that was involved in
the situation. And and Glenn, would you still say that
in one and beyond uh, Journalism, especially broadcast journalism, is
a viable career for African Americans. I think right now,
(16:12):
post post this has been one of those moments where
African Americans have been able to shine when it comes
to covering news. Everything that we went through in What's
Hard on Black People is you cannot deny that a
lot of stations has used that to push black people
(16:36):
to the forefront and covering news. You will look across
the country and see more black anchors, more black reporters,
Whereas when I was starting off, I was the only
black reporter at the station. Now you want to see
maybe there's two or three there. And I was in Atlanta,
My team was predominantly black, even those you know, Atlantis
a black community. Do you even look here in Chicago
(16:57):
for a while you didn't see so many black anchor
It's that every single morning show in Chicago has a
black anchor. The CBS stage has two black anchors, which
is amazing. Your main anchors are two blacks, and I
think that is a powerful um is that that those
(17:18):
things are really really good now. The money is not
what it used to be. I'll be honest with you,
the money is not They're not throwing the dollars like
they used to throw because you're competing with so many
different avenues to get your news. Like you were just
we were just talking about social media and things like that.
But it's still a viable career because we need our
(17:41):
people to tell our stories. It's just different ways that
you can do it now. Like TV can be yes,
working for a local news station. TV can also be
going to YouTube and different things like that, doing video podcasts,
whatever it may be. Covering what it is that you
desire to cover is so many from avenues out there
that you could do it, but we still need us
(18:03):
to cover those stories. So so to that point, Glenn Uh,
think back to uh your early years in college as
a freshman and sophomore. What advice would you have for
young people of color right now who maybe majoring in
journalism or thinking about changing them major to journalists. What
(18:27):
advice would you have for those people? I would honestly
tell anyone that's looking to get into journalism, to keep
them a humble mindset, to drink big and don't give
up when someone tells you that you're not good enough. Um,
you're gonna hear a lot of that happened in your career,
(18:47):
whatever it may be. Even in the classroom. I was
blessed up where I never taken the journalism class. My
degree was just strictly in production. I did uh communications
if this is a media production, So I learned how
to film and do all these different things. Um. But
I would also look at the journalism classes and I
would see how they will fight just to get those
(19:08):
opportunities to do TV and things like that. Me never
taking a journalism class. I'm a reporter at the number
one station, number one morning show in Chicago, never taking
the journalism class. These are things that you learn as
you go. Your career will progress as you go. This
is not no one way and this is how you're
(19:30):
gonna get there, because a lot of times you will
hear like you have to do this, this and this.
That's not the key. That's not the key to your success.
I had a job where I went to a small
market and then I jumped to a big market after
being fired. Somebody may be in a small market and
two or three small markets and then finally get to
a medium sized market. Somebody may start in a large market.
(19:52):
You just never know, but there's like no one way.
So you have to be persistent, stay humble, and dream
big and just o for yours And also the other
thing that I would tell someone to do and start
networking right now. Find people that you see that you
you feel like are good at what they do and
follow them. Uh, reach out to them. If they don't respond,
(20:14):
that's okay, but you still enjoy their work, you know,
studying them, imitate them, emulate them for a little while,
and the Indians begin to build yourself so that you
will know at least something going in. Like I had
a mentor here in Chicago. I worked at the station
here as a producer. I worked Monday through Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. I was with this guy in a live
(20:34):
truck covering stories with them. When he would do the interviews,
I'm standing right next to them when he's writing his story.
I'm pulling out my laptop righting my story as well.
He'll look at my stuff and tell me this is
what you need to change is what you did good.
It's how you can make it better. That's how I
learned how to be a reported shadow. We'll be right
(20:55):
back with more of my interview after this quick. Yeah,
so Glenn were here. The waymaker community believes that every
successful person has had one of the more waymakers. Tell
us about some of the waymakers that have intentionally impacted
(21:18):
your journey. Oh, man, I'll give you. I can give
you so many I'll give you too, because we don't
want to take your too much of your time. But
in high school, I had my best friend at the time.
His big brother was named Sean Long. He's a program
director for a local station here UH in Chicago, and
(21:39):
I was telling him how I wanted to, you know,
go into go into acting. He was like, definitely do it,
go forward. I'm telling how my parents didn't want me
to get to the degree. He was like, you could
still do it in college, just do it in your
free time. Um. And then when I also told him
about the opportunities with the TV news, he allowed me
to receive access to UH differently cool that's in the
(22:00):
journalists and feels that's in the media. At the broadcast Fielding.
He opened up those stores to show me that yes, you,
as a black kid from the South suburbs, can make
this happen and make something happen for yourself. So that's
one person. Then the other person I would say is uh,
he's the reporter at NBC Chicago's name is Christian far
I was just telling you how Monday through Friday, I
would work as a producer, work on that assignment desk,
(22:23):
and then on the weekends I would literally be in
a live truck with him, following him, doing stories with him.
And then that continues even til now, like I don't
have to look over certain scripts and things like that
that I'm doing, even though we're at competitive stations. I
was like, bro, I just want to know, like does
this make sense? Can you look at this story and
tell me I do anything wrong? And just having those
(22:43):
type of people there that just vacue and support you NonStop,
and it even goes beyond journalism, just like having a
big brother to talk about different things that's going on
in life, like hey man, I'm dealing with this. I've
been there, don't worry you're even Like when I was
broken in spring for the Illinois here man, here's some
money that you put this in your account and send
you a couple of hundreds so you can put some
(23:05):
food in your refrigerator or help you take your deals.
Those type of people are very beneficial to your life, man.
And they were the way makers because they paved the
way for me. And that's still pushing so a lot
of people. Glenn asked me, uh to be there mentor,
and and I said, you can't pick a mentor. A
(23:26):
mentor picks a mentee. What suggestions do you have for
people who are setting themselves up to be a mentee?
I think the one thing that you have to be
ready to do is, like I said this earlier, to
be humble. I think this generation that we're seeing that's
(23:47):
coming up, believe me, they're not humble. And they think
that they're always right. Uh. They think that they had
everything together. Uh, and realize now all the fact that
you're gonna receive, it's not gonna be positive, but it's
all going to be beneficial tours making you something greater. Um.
(24:08):
You have to be willing to receive that. And you
have to be willing to have some doors close them
because everybody's not gonna want to be your mentor. I
tell this story all the time because it's so funny.
Christian Partner got it. I just praised so much. I
wanted him to be my mentor so bad because he
was one of the only black men at the station
that I actually saw. He was one of the younger guys.
(24:30):
Christal Wi blew me off almost every single day and say, hey,
can I go shadow you? No, man, I'm just oh,
he just walk right past me. But you have to
stay persistent with these people because when somebody sees that
you really care about learning and growing, they see that
they see the potential in you, and they don't want
to support you. So some people think like they don't
have time, But if they're willing to make time for you,
(24:52):
you gotta make it worth their while. And so that's
how you have to think. You have to keep that mindset,
just like that with the finding these men towards so
so so let me let me ask you this, glam
what's the toughest feedback that you've ever gotten? But you
had to execute on it? But you just really didn't
like the feedback? Uh? In Boston, I had my news
(25:16):
director tell me it was like, you're not ready for Boston.
You shouldn't have been hired yet. You need to go
to some small market in New York and then come
back to me. And that's what I told you back.
That's oh yeah. But the thing is I knew that
I was ready for Boston. It was like, you just
didn't want me here because he didn't hire me. I
(25:36):
was hired before he got there. And it's crazy how
things work, like this was how God works. He said
all of that to me. Two months later, he had
to resign my contract because the company was like, we
want him, do not mess that up with him. And
I had someone from the head of the company called
me and apologize to me about that. So like, when
(26:00):
you get that type of feedback, don't internalize it, take
it for what it is and keep moving. Um. I
didn't allow it to stop me. Yeah, it hurt. It
was painful because this is the person that should be
supporting you, just the leader of the news room, and
it basically telling you you suck. It's like, man, that
that that's that's painful. I called all my mentors. I
(26:23):
was like, yo, I'm ready to quit. Better not you
better not quit. You have people that will do that
and sometimes people will do that intentionally just to see
how you respond, See how you react? Are you weak?
Can you handle it? I'll never be someone like that.
I will just tell you this straight up truth behind something.
(26:43):
But some people like to to feed off of that energy.
H and you let them. Just let them have that moment,
but just continue to do what you have to do
to make to prove them wrong. So so glad that's you.
That's you. Look forward, you know, talk about some of
the things you're hoping to do as you sort of
because you're still young in your career. Uh, what are
(27:06):
some of the things you're hoping to do as you
look forward? You know? Honestly, I've in my career, I
have done basically everything that I wanted to do. The
only thing that I have not done is actually anchored
a full show. Uh, but I really don't have it
as hired to be an anchor. I love being in
the community talking to people, uh and connecting with people.
(27:29):
I think the one thing and one of my goals
that I have for being here in Chicago is to
create something that will have an impact beyond journalism. Um.
I see that there's a need for our kids so
much and I'm still trying to figure out what it
is that I can do to do that. But like,
once you get to this stage or your career, by
(27:51):
this time, you should have done everything that it is
that you want to do, So you have to look
beyond this um. And that's for me just impacting the community.
I always said since I got into journalism, I want
to make an impact in the community, and from Springfield
Boston even in the lasts I've done that and I'm
trying to figure out how I can do that here
(28:12):
in Chicago. So, Glenn, you do morning news. What time
do you have to get up? So I wake up
at twelve forty five in the morning Monday through Thursday,
twelve forty five. Now I wasn't expecting that answer, Glenn.
I was thinking, like three, three thirty, yes, sir, Because
(28:32):
we started we start at two o'clock in the morning.
My first show is at four o'clock in the morning.
So how did you train yourself to be able? What
time do you go to bed? So I'm supposed to
be in a bid at six thirty in the evening,
six thirty games and it's it's hard in the summertime
(28:54):
because the sun is bright and shot are. But in
the weird time, it's a little easier because it's dark outside.
But I usually tend to get in a bed between
seven thirty eight o'clock, but I'm supposed to being there
at six thirty. But but but how do you train
your body to do that? How do you train and
how do you manage your lifestyle to do that? So
(29:18):
my friends they know, like after six o'clock, don't call
my phone because I'm not answering unless it's important. I'll
text and things like that. But your body, your body's
gonna tell you you need to rest because waking up
at twelve forty five in the morning and trying to
get through a whole shift and be on. Because this
isn't like I'm behind the computer at twelve forty five
(29:40):
or like two o'clock in the morning. I'm up in
front of a camera at four o'clock for four thirty five, six, seven,
and eight o'clock in the morning. I literally watched the
sun rocks every single morning. So you have to be on.
You can't. You can't look sleeking on TV because people
would tell you all the time. I have people like
man letting them back to your eyes, get me sleep.
(30:01):
So your your body's gonna tell you like, hey, you
need to rest. I come home after work, I'll take
the dog out to the dog park, maybe try to
get a workout in, and the summertime, I would run.
After that, I hopped in the shower and I go
straight to bed, take a nice two hour nap. I
wake up that It gives me maybe three or four
hours to just chill and relaxed, and my body's like,
(30:22):
go back to sleep. It's time you're tired. So it
was just tough. I think the latest I've stayed up
was ten o'clock and uh ten o'clock at night, and
I had to turn around to be up at twelve
forty five. And my body was like, don't you ever
do this every game? So what time do you arrive
at the station? You get up at twelve to be
(30:42):
at the station at what time? So the good thing
is during this pandemic, we have not then going to
the station unless you're working inside studio. I literally drive
from my house to my stories. So um, at two
o'clock we have on and they called what we figure
out what story we're gonna do, and then from there
(31:03):
I get the information location addressed and fifteen minutes after that,
I will go ahead on and drive to my story
and I'm there for the rest of the day. Wow. Man,
that's tough. Yeah, it's it's a lot. It's a lot,
(31:23):
but your body gets used to it. Like on Thursdays,
that's my Friday night. So my friends like, all right,
we're going out. I say, hey, if I don't get
at least a three hour and now you're not gonna
see you. And Glenn, how long have you been doing
this shift? Um? So I did the shift in Atlanta too,
so it's quite all about two years. Two years. Yeah,
(31:44):
I did this shift in Atlanta. In Atlanta, it was
a little later. I started working at three thirty instead
of two am, so I would wake up at one
forty five then. But here's so okay, all right, yeah,
well Glenn, this has been absolutely amazing uh for you
(32:05):
to share your journey with the Waymaker audience. Uh. We
appreciate everything you do. Uh. We like seeing people who
look like us and return on the news. Uh. So,
thank you for your commitment, thank you for your stories,
thank you for your storytelling. Thank you
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of a Blueprint Men
something where we have consistently given men a prescription book
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness and relationship.
(00:28):
And today are special guests is w g N reporter
Glenn Marshall. Welcome, Glenn. Thank you Lewis for having me.
Man is a lazing opportunity. I really appreciate We appreciate you,
and uh, we're so excited to have you. Uh to
sort of tell us about your journey to where you
(00:51):
are now to w g N. But Glenn, so where
did you grow up? Uh? So, I grew up in
the south summer as a Chicago I'm from Matthison, Illinois'
about thirty minutes outside of Chicago, UM grade school, high school,
everything there. I went to college in Illinois, Northern Illinois University,
(01:12):
and I got my starting journalist here in Chicago. So
it's like a full three sixty coming back here to work.
So being uh in the media. Was that always a
dream of yours that? Did somebody convince you along the way?
Did you run into a waymaker they convinced you that
that's something you should do or was that always a
(01:33):
dream of yours? No? I definitely ran into a waymaker
because my ultimate goal. My dream was to do acting.
And my parents was like, we can't support you going
to college to a theater degree because we don't know
what that's gonna do for you in the long run.
So my best friend's father used to always tell us like, man,
but you got you got wits, you know you should
(01:53):
do radio. I looked into radio, and I saw that
radio doesn't make any money. So I just went to
school and got into product ship and someone to introduced
me to someone that worked at a local station here
in Chicago, and I started the internship there and I
was like, you know, you could be a reporter. I
was like, okay, sure, and so I started training to
(02:13):
be a reporter. And sure enough, after a year after
graduating college, I started reporting in TV in Springford, Illinois.
So that was my first job. And how long did
you stay in Springfield? I was there for a year,
in three months, and then I moved to Boston and
was there for four years report and then I moved
to Atlanta. I was there for two years, and I
(02:33):
just moved back to Chicago last year. So, uh, well, well, Glenn,
you've had some pretty good markets, you know. Uh. I
went to school in Des Moines, Iowa, and uh I
have a journalism degree. But I didn't, you know, want
to work in some of them small towns in Iowa. Right,
So I thought, because I was an athlete, I was
(02:54):
gonna come straight to Chicago and get a job at
w g N or ABC or CBS. Clearly that didn't
work out for me. But uh, your journey was a
little different than what I had received. You were only
in a small town for a year and a half. Yeah,
it was not even a year and a half. It
was a year in three months. Um. And the reason
(03:14):
why it was a year and three months because I
got fired for my first job to teach. Okay, all right,
now we're getting down to it. Okay, I mean you
just bored Glenn. I thought you spre born at the
Boston I don't know you got fired. Yeah, I got fired.
I got fired on my day off too. So Glenn,
(03:37):
what did you get fired for um because my station.
I'll be honest with you, I've been through a lot
when it comes to journalism. I've felt with racism, I
thought felt with discrimination, all those type of things. But
I got my job to Sprink Form Illinois. I was
literally hired to replace the black man that was retired,
and so I was the only black male at the
(03:59):
state far as like production, on camera and hr wherever.
I was the only black man walking through those halls.
I dealt with a lot, but deal doing with that
because springfor Illinois is not what Chicago is when it
comes to the progressiveness, it's totally different out there. The
little country is Uh, they're very conservative in their ways
(04:22):
and it could be racist. Um. I went through a
lot of things while I was out there. A couple
of months into my job there, my manager came to me,
until they you think you're so big and bad because
you come from Chicago and this is like somebody that's
coming to learn and grow. And I was like, I
don't think I'm to get back, but I was thinking
that I'd still be in Chicago. I also didn't take
(04:44):
anything like my mentors. They always taught me to be respectful,
but stand up for yourself. And they were expecting someone
to come in and be like a pump at the station,
to be the yes guy and take the heat and
blows and this is a certain how you're supposed to
do those type of things, and I followed that way
and it just didn't match. I had the station trying
(05:06):
to set me up multiple times as far as like
to fire me. It got so bad to the point
where HR came in. And then the last time that
they tried to set me up, it was like, we
need to just separate, we need to just walk away
from this, and so they let me go. It was
really crazy. Yeah, So I ended up staying in Springfield
after that for another nine months. My pastor. My pastor
(05:30):
got me a job at the church UH installing toilets.
I went from delivering the news to installing toilets and
then from there, big big difference, big difference. And from
there I went to become a rehab counselor for a
(05:51):
drugby HAALF facility in Springfield, Illinois. Well, I was working
with teams and I did that for like four months
until I got the call to move to Boston to
report out there. So I've been through some things. Definitely
been through some things, but it didn't it didn't never
stop my journey. So so, Glenn, when you got to Boston,
what area of the news were you sort of focused on?
(06:15):
So that was what we call the general assignment reporter.
So I did everything. It came to sports, politics, uh,
community stories, whatever has happened, breaking news, I covered it all.
I covered the her Aeron Hernandez trial. I covered the
Boston Arathon bombing trials. I covered the Super Bowls. I've
(06:35):
done one on one interviews with Super Bowl athletes, UH,
NFL athletes, basketball and NBA athletes. I've done it all
in Boston. Wow, Wow, congrats. And and now you're here
in Chicago. Now I'm there in Chicago doing the exact
same thing, except we cover a lot of crime in
the morning. Yeah, Glenn, tell us about that. Uh, and
(07:01):
how have you navigated that whole landscape, because it's not
like the safest place for reporters either. No, it's really
not like something I haven't I'll take that back. I
just thought about it. I have had my run ins
where I felt like my life was in endangered in
the field. Chicago is a very interesting place because you
(07:24):
see so much potential here, UM, but it's clouded by
so much of the violence, so much of everything that's
going on in our communities, and it's like our communities
don't have any help. UM. It went for months on
end where every single day I was either outside of
a police station or I was outside of a hospital,
(07:46):
every morning covered in a shooting or something happening where
someone was injured or someone died. UM. In Chicago, are
numbers would just be crazy for weekend violence. Sixty people shot,
fifteen killed UM one night, UH Sunday, on a Sunday morning,
Now I'm covering the story breaking news, twelve people shot
(08:08):
at a party. It's like these are what you would
call UM mass shootings. It's gotten to the point where
the associated press basically almost had to change how they
that describe a mass shooting in in that existence of
the definition of that term because of how many it
is happening, and how months of the violence is happening,
(08:30):
and how many people are getting killed at one time.
The situations UM in Atlanta, it's like a black community.
It's black. Everything is black there. I didn't we covered shootings,
but it wasn't like this. UH in Boston. We covered shootings,
but it wasn't like this. I don't know what it
is has happened. I know violence is up across the country,
(08:51):
but specifically with Chicago, it's just been extremely, extremely crazy
with how much is going on. So it's the difference
between Chicago, Atlanta, Boston just the actual larger numbers here,
or is there some other difference I would I would
definitely say, like Chicago is a bigger city, so you
(09:13):
do have more people. But I still don't give that, uh.
I don't use that as an excuse for our violence
because at the point in time, Boston went through a very,
very tough time with violence back in the nineties, eighties
and nineties. You would go through Dorchester, Mattapan, or other
(09:34):
communities within Boston and it's like lock the doors that
run through the red lights. I'm in the South Loop
and I'm driving to work every morning. It's like, man,
make sure I locked my doors, and I'm gonna look
around and run through this red lights. Like you get
to work safe because I don't know what's happening on
the streets. Sometimes I wake up and I see police
lights flashing and we're on our morning call and I
(09:57):
was like, yeah, suching, such happened at this court. I
was like, yeah, I'm looking at it right now. From
what I see. Why I don't go to bed try
because I wake up early in the morning to well,
I wake up early for work. Um, so I have
to be in a there by like six thirties sometimes
and I'll go to bed, try to go to sleep,
and it's like I'm in you know, a decent area,
(10:18):
but I still hear gunshots cars zooming by. I had
a seventeen year old kid just shot in a lay
just a couple of months back at three thirty in
the afternoon right here. And this is this isn't a
bad area. I lived right next to the Bear Stadium
Soldier Field. It's just like, we don't I don't know
what's going on over here, and I don't know what's
(10:38):
going on in the city. But something definitely has to
change with the mentality that it's quicker to pick up
a gun than to solve your problems. Respectful way, We'll
be right back with more of my interview after this
quick break. So, how how does the station's sort of
(11:06):
balance between the violence and other sort of news that
needs to be reported Uh, you know, we all watched
the news and most stations opened up with the violence,
So how do they sort of balance that with all
the other things? Tell us how that sort of works.
(11:27):
So I think like my station does a great job
of balancing because we do a lot of stories that's
happening in the community as well. We show a different
side to what's going on in the community. You have
to do that. I have people send me stories all
the time like this person is doing this, or toy
drives are happening here because of Christmas and we're out
there coming. You have to have that balance this show,
(11:50):
like hey, it's not just bad here. And then we
also asked the hard questions. I can remember getting in
front of the superintendent and saying, you know, what's happening,
what do you what is the what are what are
the reasons for so much violence? Uh? When you talk
to parments, what our parents saying, and getting those hard
answered questions, in those hard questions answered, it's very key
(12:11):
because people need to understand that yes, this is a
south side it's a west side situation, and all this
stuff has happened, but it's affecting all of us. And
as you see the past couple of weeks, we've seen
a lot of this violence happening downtown. I talked to
a mother of a child was shot downtown last week,
thirteen years old, downtown, hanging with her sister and gets
(12:35):
shot because of all this violence that's happening here. And
she's just like, I don't know what to say, but
parents need to figure out what's going on with their kids.
Know where your child is at, what your child is doing. Like,
this is a community issue. You know, back back when
you were young, if you got in trouble, you probably
(12:55):
get in trouble at school. Somebody, a parent, let's talk
to you and say something to you. Now, the community
has scared of these kids. These kids are running the
blocks in the streets. And it's not like they're seventeen
and eighteen years old. We're talking about ten year olds
that are out here carjacking people. Tend eleven. You're so
far away from getting the driver's license, but you're out
(13:17):
here doing that is ridiculous to me. So so len,
let's let's pivot, uh for a moment, and let's talk
about the industry where social media is so prominent and awful.
Lot of people look to social media to sort of
get their news. How do you guys sort of navigating
(13:38):
that world where you're competing with meta slash Facebook and
then which has so many reporters that are not qualified reporters.
How do you guys sort of you know, navigate through
that landscape of news that is being reported via individuals
(13:59):
and other outlets do social media versus what you do
on a day to day basis. I'll say this. When
I started as an intern in Chicago back in two
thousand and eleven, I had just got a Twitter handle.
People didn't know what was going on with Twitter. It
was like, yeah, just get a Twitter handle and just
had it. Um. Now that is the main way that
(14:24):
I connect viewers. That's Twitter all morning. I don't have
people telling me, oh, man, I love the turtleneck that
you have, what I love this time, or that's a
crazy story where you said this thing wrong, or that's
not how you pronounced that that city and people love
to interact. That's the way that we use social media
is to interact with people and let people see that
(14:45):
we're real humans just like you are. We just cover
the So a lot of people love to see my dog,
so my Instagram is full of my dog, pictures of
my dog and things like that. But people connect and
know you. So when I'm out in the street, people
will take pictures, put it on Twitter, tag me and
things like that. It's all about connecting with people and
showing that you care. Now it's not just let me
(15:07):
get in front of this camera, tell you the news
and then that's the end of it. Now we have
to connect with you. I have some people that I
talked to every single day, and then it is probably
one of my friends, but it's just a social media friend.
I wouldn't know about saw face to face, but I
talked to them every single day. It's the craziest thing ever,
But that's where we are with technology right now. People
(15:27):
want news and they want a fast and quick an instant.
So like, if I'm covering a breaking news story something happened,
I'm gonna put a couple of pictures up on social media.
People will interact with their ill interact. Somebody may say, hey,
I know we'll injured to that. I'll get a story
from that person there. It's been a lot of times
where someone has sent me messages saying I know that
you were covering this, that was my cousin, or I
(15:49):
know somebody that was there and I get connected and
get the full story from someone that was involved in
the situation. And and Glenn, would you still say that
in one and beyond uh, Journalism, especially broadcast journalism, is
a viable career for African Americans. I think right now,
(16:12):
post post this has been one of those moments where
African Americans have been able to shine when it comes
to covering news. Everything that we went through in What's
Hard on Black People is you cannot deny that a
lot of stations has used that to push black people
(16:36):
to the forefront and covering news. You will look across
the country and see more black anchors, more black reporters,
Whereas when I was starting off, I was the only
black reporter at the station. Now you want to see
maybe there's two or three there. And I was in Atlanta,
My team was predominantly black, even those you know, Atlantis
a black community. Do you even look here in Chicago
(16:57):
for a while you didn't see so many black anchor
It's that every single morning show in Chicago has a
black anchor. The CBS stage has two black anchors, which
is amazing. Your main anchors are two blacks, and I
think that is a powerful um is that that those
(17:18):
things are really really good now. The money is not
what it used to be. I'll be honest with you,
the money is not They're not throwing the dollars like
they used to throw because you're competing with so many
different avenues to get your news. Like you were just
we were just talking about social media and things like that.
But it's still a viable career because we need our
(17:41):
people to tell our stories. It's just different ways that
you can do it now. Like TV can be yes,
working for a local news station. TV can also be
going to YouTube and different things like that, doing video podcasts,
whatever it may be. Covering what it is that you
desire to cover is so many from avenues out there
that you could do it, but we still need us
(18:03):
to cover those stories. So so to that point, Glenn Uh,
think back to uh your early years in college as
a freshman and sophomore. What advice would you have for
young people of color right now who maybe majoring in
journalism or thinking about changing them major to journalists. What
(18:27):
advice would you have for those people? I would honestly
tell anyone that's looking to get into journalism, to keep
them a humble mindset, to drink big and don't give
up when someone tells you that you're not good enough. Um,
you're gonna hear a lot of that happened in your career,
(18:47):
whatever it may be. Even in the classroom. I was
blessed up where I never taken the journalism class. My
degree was just strictly in production. I did uh communications
if this is a media production, So I learned how
to film and do all these different things. Um. But
I would also look at the journalism classes and I
would see how they will fight just to get those
(19:08):
opportunities to do TV and things like that. Me never
taking a journalism class. I'm a reporter at the number
one station, number one morning show in Chicago, never taking
the journalism class. These are things that you learn as
you go. Your career will progress as you go. This
is not no one way and this is how you're
(19:30):
gonna get there, because a lot of times you will
hear like you have to do this, this and this.
That's not the key. That's not the key to your success.
I had a job where I went to a small
market and then I jumped to a big market after
being fired. Somebody may be in a small market and
two or three small markets and then finally get to
a medium sized market. Somebody may start in a large market.
(19:52):
You just never know, but there's like no one way.
So you have to be persistent, stay humble, and dream
big and just o for yours And also the other
thing that I would tell someone to do and start
networking right now. Find people that you see that you
you feel like are good at what they do and
follow them. Uh, reach out to them. If they don't respond,
(20:14):
that's okay, but you still enjoy their work, you know,
studying them, imitate them, emulate them for a little while,
and the Indians begin to build yourself so that you
will know at least something going in. Like I had
a mentor here in Chicago. I worked at the station
here as a producer. I worked Monday through Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday. I was with this guy in a live
(20:34):
truck covering stories with them. When he would do the interviews,
I'm standing right next to them when he's writing his story.
I'm pulling out my laptop righting my story as well.
He'll look at my stuff and tell me this is
what you need to change is what you did good.
It's how you can make it better. That's how I
learned how to be a reported shadow. We'll be right
(20:55):
back with more of my interview after this quick. Yeah,
so Glenn were here. The waymaker community believes that every
successful person has had one of the more waymakers. Tell
us about some of the waymakers that have intentionally impacted
(21:18):
your journey. Oh, man, I'll give you. I can give
you so many I'll give you too, because we don't
want to take your too much of your time. But
in high school, I had my best friend at the time.
His big brother was named Sean Long. He's a program
director for a local station here UH in Chicago, and
(21:39):
I was telling him how I wanted to, you know,
go into go into acting. He was like, definitely do it,
go forward. I'm telling how my parents didn't want me
to get to the degree. He was like, you could
still do it in college, just do it in your
free time. Um. And then when I also told him
about the opportunities with the TV news, he allowed me
to receive access to UH differently cool that's in the
(22:00):
journalists and feels that's in the media. At the broadcast Fielding.
He opened up those stores to show me that yes, you,
as a black kid from the South suburbs, can make
this happen and make something happen for yourself. So that's
one person. Then the other person I would say is uh,
he's the reporter at NBC Chicago's name is Christian far
I was just telling you how Monday through Friday, I
would work as a producer, work on that assignment desk,
(22:23):
and then on the weekends I would literally be in
a live truck with him, following him, doing stories with him.
And then that continues even til now, like I don't
have to look over certain scripts and things like that
that I'm doing, even though we're at competitive stations. I
was like, bro, I just want to know, like does
this make sense? Can you look at this story and
tell me I do anything wrong? And just having those
(22:43):
type of people there that just vacue and support you NonStop,
and it even goes beyond journalism, just like having a
big brother to talk about different things that's going on
in life, like hey man, I'm dealing with this. I've
been there, don't worry you're even Like when I was
broken in spring for the Illinois here man, here's some
money that you put this in your account and send
you a couple of hundreds so you can put some
(23:05):
food in your refrigerator or help you take your deals.
Those type of people are very beneficial to your life, man.
And they were the way makers because they paved the
way for me. And that's still pushing so a lot
of people. Glenn asked me, uh to be there mentor,
and and I said, you can't pick a mentor. A
(23:26):
mentor picks a mentee. What suggestions do you have for
people who are setting themselves up to be a mentee?
I think the one thing that you have to be
ready to do is, like I said this earlier, to
be humble. I think this generation that we're seeing that's
(23:47):
coming up, believe me, they're not humble. And they think
that they're always right. Uh. They think that they had
everything together. Uh, and realize now all the fact that
you're gonna receive, it's not gonna be positive, but it's
all going to be beneficial tours making you something greater. Um.
(24:08):
You have to be willing to receive that. And you
have to be willing to have some doors close them
because everybody's not gonna want to be your mentor. I
tell this story all the time because it's so funny.
Christian Partner got it. I just praised so much. I
wanted him to be my mentor so bad because he
was one of the only black men at the station
that I actually saw. He was one of the younger guys.
(24:30):
Christal Wi blew me off almost every single day and say, hey,
can I go shadow you? No, man, I'm just oh,
he just walk right past me. But you have to
stay persistent with these people because when somebody sees that
you really care about learning and growing, they see that
they see the potential in you, and they don't want
to support you. So some people think like they don't
have time, But if they're willing to make time for you,
(24:52):
you gotta make it worth their while. And so that's
how you have to think. You have to keep that mindset,
just like that with the finding these men towards so
so so let me let me ask you this, glam
what's the toughest feedback that you've ever gotten? But you
had to execute on it? But you just really didn't
like the feedback? Uh? In Boston, I had my news
(25:16):
director tell me it was like, you're not ready for Boston.
You shouldn't have been hired yet. You need to go
to some small market in New York and then come
back to me. And that's what I told you back.
That's oh yeah. But the thing is I knew that
I was ready for Boston. It was like, you just
didn't want me here because he didn't hire me. I
(25:36):
was hired before he got there. And it's crazy how
things work, like this was how God works. He said
all of that to me. Two months later, he had
to resign my contract because the company was like, we
want him, do not mess that up with him. And
I had someone from the head of the company called
me and apologize to me about that. So like, when
(26:00):
you get that type of feedback, don't internalize it, take
it for what it is and keep moving. Um. I
didn't allow it to stop me. Yeah, it hurt. It
was painful because this is the person that should be
supporting you, just the leader of the news room, and
it basically telling you you suck. It's like, man, that
that that's that's painful. I called all my mentors. I
(26:23):
was like, yo, I'm ready to quit. Better not you
better not quit. You have people that will do that
and sometimes people will do that intentionally just to see
how you respond, See how you react? Are you weak?
Can you handle it? I'll never be someone like that.
I will just tell you this straight up truth behind something.
(26:43):
But some people like to to feed off of that energy.
H and you let them. Just let them have that moment,
but just continue to do what you have to do
to make to prove them wrong. So so glad that's you.
That's you. Look forward, you know, talk about some of
the things you're hoping to do as you sort of
because you're still young in your career. Uh, what are
(27:06):
some of the things you're hoping to do as you
look forward? You know? Honestly, I've in my career, I
have done basically everything that I wanted to do. The
only thing that I have not done is actually anchored
a full show. Uh, but I really don't have it
as hired to be an anchor. I love being in
the community talking to people, uh and connecting with people.
(27:29):
I think the one thing and one of my goals
that I have for being here in Chicago is to
create something that will have an impact beyond journalism. Um.
I see that there's a need for our kids so
much and I'm still trying to figure out what it
is that I can do to do that. But like,
once you get to this stage or your career, by
(27:51):
this time, you should have done everything that it is
that you want to do, So you have to look
beyond this um. And that's for me just impacting the community.
I always said since I got into journalism, I want
to make an impact in the community, and from Springfield
Boston even in the lasts I've done that and I'm
trying to figure out how I can do that here
(28:12):
in Chicago. So, Glenn, you do morning news. What time
do you have to get up? So I wake up
at twelve forty five in the morning Monday through Thursday,
twelve forty five. Now I wasn't expecting that answer, Glenn.
I was thinking, like three, three thirty, yes, sir, Because
(28:32):
we started we start at two o'clock in the morning.
My first show is at four o'clock in the morning.
So how did you train yourself to be able? What
time do you go to bed? So I'm supposed to
be in a bid at six thirty in the evening,
six thirty games and it's it's hard in the summertime
(28:54):
because the sun is bright and shot are. But in
the weird time, it's a little easier because it's dark outside.
But I usually tend to get in a bed between
seven thirty eight o'clock, but I'm supposed to being there
at six thirty. But but but how do you train
your body to do that? How do you train and
how do you manage your lifestyle to do that? So
(29:18):
my friends they know, like after six o'clock, don't call
my phone because I'm not answering unless it's important. I'll
text and things like that. But your body, your body's
gonna tell you you need to rest because waking up
at twelve forty five in the morning and trying to
get through a whole shift and be on. Because this
isn't like I'm behind the computer at twelve forty five
(29:40):
or like two o'clock in the morning. I'm up in
front of a camera at four o'clock for four thirty five, six, seven,
and eight o'clock in the morning. I literally watched the
sun rocks every single morning. So you have to be on.
You can't. You can't look sleeking on TV because people
would tell you all the time. I have people like
man letting them back to your eyes, get me sleep.
(30:01):
So your your body's gonna tell you like, hey, you
need to rest. I come home after work, I'll take
the dog out to the dog park, maybe try to
get a workout in, and the summertime, I would run.
After that, I hopped in the shower and I go
straight to bed, take a nice two hour nap. I
wake up that It gives me maybe three or four
hours to just chill and relaxed, and my body's like,
(30:22):
go back to sleep. It's time you're tired. So it
was just tough. I think the latest I've stayed up
was ten o'clock and uh ten o'clock at night, and
I had to turn around to be up at twelve
forty five. And my body was like, don't you ever
do this every game? So what time do you arrive
at the station? You get up at twelve to be
(30:42):
at the station at what time? So the good thing
is during this pandemic, we have not then going to
the station unless you're working inside studio. I literally drive
from my house to my stories. So um, at two
o'clock we have on and they called what we figure
out what story we're gonna do, and then from there
(31:03):
I get the information location addressed and fifteen minutes after that,
I will go ahead on and drive to my story
and I'm there for the rest of the day. Wow. Man,
that's tough. Yeah, it's it's a lot. It's a lot,
(31:23):
but your body gets used to it. Like on Thursdays,
that's my Friday night. So my friends like, all right,
we're going out. I say, hey, if I don't get
at least a three hour and now you're not gonna
see you. And Glenn, how long have you been doing
this shift? Um? So I did the shift in Atlanta too,
so it's quite all about two years. Two years. Yeah,
(31:44):
I did this shift in Atlanta. In Atlanta, it was
a little later. I started working at three thirty instead
of two am, so I would wake up at one
forty five then. But here's so okay, all right, yeah,
well Glenn, this has been absolutely amazing uh for you
(32:05):
to share your journey with the Waymaker audience. Uh. We
appreciate everything you do. Uh. We like seeing people who
look like us and return on the news. Uh. So,
thank you for your commitment, thank you for your stories,
thank you for your storytelling. Thank you
Host
Louis Carr
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.