203: John Quiñones KNOWS Human Nature, the Element of Surprise & What You SHOULD Do

John Quiñones is an ABC News correspondent who reports across "20/20," "Nightline" and "Good Morning America." During his 40-year tenure at ABC News, he has reported extensively for all programs and platforms and served as anchor of "What Would You Do?" and "Primetime."

This discussion focused primarily on his work on "What Would You Do?," which just began its 17th Season on ABC.

Podcast Highlights:

• The importance of ABC's "What Would You Do?" TV show
• Shift in the public's perception of right vs. wrong
• Shift in the public's view of journalism
• John's reaction when people ignore a potentially dangerous scenario
• Teresa DeZarn and the challenges of being an actor on the show
• Security on the set
• Fresh ideas from new Executive Producer, Emmy Award-winner Joel Relampagos
• Reaching out to teachers who inspired you
• John's youth as part of a San Antonio-based farmworker family
• The beauty of Latin Culture
• What white people need to know about being Latin in America
• Response when bystanders see people like them being threatened
• What John KNOWS

Quiñones has won seven national Emmy® Awards for his work on "Primetime Live," "Burning Questions" and "20/20." He received an Emmy for his coverage of the Congo's virgin rainforest, which also won the Ark Trust Wildlife Award. In 1990, he received an Emmy for "Window in the Past," a look at the Yanomami Tribe. He received a National Emmy Award for his work on the ABC documentary "Burning Questions: The Poisoning of America," which aired in September 1988.
 
In 2024, John was honored with the Distinguished Journalist Award presented by DePaul University's Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence and became a member of the NATAS Silver Circle. In 2022, Quiñones received the Lifetime Achievement Award from MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), the country's oldest and most prominent Latino civil rights organization; was named a "Fellow of the Society" by the Society of Professional Journalists; and received the President's Award for Journalism Excellence from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. In 2021, Quiñones received the Carr Van Anda Award for his "enduring contributions to journalism" from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, as well as the "Inspire: Visionary Leadership Award" from the Anne Frank School in San Antonio for "What Would You Do?" scenarios that shined a light on antisemitism in the United States. In 2019, he received RTDNA's John F. Hogan Award for national and international reporting.
 
Quiñones was also honored with a World Hunger Media Award and a citation from the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for "To Save the Children," his 1990 report on the homeless children of Bogota. Among his other prestigious awards are the First Prize in International Reporting and the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for his piece on "Modern Slavery — Children Sugar Cane Cutters in the Dominican Republic."
 
Quiñones joined ABC News in June 1982 as a general assignment correspondent based in Miami, providing reports for "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" and other ABC News broadcasts. He was one of the few American journalists reporting from Panama City during the U.S. invasion in December 1989.
 
Before joining ABC News, he was a reporter with WBBM-TV in Chicago. He won two Emmy Awards for his 1980 reporting on the plight of migrants from Mexico. From 1975 to 1978, he was a news editor at KTRH radio in Houston, Texas. During that period, he also was an anchor/reporter for KPRC-TV.
 
Quiñones received a Bachelor of Arts in speech communications from St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas. He received a master's from the Columbia School of Journalism. Quiñones received two honorary degrees: In 2016, he received an Honorary Doctor