Why The Legacy of The Late Show Must Be Preserved and One Leg up On News With Luxxle 7-19-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here's your host, Alex Garret.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
All right, Well, before I get to my interview with
Luxel and Molly Koch, the communications director of Luxel, I
want to get to the story for me of the week,
which is which is that Stephen Colbert and the Late
Show with Stephen Colbert is being canceled after May six.

(00:31):
Why does this matter to me? Because the Late Show
itself is a brand, no matter who's in that chair,
and Stephen Colbert this week and announcing its cancelation also
made this glaring announcement.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Oh hey everybody, we got a great show for you tonight.
Senator Adam Schiff was my guest. We harmonized on seven
Bridges Road. What a voice, I cried. But before we
start the show, I want to let you know something
that I found out just last night. Next year will
be our last season. The network will be ending the
Late Show in May. And yeah, I share your feelings.

(01:19):
It's not just the end of our show, but it's
the end of the Late Show on CBS. I'm not
being replaced, this is all just going away. And I
do want to say I do want to say that
the folks at CBS have been great partners. I'm so
grateful to the Tiffany Network for giving me this chair
and this beautiful theater to call home. And of course

(01:41):
I'm grateful to you the audience who have joined.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Us every night in here, out there, all around the world,
and Missus America and all the ships at sea.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
I'm grateful to share the stage with this band, these
artists over here every night. And I am extraordinarily deeply
grateful to the two hundred people who work here. We
get to do this show. We get to do this
show for each other every day, all day. And I've

(02:20):
had the pleasure and the responsibility of sharing what we
do every day with you in front of this camera
for the last ten years. And let me tell you,
it is a fantastic job. I wish somebody else was
getting it.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
So the Late Show as a brand for a paramount
will be no more for CBS, will be no more.
What about the work of David Letterman to build up
that show for like forty years up until twenty fifteen.
And what about the man before Letterman whose name is
on that theater, Ed Sullivan, who built up the nightly

(02:53):
show audience and built up CBS's talk show format with
the Ed Sullivan Show. Oh what about continuing that legacy?
Why end it completely after Stephen Colbert, who, by the way,
I thought, handled this announcement much more gracefully than he
did the settlement with paramount and Trump. Why would you

(03:16):
go after your own parent company, Stephen Colbert, that was
your downfall. Everybody's now blaming Trump. And don't get me
started about the nine billion or so cut to NPR
and outlets like CBS. I mean, look, the defunding of
media is dangerous. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
But this is totally separate.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Because Stephen Colbert took it about himself to criticize heavily
his bosses settlement with President Trump over the sixty minutes
ended Kamala Harris interview. That has nothing to do with
Trump himself. It has to do with Colbert criticizing that
settlement and two days later they cancel him. That doesn't

(04:05):
surprise me. But don't blame President Trump. Blame Colbert for
calling out his parent company in a forceful way that
I would not have advised if I was Colbert's producer
on that Monday night. Two days later, after that criticism,
he's announcing the cancelation of the show, and not just
his show, but the Late Show as a brand. Why

(04:31):
the Late Show is a legacy, is a staple of
American television. And I really wonder what's going through David
Letterman's head as ten years ago he handed it off
to Colbert. Now ten years later it's announced, oh, brand,
the Late Show is canceled. I don't know. Colbert got
my mom and I and so many through that pandemic.

(04:52):
He was so chilled out during the pandemic and rather
entertaining to watch not the political stick we usually get,
but just a really inviting, a really welcoming show every
night during that pandemic. Made you feel less alone, if
you will that. When he got back on the stage,
it was politics again and again. And I admire his
enjoyment and his following of politics. I think that's so

(05:14):
important for late shows to also cover and make comedy
of at times. But to the extent he did, he
did to go overboard with all of that.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
I will say that.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I will say that, but because of his slant against Trump,
I would say he was a very biased talk show host.
He was not always criticizing the Democrats, although during the
Biding years he did throw on the Biden shades and
impersonate him. That was pretty damn funny if you ask me,
But sometimes it was too far biased. And that's where

(05:48):
I want to segue, because comedy or not, whenever you're
talking news and you have a slant, I always point
people to Luxel because they have no slant. In fact,
they show both sides of the story. And that's why
I want Tom Molly Koch back on to give us
both sides of the recent passing of the Big Beautiful

(06:09):
Bill and what Luxel is curating when it comes to
the Texas floods and so much more. And we mean
to Molly's career as a journalist, but see Luxel, unlike
Colbert and other late night hosts, never give you both
sides of the story. But Luxel does, and that's why
they have one leg up on the news cycle every

(06:31):
damn day. Mollie, thanks for joining once again.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
Exactly, Alex, it's so great to be back with you
here on your podcast. And you know, whether we're talking
about the Bill or we're talking about the flooding, it's
really no different in the way that Luxel handles these
big news stories. And it's what sets Luxel apart. And
so if you're looking for information on either of these
stories or any big news story, what you're going to

(06:55):
find on Luxel is just far more access to information
than you'll find anywhere else, and you're going to find
it from a variety of perspectives. It's not like if
you search for a big news story, you're only going
to get these five sources, which we know is you
know generally the case on the bigger search engines like Google.
On Luxel, you're going to get a variety of political leanings,

(07:16):
political perspectives, and also a variety of size in publications.
So you know your reason and your town hall are
going and your Salem media publications are going to be
right up there in our top story section with a
CNN or a Fox News or a NEWSMAX or an ABC.

Speaker 6 (07:33):
Talk about the how you guys source these stories, I mean,
do they email you guys then you just put it
up or how does the search engines work?

Speaker 5 (07:39):
No, So we're a search engine, so we're constantly crawling
the Internet. Our system is set up to constantly crawl
the Internet for the information. And so one of the
things that's really great about Luxel is we are a
fully full featured search engine, and so it's not like
it's it's just this small operation and we're getting these
news stories days later. That's not the case at all.
So as soon as these news stories are going up
and they're coming, they're coming into Luxel and you can

(08:01):
access them there. You just can access a lot a
much larger variety.

Speaker 6 (08:06):
Since we last talk, has there been a more of
a movement for Luxel? Are they getting more people to
migrate over?

Speaker 5 (08:12):
So what we find with Luxel is every time that
we go on whether it's your podcast or we're mentioned
in an article, that means that people are learning about Luxel,
often for the first time. Right Because what we know
is that Google owns ninety percent of the market share
in search, and so most people are still using Google.
That doesn't necessarily mean that they're all happy with their experience.

(08:34):
They don't know that there are other better options like
Luxel out there. And so what we find is that
every single time that we are in a different publication
or on a podcast and gain exposure or user numbers
shoot up and they don't go back down. So people
come to Luxel when they learn about us, and they
don't leave, and we're happy about that.

Speaker 6 (08:52):
I love the last time when you had shown me
the screen of how it works. You have the sort
of the conservative view than the liberal view. Is there
pre and are you finding is LuxI find people leaning
on the conservative side the liberal side of the news.

Speaker 5 (09:05):
You know, that's a good question one that I would
have to look into a little bit. But one of
the things that luxhil really does really well is protect
our users' privacy, and so we do not track our users,
we do not sell their data, and so we're not
super interested in every little thing that someone is searching
so that we can monetize that. In fact, we take

(09:25):
it a step further and encourage people to use a
privacy conscious browser and a VPN because we want people
to have an incredible search experience and we don't want
to interfere that in any way.

Speaker 6 (09:36):
Now, when it comes to these big stories, are you finding,
people reach out to say, hey, thank god you guys
are there, because now I get the whole picture.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Have you gotten testimonials on that?

Speaker 5 (09:44):
Yeah, we do. We get it all the time on
social media. People are just so excited once they learn
that luxil exists, and once they get to play around
with our lenses feature, which for any of your listeners
who don't know, we should back up a little bit
and just kind of explain that. So one of the
defining features of luxel what sets us apart really is
the fact that we have sorting in a filtering tool

(10:05):
called lenses, and so you can decide you can say, hey,
I only want to view results from sources that lean
right or results from sources that lead left. You also
can have an even mix, and then from there you
can decide how you want to sort them, so it's
with our algorithm alphabetically or by freshness. What this does
is it gives the user so much more control over

(10:25):
their results to eliminate that search engine bias.

Speaker 6 (10:28):
Wow, that's a lot, And I love the lenses feature
and I've actually installed it on a couple of my
computer so I've been utilizing Luxule even more since we
last talked. You know, Molly, I have to say, why is.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
I mean, big beautiful bill on it. It's out, but
why is the flooding getting puloseed sized? From your personal opinion,
that's ridiculous to me that this.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Has become like a political thing. Not trying to help
human beings here.

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Sure, I mean I think that it's twenty twenty five
and everything is going to become a political story, you know,
So it's difficult to say exactly how we got here,
how we got to this climate. But the guarantee that
we can give you from Luxel is that Luxel is
not going to interfere at all, and so we're not
going to take a stance on any of these stories
or anything that you're seeing in the news, which is

(11:14):
what you want from your search engine. You don't want
your search engine to tell you how to think. You
want your search engine to give you access to as
much information as possible and then respect your right to
independent thought. And that's what we do at Luxel. So
it doesn't matter what the story is, We're not going
to get involved.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
Well, I think a lot of years perked up when
Google started to hide a lot of stories, and I
know lux was to do that, but is that what
an impetus was for you guys to start up because
you saw Google was hiding stories and not giving you
the full picture.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
You know, Really it was we had a group of
tech entrepreneurs who wanted to bring a fresh perspective to search,
and so you know, when search engines first came out,
it was this new innovative thing. There hasn't been that
much positive innovation in years, and so our founders wanted
to change that, and they definitely have.

Speaker 6 (11:57):
I love that luxel as an emotional component too, because
I feel like in a time of craziness, people just
breathe and try and find both sides through luck. So
it can help with the trip, the trauma, or the
emotional state of mind that goes into all of these
news stories exactly.

Speaker 5 (12:11):
You know, if you say I lean in one direction
and you only want to read news stories from outlets
that also are aligned with those views, you can do that.
But it also provides a really great tool and a
very easy way to say, hey, these are my thoughts.
I'm curious to know what the other side thinks or
I heard that the other side thinks this, but I

(12:32):
don't understand how they could ever think that. This is
a great way to help you navigate through all of
that information very easily.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Molly.

Speaker 6 (12:40):
Since we last talked, I know that you've kind of
grown in within the role as the comms person there
are you finding yourself on different shows even more since
we last sure.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
So you know, what's one thing that's been very interesting
is just in the last couple of months, there have
been so so many crazy news stories that have really
dominated the headlines. And so we're trying to bring Luxel
back into the forefront of the news cycle because we
know that once people learn about Luxel, they love it,
they don't switch back. We've already talked about that, but

(13:11):
it's getting the word out is really our biggest challenge
getting people to like Luxel that I don't have to
do anything there. Once people check it out, they're like,
I'm not going back to the other one. But it's
just it's just making sure that people know about us.
It's definitely our biggest challenge.

Speaker 6 (13:26):
And now, can my listeners help you get on the
map more if you will? Is it sharing the show?
Is it subscribing more? Is it just putting Luxel on
the as an extension?

Speaker 1 (13:34):
What is it exactly?

Speaker 5 (13:35):
Yeah, so we do have a browser extension. We also
have an app, so you're we would love it if
people would, you know, download the browser extension, download the app,
just to have the best user experience possible and then
also just you know, share us on social media, Share
this show you know, tweet at us, share us on
social on different social platforms. We also have Facebook and LinkedIn,

(13:56):
and so just help spread the words. Spread the word
to your friends. If you're out at a barbecue, you
you know, say and someone says, oh, let me google this,
correct them and remind them that Google is not a
verb and that there are better ways to search.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
Well, I love that Google is not a verb, all right,
you know, I don't know, we talked about this last time.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
But the AI component to all this. Everybody seems to
be relying on AI.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
And does AI play a role or is it all
natural for you guys?

Speaker 1 (14:24):
No?

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Yeah, So we are working on developing a couple of
different new AI features. We have some out already and
that is in development, and I can't say a ton
on it right now, but I can promise you that
when I do have more news about our AI to announce,
we absolutely can come back. But what you can understand

(14:47):
right now about Luxel and AI is that already on
our site, within our AI, you have the option to
add lenses to AI, and so we're working to eliminate
bias in AI already, and some of our new AI
developments will be able to announce later on this summer.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
How do you guys do this without requiring a subscription
to Luxel to be part of the club of people?
How do you make sure everybody's involved without you charging?

Speaker 5 (15:14):
So Luxel makes money off of clicked ads, and right
now we are partially privately funded and working on around
of fundraising.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
And when investors come, I'm sure it's a moment of celebration,
isn't it. Yeah?

Speaker 5 (15:27):
Yeah, And you know, like the everyone when they see
Luxel for the first time, they're excited because when was
the last time that you felt like, hey, this is
truly innovative in the search engine industry.

Speaker 6 (15:38):
Tell me about that part, like why are people investing?
And I feel like there's the same reason people aren't consuming,
because Luxel has on mission that both buyers and consumers
are looking into right now.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
Sure, so people are ready for change, and so when
we're talking about our users, they're so excited when they
learn that there's a better option out there, because I
think a lot of people are unhappy with the search
engines that they know about to use, whether that is
for issues of bias, issues of privacy, or just the
general results that they're getting. And so when people learn

(16:10):
that there actually is a full featured search engine that
can do what is going what the other search engines
are doing, but so much better and so much more,
with so many more customization options and control, they just
get really excited about it.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
All. Right, let me ask you this, because.

Speaker 6 (16:28):
I do feel like everybody can have a news feature, right,
But how do you guys stay current? How do you
make sure the news that people are getting are almost
to the minute, if you will?

Speaker 5 (16:37):
Sure? So, our systems are just really good, So they're
constantly out there calling the Internet for all of the
latest and update date information. We have our own search index,
and so there's a.

Speaker 6 (16:47):
Ranking system, right, And I'm saying, last time I saw
one two three four five, is that still a thing
on luxul or what is?

Speaker 5 (16:52):
So it's not one two three four five, But what
it is is when there's a big news story that
would prompt lenses. Right, So, if you search tacos near me,
you're not going to get the split of right leaning
and left leaning sources because you're just looking for tacos, right,
But if you're searching for a big news story, you'll
see in the top story section there is an even
split of typically three sources from left leaning publications, three

(17:14):
sources from right leaning publications in our top story section,
and then from there they alternate a right leaning source,
a left leaning source, a right leaning source, and a
left leading source, showing that we're not giving preference to
any side here.

Speaker 6 (17:26):
And that's also behind the scenes, because I know you
mentioned that the people that start this aren't exactly a
conservative either, tired of the mainstream. They're just people that
want to make a difference. And yes they have to
be democrat also.

Speaker 5 (17:37):
So here's the thing, and I love this about Luxel.
I don't know what the political leanings are of the
folks who have started Luxel, and that is how we
should keep things. When it comes to your search engine.
You shouldn't want you shouldn't be able to sense a
political leaning from your search engine. To make this clear,

(17:58):
Luxel is not a conservative search engine. We are not
a liberal search engine. We are strictly neutral, and that's
exactly how you should want it. You shouldn't want any
sort of interference in that way.

Speaker 6 (18:07):
You know, when my first talk, I feel like it
was still like not an upcoming thing, but it was
still really and it's infancy. Have you seen in those
few months it turned from infancy to toddler if you will?

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Like real growth here.

Speaker 5 (18:18):
We're definitely seeing consistent growth, which we're happy about. But
the biggest way for us to grow is just to
get the word out. So we so appreciate you having
me on to I could talk about Luxel all day.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Can people email, you know, people at lux will saying hey,
I got this story, can you put it up there?

Speaker 1 (18:32):
How does that work? Or does that work the moment?

Speaker 5 (18:35):
So our systems are actually out crawling calling the web,
so it's they're coming in automatically through ours.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
And I guess if you Google, if you Luxel, sorry,
if you lux of someone, their name will pop up
and show every story or how does that work if
you look for a certain columnists and all that.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Yeah, so that is one thing that you know, especially
smaller publications, we've heard from different writers and different journalists
that they can't find their stories on Google. Well, they
don't run into that issue on luxeil. If you look
for a story that you know you wrote, you generally
know the headline or the topic, and then you search
your name, it's much easier to find it. On Loxil

(19:13):
than it would be on Google.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
And I appreciate the shadow of sale in media because
I feel like they're ones that do get buried on
the mainstream world, you know, so thank god they can
find our columns there.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
Yeah, it's really easy to find sale and media content
on luxel.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
And that that is awesome. Well, since we last off,
anything you wanted to add, since we last.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Chated, I feel like we left it all at a
point where we got to just keep building this right.

Speaker 5 (19:34):
Yeah. Yeah, you know, we do have some exciting announcements
coming hopefully at the end of the summer, and so
we'll keep you posted on those. But you know, I
think one thing that I'd just like to also talk
about is, you know, Luxeil is not just a search
engine for news content. News content. The way that we
handle news content is really what sets us apart. But
we also do a great job with like if you're

(19:59):
looking for a new restaurant, or you're looking for just
general web content or information about a historical event, it's
really easy to find an access information on loxel. We
also make it really easy to navigate different video options.
So let's say you're searching for videos of a game
that you really like to play. On our video tab,
we will break it out into different video platforms. So

(20:21):
maybe you could find those videos on Rumble, or you
could find those videos on YouTube, and there are a
couple of different options as well, and so it's just
a lot easier to sort it and navigate that content.

Speaker 6 (20:34):
Are you shocked by the censorship that does go on
by these different websites I claim to be for the people,
It is shocking.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
I mean YouTube also sensors as well.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
Sure, I mean it's tough to say. You know what
shocks me. I was a journalist for ten years. Not
a whole lot really shocks me. But it is just
so refreshing to see a search engine like loxel taking
this approach of unbiased and giving our users greater access

(21:03):
to information so that they can make their own decisions.
It's just incredibly refreshing because there's not another search engine
out there doing anything like this.

Speaker 6 (21:11):
And I remember now where we want to pick out
about your journalism, Kirk, because we barely covered that last time.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
So how did you go from journalism?

Speaker 6 (21:17):
And I know you talked about how you wished you
had luck, so when you were a journalist. But how
did you go from that world to where you are now?

Speaker 5 (21:24):
Yeah? So I was in news for almost a decade.
I started off I was a writer at a station
in Boston, and then I moved to the ABC affiliate
WAOW in central Wisconsin. Was there for four years as
a reporter and then an anchor, and then I moved
to WHIO, the CBS affiliate in Dayton, Ohio. Started off
as a reporter and then moved to like a fifty
to fifty split reporting and anchoring. And I loved news.

(21:46):
I loved being a journalist so much. I loved sharing information,
I loved storytelling, I loved investigative work, and I loved writing.
And so what I didn't love, though, is working nights
and sometimes weekends and most holidays. So I was so
lucky when I decided to leave news that I found

(22:06):
a company to work for that has a lot of
the same journalistic values that I held true to. So,
you know, remaining unbiased, presenting all sides of a story,
and letting people make their own decisions and have their
own thoughts without search engine influence.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
There's the journalism today.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
And I know I knock every journalist I do believe
in journalists, you know, but the idea of journalism does
seem to be swaying a certain way. Does that ever
make you want to roll your sleeves back up and say,
I'm going to go back into this fielding correct what
I'm seeing.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
Is wrong here, you know, not not correct what I'm
seeing is wrong, or anything like that. Sometimes I do,
you know, miss you know, being on a beat cracking
open a big story. I miss some of that excitement
and things like that. But I also get to be
part of a company that has really consistent, exciting new
developments to discuss. And so while I'm not telling stories

(22:56):
about city commissions and fires and you know, sometimes a
big high school sports victory, I am telling really exciting
stories about all the exciting developments at Luxel And so it's,
you know, been a great transition for me.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
We've lost the art of local news. I feel like,
though it's not as revered as.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
It used to be, I don't think that we've lost
the art of local news. I think that people aren't
paying attention to local news as much as they should.
I have a lot of friends who are still in
the industry, incredibly incredibly talented journalists who really care about
their local communities and what it is that they're doing
and what's going on locally in your community has such

(23:37):
a huge impact on your day to day life, and
I think people often forget that and forget that local
news exists when they really should be paying much much
closer attention to it.

Speaker 6 (23:48):
So the journalists, journalists that are up and coming today,
what's your message?

Speaker 5 (23:51):
Then?

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Do you never talk to journalists that want to that
are aspiring journalized?

Speaker 5 (23:55):
I should say, sure, you're not going to get rich,
but you are going to have a very very fulfilling career. Also,
you're got to miss a good amount of holidays. But
then when you have a random day off on a Tuesday,
flights are a lot cheaper, which is great.

Speaker 6 (24:13):
If I may ask, when you were on the way
out of journalism, was the newsroom becoming more balanced or
was it more male dominated?

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Like how was the newsroom ratio when you when you.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Left from a male to female perspective. Yes, that's a
good question, I would say, and I think i've i
throughout my career I worked in fairly balanced newsrooms. They
my first my newsroom in Wisconsin at one point may

(24:44):
have I think probably skewed more female. But the last
newsroom I that I worked in, I would say was
probably about a fifty to fifty split. And you know,
news is still fairly traditional in the sense that often
anchor pairings are male female and so I always had
a male co anchor throughout my career.

Speaker 6 (25:05):
As you know, New York City just had its big
good Night and Good Luck run with Edwin D.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Mureau and George Cloonia that moreau. Did you watch the
special on that at all or have you followed that
whole show because it was a movie you know originally?

Speaker 5 (25:19):
No, I didn't. It's been, you know, something I probably
should be watching, but I haven't seen that one yet.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Because he's just who's the journalist you looked up to
when you were growing up.

Speaker 5 (25:29):
When I was growing up, I was a big Savannah
Guthrie fan, and honestly I still am. You know, her
ability to storytell and to grill someone in an incredibly
impactful and poignant interview one minute and then be talking

(25:49):
about a children's book that she wrote herself the next
minute is is just incredible. Yeah, She's someone I definitely
look at.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
And she also travel a lot at the Today's I mean,
she's always traveling to different places.

Speaker 5 (26:02):
Watch Yeah, you know, she bounces around everywhere. And you
know other journalists that I look up to her names,
you know, in that your New York audience might not
know so well. But you know some of the anchors
that I worked with, especially at my most recent station,
James Brown, Cheryl McHenry, Jimbodi just incredibly talented journalists who

(26:24):
are able to investigate and dig for facts and really
shape me into the journalists that I ended up becoming.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
You mentioned X And I do feel like there is
a rush for journalists to have that one leg up
to break the story.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
But they don't always break it accurately. Are you find
that too?

Speaker 6 (26:40):
Like there's this rush to be number one, and now
social media's let you post anything, so it could be
inaccurate and it makes you look bad at times.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
So good journalists will will be second to the story
if it means that they get the information right. There
were times when I wasn't first on the air with something,
and I'm okay with that because I was doing it
to guarantee accuracy. And so, just like in any industry,
right there are some journalists who are better than others,

(27:09):
and so you know, watch and read journalists and and
get a sense of you know, their accuracy and their credibility.
You know, they've got to earn your trust, so you
read their content, watch their content, and let them earn
your trust. But there are obviously some who are better
than others.

Speaker 6 (27:29):
Were you in the local did you do local news
writing as well or was it mainly in TV and
radio and.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
All that or both and and a little bit of radio, Yeah,
just just a little bit. You know, Radio I always
enjoyed because I was never in charge. When I was
doing radio. I would I would go on a couple
of evening shows, more feature style shows, and they were
always a good time, you know, but I didn't have
to pay super close attention because we were talking about

(27:58):
fun things on the news side of things, the TV side.
One thing that people, I don't think realize is that
most anchors are incredibly involved in the process, and reporters
definitely are of creating story or of writing stories. And
so when I was out in the field, I was
fully writing all of my own stories. So it's not

(28:19):
like you just go out in front of a camera
and speak on TV and that's your whole job. I
was doing the interviews, I was researching the documents, I
was putting in records requests, and then I was writing
those stories. And then while I was on the desk,
you know, I would read every script before it would
I would go on TV because I didn't want something
coming out of my mouth if I didn't understand it,
or if I didn't you know, I think that it

(28:41):
was accurate. And so there's a lot of editorial conversations
that go on in a newsroom beyond just the big,
fancy presentation on TV.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
You know, I will also say this, I often find
that local networks need the funding. I don't know if
you've had budget issues over the years when you were there,
but it is important to fund local journalism, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
It definitely is. This is, you know, something that's impacting
newsrooms all across the country. It's why you're seeing some
local newsrooms shut down. It's why you're seeing them dramatically
reduced headcount. It's why you're seeing, you know, maybe maybe
your local news is now coming out of the state
capitol instead of coming out of your hometown. And it's

(29:21):
all because of budget cuts and the different mergers and
acquisitions that have happened in the journalism world, and especially
in the TV space, but also on the print side
in the last you know, fifteen to twenty years.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
You know, the daily news.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
You look at the papers, they are very different. The
daily news a little thinner than the post. Yeah, and
that's a little sad to me because it means how
much that newsroom got impacted.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
Right right, Yeah, you know, I don't know if I've
ever worked in a newsroom that hasn't been through a
round of cuts. And it's tough because you have these journalists,
they're young, they're not making a ton of money, and
it's sort of a do more with less, so they
still have the same amount, if not more time to
fill On TV. They're being told, okay, well now you
don't have a photographer to work with, so you have

(30:03):
to shoot your own story and edit it. Or you know,
you used to do one story a day, now you're
doing three stories a day, and so it's it can
be tough. So you know, hold journalists accountable for their credibility.
If their hair looks a little off one day, cut
them some slack.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Mollie.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
When I was about tenth grade or so, or even
younger because my mom I was born and bred into journalism.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
My mom's journalists for.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
Thirty plus years. Forty plus years really, and so I've
kind of been in that vein forever. But when did
you know you want to really get into these mediums?
I knew it in tenth grade. I don't know about
you if it was that early on or what not,
but it was a nice.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
School for me.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
Okay, so not to storytop you, but I'm going to
go back a little bit earlier. I was thirteen and
I started watching Oprah after school just because you know,
Oprah was on and her ability to connect with people
and share share stories, just the way that she could
interview people. Oftentimes these were or you know, more adult
topics that were going right over my head, but her

(31:03):
ability to interview people and capture a story was something
that I just fell in love with, and so I
knew that I wanted to do that. So I studied
broadcast journalism while I was at school at Boston University,
and around my freshman year is when I started watching
the Today Show, and you know, fell in love with
the harder news angles and just took it from there.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Were you always and on how these reporters and anchors
will always just leave the desk and cover the news
in the field.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
I always find that the most interesting thing is when
you could bring your thoughts to the field and make
it happen out there too.

Speaker 5 (31:37):
Yeah, And I think what people don't realize is that
often the majority of the time, when you see an
anchor in the field, they don't have a teleprompter. They're
really really high up anchors. If they're just kind of
standing there staring at a camera and talking for thirty
minutes straight and it feels very scripted, good chance they
have a teleprompter. Your reporters who are out in the field,
they're not working with a teleprompter. And so it's an

(31:59):
incredible skill to have to be able to be live
on TV and speak in a conversational but informational and
accurate way.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
I remembering the luxel in one minute.

Speaker 6 (32:07):
Just to top all this off, but craziest story or
most intriguing adrenaline because.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Covering your story in the fields adrenaline rush. Okay, what
was the adrenaline rush moment for you? What story gave
you the most rush?

Speaker 5 (32:20):
That's a great question. That story gave me the most rush.
You know, any election night is exciting. Watching results roll in,
no matter what the results are is exciting. Knowing that
that is going to change the candidate's life and knowing

(32:41):
that it's going to have a very direct impact on
local communities was always really really exciting, all right to
say this.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
When when you see youngsters and young females come up
to hey, I saw you on TV? Is that as
the saying the meme today? Is that the point that
your inspiring others or what? What? What brought you the
most joy when you were in journalism.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
When I was in news, it wasn't about being on TV,
being recognized or anything like that. And while I did
enjoy mentorship that I was able to do for some
younger producers and some younger reporters, the thing that brought
me the most joy was how I could expose information
that would impact people in local communities and so and

(33:26):
the way that I could storytell in a way that
was impactful for people in local communities was really what
did it for me. Sometimes people go through something very
difficult and being able to share their story after the
loss of a loved one, being able to share how
a new city law is going to impact them and

(33:48):
put a human face behind you know, some of these
procedures and legislation is was really rewarding for me.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
One of the.

Speaker 6 (33:57):
Taglines that you said before, the one I got, Moniker,
was you know, making stories trend that should be trending,
meaning we got to get more highlight, more things highlight.
And I feel like you and I have that same
connection there, that same passion to get those.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Stories highlighted, like Luxel getting Luxel highlight.

Speaker 5 (34:12):
Right, It's like why is you know, sort of the
why is no one talking about this? Well, here we are,
we're talking about it. Let's get more people talking about it.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Amen.

Speaker 6 (34:20):
Well Molly to that point, I feel like, now I
understand why Luxile brought you in that you have the
journalism mindset, the instincts to make this run.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
You know, you have the news side of it, if you.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Will, yes, yes, exactly. And I love the news side
of it also, just you know, being a former new
z having a search engine that handles news content in
such a responsible and fair way is really valuable. So
really fortunate to work for such a great company. And
hope you guys all check it out and.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
I'm going to check in with you on this again.
But I asked your last time do you still google things?
Are you full on Luxel? Like do you slip at
times or what?

Speaker 5 (34:55):
No, I'm full on Luxel, but I you know, it's
always good to keep an eye the competition and so,
you know, like before this call, I looked at a
few things on Google to see how our results compare,
and it was just there was no comparison. Luxel had
just a way way bigger variety of political perspectives, sources
of all sizes. Google had well what you would expect

(35:17):
from Google.

Speaker 6 (35:18):
Which is a little disappoint because they're supposed to be
the leading yet they're not all there.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
If you will so, I would say that they are
leading in user numbers, but not leading in quality.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Now that's a catchphrase right there.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Well, Mollie, you have the great you know line sound
bites and I will share a lot of this with
my audience and in clips and all that, and then
of course the full interview you can find at all
my podcast on my blog. Thanks so much for joining me,
Molly of Luxel.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
Thanks so much for having us. Can't wait to check
back in in a couple of months.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
A man, thank you so much,