KAZU reporter Ngozi Cole interviewed NPR’s Weekend Edition host Ayesha Rascoe about why local journalism matters and her public radio journey.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Ngozi Cole: What drew you to public radio?
Ayesha Rascoe: During the first Trump administration, I was covering the White House for Reuters.
And I started getting asked to come on Here and Now, and some member stations started asking me to come on to talk about covering the White House. And through that I started getting a sense of public radio and what it was. And I thought it looked really cool. They (NPR) have this beautiful building in DC and the reporters asked such thoughtful questions. It just seemed like a really wonderful place.
So I got recruited to join NPR and the rest is history. I will say that once I got to NPR and really started listening to the work that is on public radio, I was like, "Oh, this is really good. I really like it, I've been missing out!"
NC: What are some of the best stories that you remember reporting for NPR?
AR: When I covered the White House, I got to travel to Vietnam for President Trump's, meeting with Kim Jong-Un, who's the leader of North Korea. Not many people get to see him. That summit in Hanoi did not end well. They didn't come up with any deal, but I was there for it, and that was pretty incredible.
And then, as a host I've gotten to do some really cool things. We did a series called The Civil Rights Generation, and I got to interview people both well known and not as well known who lived through the Civil Rights Movement. And I got to interview my mother and my uncle for that, which was really cool—being able to tell part of my family's story. And I also got to go down to Selma and talk to one of the youngest people that was on the bridge for Bloody Sunday.
NC: We try as local journalists every day to report what our communities want to hear and what they're concerned about, but what are some of the stories that you think public media could cover better or could cover more?
AR: I think that we all have to try to make sure that we are really telling very diverse stories. And when I say diverse, I'm talking about race, ethnicity, but also just about just the different layers of life, right? I'm always interested in hearing from those people in society who are often viewed as marginalized or fall through the cracks, whether it's because of mental illness or because of economic status or maybe they were incarcerated. I always want to hear those stories. And I'm not saying that NPR doesn't do it because I think we do that work, but there's always more work to be done in those places, talking to those people, and telling those stories.
NC: Definitely. And why does public radio and public media matter to our local communities?
AR: At this point in time, it's so hard to even get local news, right? Reporters are people who live in your community. They're not just parachuting in, they're not just coming in for a second. They live there. Their kids go to school where your kids go to school. They have an investment in the community, and I think that's so important as they've invested in the community.
They also need the support and the resources from the community. At NPR, the great thing about it is that we are meant to be for the public. We're meant to inform the public. That's why we were created to make for a better informed public, and hopefully as we serve the public, the public can support us.
And so I think right now, we need resources more than ever. This work cannot be done without resources. It cannot be done without funding, but I think the benefits are immense.
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition on Sunday mornings.
