Speaker 1: That's what I love about journalism, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the best thing about being a journalist now in twenties,
Speaker 1: that we recognize there are stories that have not been told,
Speaker 1: or they were told from a very different perspective that
Speaker 1: probably was wrong. We know so much of history is
Speaker 1: told from a perspective of our and not of who
Speaker 1: was there, and so I think that's really a great
Speaker 1: thing that journalists can do now. That is Nila Budo,
Speaker 1: Award winning journalists and host of Axios Today, a daily
Speaker 1: podcast that conveys the morning news in just ten minutes.
Speaker 1: The show provides insights and analysis on everything you need
Speaker 1: to know for the day, from the White House and
Speaker 1: Congress to the economy and the trends shaping our world.
Speaker 1: I'm Kim Azzarelli and this is Seneca's one hundred Women
Speaker 1: to Hear. We're bringing you one hundred of the world's
Speaker 1: most inspiring and history making women you need to hear now.
Speaker 1: Nila Boo Doo is a perfect post for a daily
Speaker 1: news podcast. She's worked as a journalist in major media
Speaker 1: markets across the US for companies like Reuters, The a P,
Speaker 1: and MPR, and most recently, she was the founding host
Speaker 1: and executive producer of the one, an award winning weekday
Speaker 1: daily news program for Illinois Public Radio. And as you'll
Speaker 1: learn from our conversation, she's an optimist and someone who
Speaker 1: understands the critical role that women journalists play and the
Speaker 1: importance of telling everyone's stories. Listen and learn why Nila
Speaker 1: Boo Do is one of Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. Nila,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: It's such an honor to be here. So you are
Speaker 1: the host of an exciting new show, axiost Today, a
Speaker 1: new daily podcast. Tell us a little bit about the podcast,
Speaker 1: it's mission and what makes it different, so Arida. Axios
Speaker 1: is famous for its smart brevity, which is the idea
Speaker 1: that journalism as we know what I think a lot
Speaker 1: of way. I think a lot of the journalism that
Speaker 1: we do is a little broken, and I think we
Speaker 1: also don't respect people's time. And that's why I was
Speaker 1: so excited to join Axios and develop a new flagship
Speaker 1: podcast for them, because I think this was a great
Speaker 1: opportunity to show that we can be smart and thoughtful
Speaker 1: and provide good analysis and not do that in half
Speaker 1: an hour, but do that in ten minutes, and so
Speaker 1: are pledged to our audience is that we if you
Speaker 1: give us ten minutes of your time in the morning,
Speaker 1: we will make you better informed about your day. And
Speaker 1: you know, when you go through sort of creating a show.
Speaker 1: One thing that we did, and I think is a
Speaker 1: very helpful thing for journalists to do, is a human
Speaker 1: centered design experience. And in my mind, the perfect user
Speaker 1: or the target user for EXIST today is what I
Speaker 1: call is zoom Mom. So she's a woman who is
Speaker 1: very See. I feel like zoom Mom is maybe like
Speaker 1: a twenty term. Yeah, next year it won't be zoom Mom,
Speaker 1: but it'll be something something else, all right, But let's
Speaker 1: be honest, it is she'll be as busy as she
Speaker 1: was this year. Um. You know, I think I think
Speaker 1: about I don't have children myself, but I have very
Speaker 1: I have a lot of friends who are moms and
Speaker 1: are juggling that. Um. I have seven nieces and nephews,
Speaker 1: so I'm very familiar with the demands that are put
Speaker 1: on women on a day to day basis. And I
Speaker 1: really designed this for women who are smart and want
Speaker 1: to be informed, but also don't have a lot of time.
Speaker 1: And I really feel like, this is our promise to
Speaker 1: the audience that we try to honor on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: which is just not wasting people's time. I love that mission.
Speaker 1: Please do that. We all need that in our lives.
Speaker 1: So you have covered the news for many many different
Speaker 1: media companies, Reuters, the ap uh, W B Easy in Chicago,
Speaker 1: the Miami Herald, Public Radio in Florida and Illinois, among others.
Speaker 1: What has working in so many markets told you about
Speaker 1: this country and about media more broadly? You know? I
Speaker 1: do think that working across the country has taught me
Speaker 1: that people value journalism in every market that I've worked in,
Speaker 1: And I do think that's a really and and maybe
Speaker 1: that I think this is something that's become more apparent
Speaker 1: and maybe more obvious in the past four years because
Speaker 1: of President Trump directly attacking journalism. I think we've seen
Speaker 1: more attacks on journalism American journalism in the past four
Speaker 1: years that we've seen in a long time in this country.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really brought to the four how
Speaker 1: important it is to have independent journalists working in the
Speaker 1: function that we play in a democracy. But I do
Speaker 1: feel like I um I grew up in Miami, I
Speaker 1: was born and raised in Miami. My first job was
Speaker 1: being a high school intern at the Miami Herald when
Speaker 1: Hurricane Andrew hit and I saw first hand there how
Speaker 1: important a newspaper could be to community in a time
Speaker 1: of a natural disaster, and that was just huge. I mean,
Speaker 1: the paper helped inform people afterwards. It was a catastrophe
Speaker 1: for South Florida, and that was sort of one of
Speaker 1: my first That really was my first experience with journalism,
Speaker 1: but in Chicago or Washington. I started a show outside
Speaker 1: of Chicago a few years ago, in Champagne or Banna.
Speaker 1: I think they're smart, curious people everywhere who are really
Speaker 1: hungry for knowledge and information. And I'm always impressed wherever
Speaker 1: I go at how curious people are and how engaged
Speaker 1: they want to be. And so I think that's just
Speaker 1: something that I always appreciate about being a journalist. Um Also,
Speaker 1: I think being in DC this year moving I moved
Speaker 1: to DC this summer, but moved back to d C
Speaker 1: for this job for Axios. I am amazed at how
Speaker 1: many people you know. Obviously I'm not leaving my home
Speaker 1: very much, but I'm surprised when people find like the
Speaker 1: few times I've gone, like, for example, to the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: when with Bader Ginsburg died, or just when I was
Speaker 1: like shopping in Ikea in a socially distance line. For
Speaker 1: a very long time, people find out your journalists, and
Speaker 1: people have actually thanked me for being a journalist, which
Speaker 1: I really appreciate, and I hope that's an attitude that
Speaker 1: continues in this country for the next four years. We
Speaker 1: need you, so that is that we're we are happy
Speaker 1: to have you, and we're happy to have you on
Speaker 1: this show. You know, from your perspective, is there something
Speaker 1: different in being a woman journalist? You talk about RBG,
Speaker 1: and of course it brings to mind everything that she's
Speaker 1: done for all of us. But why is a woman's
Speaker 1: perspective so important in journalism right now? I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's important just because for so long, and I
Speaker 1: think this is a conversation we're having, not just in
Speaker 1: journalism but across all different companies and industries about perspective
Speaker 1: and voice, right. And I think it's very clear that
Speaker 1: having a diversity of opinions and having a newsroom that
Speaker 1: reflects this country is important because people bring their lived experience, right.
Speaker 1: So I am a woman of color. Um, my parents
Speaker 1: were immigrants. I am Asian American. My parents are also
Speaker 1: West Indian, So I mean there's so many different labels
Speaker 1: that I could put on myself. But I also think
Speaker 1: what that really says is, these are the different experiences
Speaker 1: I've had and I think for so long, and I
Speaker 1: think even in my career as a journalist, a lot
Speaker 1: of times men have been in charge, and I think
Speaker 1: men bring a very clear perspective, and I think women,
Speaker 1: I mean, everyone's individuals. Everyone has their own perspective. But
Speaker 1: what I think I have become very cognizant of, especially
Speaker 1: in the past five or ten years as a journalist,
Speaker 1: is how important empathy is. And I think you're starting
Speaker 1: to hear journalists talk about this. I think is a
Speaker 1: female journalist I'm very proud of. I don't think empathy
Speaker 1: is the domain of just women, but I do think
Speaker 1: having a perspective of thinking of being respectful of the
Speaker 1: people that were interviewing. I think being a woman watching
Speaker 1: the Me Too movement made me very cognizant of power
Speaker 1: dynamics in journalism. I think when you have a microphone
Speaker 1: in front of someone, when you put a microphone in
Speaker 1: front of someone and you were on the other side
Speaker 1: of that, as journalists were an inherent position of power,
Speaker 1: and I think it's incumbent upon us to recognize that.
Speaker 1: And I think so I think those sort of when
Speaker 1: we think about when I say empathy, I think it's
Speaker 1: really important to respect people's stories. I think it's important
Speaker 1: to give people a space of note and knowing that
Speaker 1: they can trust us. And I say that recognizing that
Speaker 1: a lot of journalists have not done that, and I
Speaker 1: think that's a mistake that and that's a mistake I
Speaker 1: made also, I would say at the beginning of my
Speaker 1: career of just sort of just assuming that people would
Speaker 1: talk to you or that. I think one thing I'm
Speaker 1: really appreciative of being in public radio is just that
Speaker 1: I think gave me a real respect for people's stories
Speaker 1: and for how important someone's story is. And as I
Speaker 1: ask people to share their stories, I'm very cognizant of
Speaker 1: what it takes for them to do that. And I
Speaker 1: think at the same time it can be something that
Speaker 1: can be very cathartic and can be verying for people,
Speaker 1: but it's also something that we're asking people to do,
Speaker 1: and I think it's important that we recognize that kind
Speaker 1: of brings you back to what you were talking about
Speaker 1: having a human centric approach to designing your current show.
Speaker 1: I think that's an interesting way of thinking about journalism.
Speaker 1: I think that human centered design, like I've seen this
Speaker 1: in journalism, and I've heard people, I guess, people who
Speaker 1: are on the digital forefront, Like I think when you're
Speaker 1: thinking about digital startups in journalism, there's been so many
Speaker 1: amazing local journalism startups. I do think that's a more
Speaker 1: common thing now. I would say in the past five
Speaker 1: to ten years. It's probably not as common as it
Speaker 1: should be. And I think again, like I think again
Speaker 1: as a woman, I am thinking about the fact that, like,
Speaker 1: as journalists, journalism is not about broadcasting out the information
Speaker 1: like that's been gone for a long time, right, So
Speaker 1: we're not the arbiters of that anymore. But we can
Speaker 1: provide good information, we can amplify correct information, we can
Speaker 1: shine a light on things that other wise maybe we
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to do. And so I think that
Speaker 1: kind of like and that is in a way, like
Speaker 1: I think thinking about our end user, the audience, and
Speaker 1: I think the idea of for example, you'll see now
Speaker 1: a lot of there's a lot of jobs in journalism
Speaker 1: that are audience engagement. It has that sort of in mind,
Speaker 1: and I do think that's kind of a newer thing
Speaker 1: in journalism, but it's desperately needed. Senecas one hundred Women
Speaker 1: to Hear will be back after this short break. So
Speaker 1: let me ask you in terms of women in journalism,
Speaker 1: are there women past and present who you admire or
Speaker 1: women that maybe people don't know about that they should
Speaker 1: know about. I mean, I am very grateful for my
Speaker 1: time in Chicago because I think I learned a lot
Speaker 1: about women like Ethel Payne Um and she's like I
Speaker 1: think when you say this, like people know I T. B.
Speaker 1: Wells right, and they know that R. T. B. Wells
Speaker 1: is someone to um. Like even here in d C
Speaker 1: in the Museum of African American History, I love that,
Speaker 1: Like when you walk up the staircase, UM, there's an
Speaker 1: ID B. Wells quote about righting the wrongs, like shining
Speaker 1: the light of truth on that um. But Ethel Pain
Speaker 1: is someone she was known as the first Lady of
Speaker 1: the Black Press, and she worked for the Chicago Defender
Speaker 1: UM and worked, you know, covering wars as an African
Speaker 1: American woman. And I think that when you think about
Speaker 1: the legacy of those women and how much they risked
Speaker 1: to do their job and to tell people's stories and
Speaker 1: also to defend their own story and say that they
Speaker 1: had a right to be there. Um, I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I think we had done an episode about the journal
Speaker 1: Truth earlier this year, and it was so interesting to
Speaker 1: hear how history had kind of changed the narrative about
Speaker 1: her famous speech. And so I think what you're saying
Speaker 1: is so important, which is even being able to defend
Speaker 1: your own narrative and then taking the risk to defend
Speaker 1: other narratives that are sort of being perhaps changed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I love about journalism, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the best thing about being a journalist now in twenty twenties,
Speaker 1: that we recognize there are stories that have not been told,
Speaker 1: or they were told from a very different perspective that
Speaker 1: probably was wrong. And so like projects like the New
Speaker 1: York Times where they're going back and doing obituaries of
Speaker 1: people who were overlooked, Like, I think those are really
Speaker 1: important because we know so much of history is told
Speaker 1: from a perspective of power and not of who was there.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's really a great thing that
Speaker 1: journalists can do. Now, and I think that's something that's
Speaker 1: really important for female journalists to do as well. And
Speaker 1: that's exactly why we have the cenic Woman podcast network.
Speaker 1: It's it's to tell those stories of women's you know,
Speaker 1: amplify the voices of women who you may know and
Speaker 1: some that you may not, and some that you think
Speaker 1: you knew. So you're doing all this though in an
Speaker 1: incredibly challenging year. You're in the thick of it reporting
Speaker 1: every day. What is giving you optimism right now? Despite
Speaker 1: all that's happened in the world. It has been exhausting, right,
Speaker 1: It has been really bad here, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just been so hard, you know, I think the
Speaker 1: pandemic and when we look at I was just talking
Speaker 1: to a friend about this last week. She was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you talked about this on Axius today. But
Speaker 1: the way women have been affected by this pandemic, Like
Speaker 1: when we think about the job losses, um, we think
Speaker 1: about women who were forced to leave the workforce because
Speaker 1: of neating someone to take care of their children. UM.
Speaker 1: So I feel very fortunate to be have a job
Speaker 1: and work for a company that is very mindful of
Speaker 1: our Like we have a great company culture at Axios
Speaker 1: that is very mindful of the fact that we are
Speaker 1: working under really difficult conditions. So I think that's it's
Speaker 1: easy for me to be optimistic when I work at
Speaker 1: a place where or I know that my work is valued. Um,
Speaker 1: We're in a great our company is very healthy, and
Speaker 1: I feel like we are being told on a daily
Speaker 1: basis by my co workers or by people in charge
Speaker 1: that we are making a difference. And I think that's
Speaker 1: a for me, just from a personal standpoint, that's I'm
Speaker 1: very grateful for that. I think that partially because of
Speaker 1: that and because I am by nature an optimist, I
Speaker 1: think I'm a un usual journalist because I am like
Speaker 1: most journalists are not optimists, and I definitely have a
Speaker 1: healthy skepticism about things, but I am I always do.
Speaker 1: It's just sort of my nature to try to look
Speaker 1: for the better side of life. And I will say,
Speaker 1: even when we think about like the election and how
Speaker 1: much I mean, you could there's a lot of negative
Speaker 1: to focus on there. But I think one thing that
Speaker 1: I'm so hopeful for is just looking at voter turnout
Speaker 1: and looking at what a win for democracy it was
Speaker 1: that we had record voter turnout. We had an incredibly
Speaker 1: Like when we think about the number of women, the
Speaker 1: number of young people, the number of Asian Americans, the
Speaker 1: number of black women. I just it's so wonderful to
Speaker 1: see people engaged in the democratic process because I actually think,
Speaker 1: you know, I love people. For people to be engaged
Speaker 1: in journalism. I think that's a way of being engaged
Speaker 1: in democracy. I think it's very easy to be apathetic
Speaker 1: and get caught up in our own day to day
Speaker 1: lives and not realize how important this actually is, like
Speaker 1: sort of the outside world. Um. So I'm like, I
Speaker 1: take a great sense of positivity from that. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm really hopeful there's a vaccine. My was just talking
Speaker 1: to some family was talking to my mom this morning,
Speaker 1: and she was saying, one of my my favorite aunts
Speaker 1: in the UK is supposed to get a vaccine this week. Wow,
Speaker 1: And I was just like it just was It just
Speaker 1: made me so happy. You know, she's eight years old.
Speaker 1: She's like one of the people I'm closest to, and
Speaker 1: that means hopefully I'll be able to see her next year.
Speaker 1: And so I think that I am very hopeful. Fore
Speaker 1: I think we're going to go through look like I
Speaker 1: want to be realistic, Like, I think the next couple
Speaker 1: of months are going to be really difficult. I think
Speaker 1: there might be some of the worst months we've ever
Speaker 1: seen in this country's history. Are that's very likely, But
Speaker 1: I do think that we can see the end of
Speaker 1: this hopefully, and I'm hoping that that is kind of
Speaker 1: like what gets people through this um But again, I
Speaker 1: just I do like, I mean, there's just so much
Speaker 1: pain that we're going to have to go through in
Speaker 1: the next couple of months. But what I'm hoping for
Speaker 1: is that, like there is a light at the end
Speaker 1: of this tunnel, which is kind of a cliche, but
Speaker 1: I think in this case is a really appropriate one
Speaker 1: when we think about the pandemic. Well, we are so
Speaker 1: happy that you're doing this daily show Axios today and
Speaker 1: we're thrilled that we can be tuning in every morning
Speaker 1: to get the latest news and to see see what
Speaker 1: we should know about our day and hopefully, as you said,
Speaker 1: you'll be reporting on a positive trend after we get
Speaker 1: through these next couple of months. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us, and we look forward to to
Speaker 1: listening to you. Thanks for having me. Nila Boud has
Speaker 1: such a great outlook and I share her optimism for
Speaker 1: Here are three things that I took from the conversation. First,
Speaker 1: every industry and every endeavor benefits from a diversity of perspectives.
Speaker 1: As Nila reminds us, journalism gets so much better when
Speaker 1: women's voices are part of the mix and when empathy
Speaker 1: and respect are part of the process. Second, we all
Speaker 1: need to be able to tell our own stories. We
Speaker 1: need to make sure that women's voices are heard and
Speaker 1: that history reflects our narratives as well. Third, human centered
Speaker 1: designs should be foremost in everything we do. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm excited about Nihili's daily podcast Axios Today. It takes
Speaker 1: women's real lives into consideration, and it's built around the
Speaker 1: awareness that our time is valuable. Tune in next Tuesday
Speaker 1: to hear about our next featured woman and discover why
Speaker 1: she's one of Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear. Ye
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner PNG. Have a Great Day,