On Friday, November 20th, I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Peakes. Lisa is the host of All Things Considered at WUSF NPR. She has been on the radio for over 35 years, her early work involved pop, alternative, and rock formats in New England. There she created and hosted programs featuring Celtic, blues, and early jazz music. In public radio, she has won local and national awards for her work as a newscaster, being honored with her experience as an investigative journalist.
Childhood, Education and Early Career
Q: I’d like to start by discussing your college education. While pursuing a BFA at Emerson College in Boston, you had the privilege of performing with a national touring company for deaf audiences. Can you describe what that experience was like?
A: Yeah, it was eye-opening for me to learn about this whole other world that doesn’t experience theater the same way people with hearing do. We incorporated bits of sign language into it. We didn’t, but the playwright did. It was a way to introduce people who were not aware of what deaf audiences go through, to sign language and how deaf people experience the world differently. Through, for example, flashing lights more. The script called attention to that experience. The production wasn’t as much for deaf people, I think, as it was to educate others about the experience of being deaf. The play was called “Mother Hicks.” It was about a woman who lived in the woods and was very caring. She had a young neighbor child who was deaf. The play was through the experience of Tuck, that young deaf person, that we got that lens.
Q: How did the audiences react to the play? Did they enjoy the experience?
A: I forgot (simultaneously signing ‘I forget’). It was a very limited run. It was for festivals. I think it was an educative experience. I think that the educators that were showing it to their students, really enjoyed it because it was an opportunity for them to really dig in and have that engagement with their students. But I don’t know, that was 40 years ago, my gosh.
Q: So, you must remember most of the sign language?
A: No. But, I do remember some charming things like sunrise, sunset, yes, cold, sweet (signing each one as she spoke). But I forget.
Q: So, not only did you pursue acting at Emerson, but you also received a bachelor’s degree in studio art at Vermont College at Norwich University; what was your area of focus within that major?
A: Drawing. I focused on that one on one. We started on charcoal and pencil, just black, different grades of pencil, and just really learned to focus on the engagement—the quality of engagement with an item or object. We did a lot of still life. From there, I would work out with colored pencils, watercolor, and acrylic, just representation. It was very straight. There wasn’t a lot of abstract. You could do that, but the focus for me was doing as Dali did. He learned his craft first. He got rooted in his craft. Just speaking for any person who’s starting off in life, just to know how to break rules, you got to know the rules. That’s what it was like for me, I was in my 40s. I had a lot of different educational experiences. I spent some time at Framingham State College studying chemistry, then I went to Emerson for acting, lots of different things. When you’re young, I think it’s a good time to really try lots of different areas, dip your toes in the water. Unless you’re one of those people that absolutely knows, for sure, what it is you want to do, which in this case, stay with that and perfect your craft as much as you can.
Q: Did you have a preferred style you liked to do in regards to art?
A: Good question. Flowers. Plants.
Q: At what point did you realize that you wanted a career as an investigative journalist/radio host on public radio?
A: I had been a rock and pop DJ for many years. I think at one point in my life, I felt that what I was doing wasn’t true. It wasn’t authentic. I was unusual in that I was the primary host of a morning show. Usually, women aren’t in that role. Women are often the giggling, bubbly sidekick that laughs and gets the coffee and provides a forum for the main host, which is usually a guy to shine. But I was the primary host, not the sidekick. We would do a lot of morning zoo-type things. We would pull pranks on people, give away lottery tickets and I felt at some point that wasn’t me. I felt like I was lying every time I opened my mouth. It was just one day, I realized that this was wrong. It was very clear to me. So, I started looking around in my neighborhood of rural New Hampshire. It was across the river from Vermont, and I saw they had an opening for a substitute jazz host, so I applied for that. I got the job. I started gradually filling in on lots of different shifts and I did eventually get a full-time job being a morning host in Vermont. But, there was yet another shift of becoming a host and anchor into a journalist. The other evolution of that lightbulb moment where ‘this wasn’t me’ was when I was asked to report on something. I can’t remember what it was. But, I had to create the content. I was quite used to reading other people’s scripts and other people’s material. As a jock, you have to read what is on the log, saying, “Hey, come on down to the gas station. We’re having free hot dogs and soda.” You have to read it just as it is. Not too hard. Not too soft. ‘Your favorite music. At home, at work, or in the car. 94.5’ or whatever it was. I didn’t write any of that, so it wasn’t really me using my voice. So, when I was in Vermont, when I had to cover something else, I was scared. I didn’t know how to do this. I didn’t know what to do. What do I say? I had to write the story. Over time, I was doing it more, and I found out that I can do this. I can tell this story. I can help another person who doesn’t know how to say their story get their story out. So, there were two shifts in my career, where I was called to do something else, or I felt that I was ready to do something else, and it felt authentic.
Q: So, was it a gut instinct or revelation when you woke up one day that said, ‘This wasn’t for me, I have to do something else?’
A: Yeah, the first time when I made that shift from playing pop music to working in the area of public radio. There was a format shift. With public radio, I didn’t realize that I wanted to do something different until I was asked to do it. Then, I realized I could. That was more of empowerment for me. I just didn’t think I had anything to say that way really.
Present
Q: I remember the first piece of yours that I listened to. The interviews you did with female prisoners on Mother’s Day and the interview with a prison educator who helps the prisoners with substance abuse. Such fascinating pieces. What compelled you to pursue that story?
A: I am so blown away that you took the time to listen to those stories. I am truly touched. I’ve put them out there, and nobody would ever listen. Those were years ago. I’m so proud of that ‘women in prison’ interview. That is what we call an audio postcard where it is just the woman speaking. There is no me at all. I don’t talk at all. It’s just them and their words. It’s raw tape. The craft of listening to those women widdling it down to 3 or 4 minutes, which is all we get, was really hard work. To go into these prisons and hear the stories of what it is like to not be able to see your children, to face the shame and stigma of being in prison, and to maybe be perceived as a non-loving person. We don’t know why they are in there. One of the women was in there for murdering her husband and yet, it was an incredibly abusive relationship. We don’t know who’s wrong or who’s right but we know that she’s sucking it up and doing her time and not able to practice love in the way that many other mothers are able to do. It was an incredibly rich experience, and it is such a privilege to go into a prison to have women open themselves up like that and share very intimate, detailed stories. I’m just so pleased that somebody heard that. We have also been doing our audio postcards at WUSF for people who can’t see their loved ones during COVID, people who are in mixed-raced families who are fearful for their grandchildren following the George Floyd protest, and that is recent work. That prison story I did with the prison educator was 20 years ago. The audio postcard is a really effective way of letting somebody else’s voice tell the story. It’s up to us with the craft of editing to help it shine.
Q: Currently, you are playing a very important role in delivering the facts to Floridians on COVID-19. Is that the topic the station has assigned you to do?
A: We were all scrambling to work in a remote environment when USF was kind of on lockdown in early April. We knew this story was a top one for a lot of people. I was not set up to be able to do All Things Considered from my home, as I am now. We had a couple of broadcasters who were still going into the studio with very strict protocols, lots of social distancing, a lot of wiping the shared surfaces, wearing masks, and so forth. They were still going in there. We had coverage for our live shows, but stories had to be told. I think I was just assigned the story. I’m not very confident in my math abilities, so one thing I did to get the numbers straight was to create a template, a spreadsheet. That was in April, here we are 10 months later, and the spreadsheet is massive. We’ve kept it up every day. I’m not the only reporter who works on that anymore. Again, I kind of fell into it, and I was really pushed to my growing edge on that one. Really pushed. We made it work as a team with editing. We have Health News Florida, which has its own editor, Julio Ochoa. He is helping other people tell that story because now that I am back hosting All Things Considered, the daily scheduling—the Department of Health does not issue the numbers at the same time every day. They have been coming out later and later and closer and closer to All Things Considered. So, I was not able to manage that task, which requires a lot of concentration. You know, you got to have the numbers just right. There are cases. There are deaths. There are hospitalizations. There are testing percentages. It is all very specific, and you can’t really mess it up. We have to keep the integrity of the data strong so that we can ground our stories and facts. If you ever need a representation of fact-based check reporting, just take a look at our spreadsheet. You’ll see that everything is really grounded there.
Q: How much independence or flexibility do you have in making the decisions of what story or stories to cover on All Things Considered?
A: As far as how much leeway I have to direct a story, less with that. I am not an expert in health policy or understanding epidemics. We rely on other aspects of that. My job was just to look at the data we were given from the Department of Health every day and just simply report it. Not to analyze it. Not to speculate on what the numbers mean or don’t mean. We have other ways of doing that with Florida Matters. We can do interviews. Health News has longer form interviews. So, not a whole lot of wiggle room on that. On other stories, though, it’s a collaborative process. I would say, ‘This person sounds like a good interview. Let’s talk about Her Campus, a chain of news magazines that focus on women on college campuses across the country. Let’s focus on what’s going on at USF.
Q: How many people do you work with on these stories? Do you have everyone or a small group?
A: I don’t know if there are 75 people in the entire USF public media family. We have the Classical WSMR station, then we have WUSF News, which has a digital platform. We have Facebook Live events. We’ve got a news magazine. We’ve got a podcast on food, The Zest Podcast. So, we’re rockin’. There is a core, though, 25 of us or so, more or less, that are telling the stories every day. There are several program hosts, and there are reporters that are somewhat assigned to beats they gravitate towards or specialize in. But, we are all capable of doing what they call general assignment reporting on the topics of the day. It is collaborative. We have technology that helps us. We have a Slack channel where we can post ideas, and then the different beat editors can sort of parse things out and figure out who would be a good reporter to work on something.
Q: Do you believe there is a difference in your approach to interviewing now than it was when you started? Can you identify any specific differences or advancements in your abilities in how you conduct interviews?
A: It’s been a while that I’ve been out working in the field. I used to go out a lot. COVID has definitely changed that. I was really grounded in a lot of good principles of interviewing and editing. I was trained by NPR trainers. I worked in 3 very large statewide newsrooms in New Hampshire, Vermont, and well, I guess USF isn’t statewide. But, the principles that I know to be the best practices are still being used today. When you go out with somebody, you want to let them know they are going to be recorded and ask for permission to be recorded, as you did with me just now. You also want to get some room ambiance to mix it in all the time. I think one of the things I have learned within the past 10 years versus 20 or 30 years ago is not to ask yes or no questions. I hear it a lot with interviewers. They will ask a question that could be answered yes or no, and if the subject is not terribly giving, that might be all you get. Most people will elaborate; they’ll say ‘yes, this happened..’ that’s why I think it’s okay to ask yes or no questions. But generally, if you ask somebody how they feel about something or what they have specifically observed about something, you open up to get more. It’s less risky. There’s less of a chance you will get a curt answer. So, that is just one example that comes to mind about how interviewing is different. I try to be really grounded and prepped too. I’m not a fan of spontaneity. I think if I know where I am going, then that frees me up to sound more spontaneous and to feel spontaneous. Most of what I say on All Things Considered is pretty scripted. But it doesn’t feel that way to me. I feel much more stilted the way we are now. I don’t do well with spontaneity. I want to let an interview go where it goes. It shouldn’t be all about me. But, there is an element of craft. It is beholden to me to do my homework and to have a sense of where I’m going and if I want to craft things in a certain direction. That’s up to the interviewer. You have that power to move things. In the purest spirit of inquiry, you don’t want to lead. People can tell when you’re doing that. You definitely want to get to the heart of something and the truth of something, moreover, somebody’s personal truth about something. The more you can do to be prepared, do your homework and have those questions, backup questions, and other things you can interject in, the better.
Q: Do you have any advice for young women looking to pursue a career in the creative field?
A: Yeah, oh boy. You know, there’s so much available that wasn’t when I was first coming up, like all those social media platforms. I’m really the one that should be taking advice from other people. But how to market yourself and how to get out there, it’s got to be really hard. First things first have a product, get real good at your craft, practice, practice practice. Create stuff. Have something. We hear it everywhere that content is king. It really is. Content and consistency. I see a lot of people with blogs that peter out after a very short period of time. But, you need to flog that merchandise and just keep it out there. Keep that product going. That’s just a product of discipline. But, just keep producing. Keep records and enjoy. Take pictures or keep an archive of your stuff. As an older person, I am glad that I did, and I’m sorry that I didn’t. There is a crap ton of stuff that I wish that I had paid attention to and saved. I never thought that my work was anything, was any good. I never thought there was anything special about it, or I always took it for granted that I would be making more the next day, so why bother to save it. But I really wish I had.
You can listen to Lisa on All Things Considered on radio station WUSF 89.7 in the afternoons at 5 pm in your car or on the NPR One App on your smartphone.
