NPR's Ari Shapiro on journalism and cabaret

you may know him as co-host of NPR's All Things  Considered but as Rita braver reports Ari Shapiro   is a man of many talents register okay and  hit it as a co-host of national public radio's   Flagship evening broadcast open both today is  Wednesday February 15th and this is all things   considered from 44 year old Ari Shapiro is one  of the Network's highest profile correspondence   what makes a great story for you when I'm looking  for a great story I want a point of connection   I want high stakes and I want a reason somebody  should care he helps shape coverage I noticed   that supplemental SNAP benefits for the pandemic  end after this month interviews newsmakers what   does this mean for the future of Scotland and  the future of the independence movement and he   continues to report from the field even though  there is still death and fighting in Ukraine's   south and east the scene here at the Polish border  has lost yet back when he was a Yale undergraduate   the truth is I was rejected for an NPR internship  and I will remind any NPR bosses any time that I   was rejected for an NPR internship with NPR's  legendary legal Affairs correspondent Nina   totenberg chooses her own interns and she gave him  a shot he was always willing did I have somebody   who could go out to the courthouse with a tape  recorder and stand there in the pouring rain Ari   Shapiro was there after interning Shapiro was able  to get some behind the scenes gigs at NPR but on   his off time he started reporting his own stories  I decided to treat NPR as a free graduate school   and so I borrowed some equipment and I asked  people if they would teach me how to use it what   did you find you liked about the reporting part  of it I'm nosy you know nosy and as he relates   in his new Memoir the best strangers in the world  used to feeling like a bit of an outsider starting   with growing up as one of the few Jews in Fargo  North Dakota where his parents were professors   so my older brother and I we would go from  classroom to classroom carrying a menorah   and a dreidel and we would talk to these children  descended from Scandinavian immigrants about what   Hanukkah is and what Judaism is when Shapiro was  eight the family moved to Portland Oregon where   he gradually came to another realization you also  described the fact of coming into the knowledge   that you were gay and just feeling pretty  comfortable about that from the get-go I remember   really vividly thinking the sooner I get this over  with the sooner it'll be a non-issue so I told   my parents and they took it very well they said  they still loved me it was a process but it was a   process that we went through together and he says  that feeling a little like an outsider sharpened   his reporting whether covering the justice  department the White House or spending two years   as a london-based foreign correspondent NPR's  Ari Shapiro joins us now from White House course   our co-host Ari Shapiro is there are we all ready  Shapiro is married to Mike Gottlieb he's College   sweetheart but when they first decided to Wed you  thought you needed to ask permission from NPR yeah   2004 was not that long ago but in politics in  same-sex marriage in gay rights it feels like   a lifetime what do you think change in terms of  being married to another man and being able to   go out there and say this is my husband I think  the country kind of caught up to where we were   but I also just became more comfortable in my  own skin and that's part of what this book is   about is my figuring out that the things that  differentiate us from one another make us more   interesting more valuable more rich and that those  are things we should celebrate not paper over why Shapiro now spends his vacations singing with the portland-based band Pink Martini [Music] though he'd performed all through high school and  college Shapiro had put music behind him then he   did a story on the band a few years later in 2008  Pink Martini's leader heard Shapiro singular party   and invited him to record this song for the band's  new album [Music] won't you please please open the   door and though he's sung to huge audiences all  over the world when you say oh you're a serious   journalist who sings with a band there is a part  of me that still cringes a little bit and I and I   want to say to myself Ari not snap out of it  don't cringe be proud you're singing at the   Hollywood Bowl you've sung at Carnegie Hall like  Pink Martini is not Shapiro's only side Hustle he also performs a cabaret act with  Tony Award winner Alan Cumming known   for his work in theater film and  television [Music] [Applause] the two had known each other for some time  when coming pitched the idea to Shapiro   and I stopped and I turned to him and I said Alan  don't joke about that because I will absolutely   take you up on it and then the next morning  I'd sort of call him and say I still mean it   I still want to do the show with you I love  you in the morning I love you in the morning   yes I still respect you they call the ACT Och &  Oy he's the Oy which I get oy but what's Och? a   Scottish version of Oy he's a Scot he's a Jewish  boy I host a show on NPR I'm a top international   movie star what appeals to you about Ari as a  person he's so full of zest for life he loved   he's just so interested and and fascinated by  things and as a geek you know it's a big geek   but he's kind of a core geek right I think he's  a cool geek so I think that whatever he does   will be truly what he wants to do I think he's  kind of just finding that out right now [Music]   that's just one of many stories we're reporting  about the effects of Russia's Invasion but right   now Ari Shapiro says he has just one goal for  all the different aspects of his work whether   I am singing to a live audience of thousands  or broadcasting on the radio to somebody you   know sitting alone in their driveway I want  to give somebody a reason to keep listening

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 59,204

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, memoir, the best strangers in the world, ari shapiro, npr, all things considered, storytelling

Id: vcpMdJki00c

Length: 7min 29sec (449 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023