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David Nicholas: A Mount Pleasant, Michigan native and Michigan State University graduate has been added to the WCMU news team. Emma George-Griffin is our new rural life and agriculture reporter working in partnership with Harvest Public Media.
WCMU's Tina Sawyer sat down with George-Griffin to find out more about our newest team member, and began the conversation by explaining what led her into journalism.
Emma George-Griffin: Ironically, I always grew up watching movies about journalists, and I loved them, but I never thought to myself, oh, I'm going to be a journalist. I loved writing, I loved politics, I loved helping people, but it just, the puzzle pieces did not click until college, when at the time I was a neuroscience major. Obviously, that didn't work out. But I joined, I started writing for an online magazine at MSU, and I kind of just fell in love with interviewing people. And I had a bunch of new journalism friends, and I was like, hey, I'm not good at science or math. So maybe I should choose something I'm good at. And then I was like, all right, final decision, journalism, and then I loved it.
Tina Sawyer: Yeah, you're off to the races, as they say. And as our new rural ag reporter here at WCMU, what kind of topics are you looking forward to covering for our listeners?
EGG: There are endless topics to cover in my beat. I'm looking forward to covering how new tariffs are impacting our local farmers and how that's impacting our local economy. I'm also looking forward to checking in on rural hospitals and smaller towns with things going a little bit wild with Medicaid and healthcare at the moment, but really just touching base with those communities and hearing what matters to them, hearing what they'd like to see in their community and just getting to know all of the communities that we cover a little bit more.
TS: And you're looking forward to branching out as well in our listening areas?
EGG: Totally, yes. I mean, I'm from Mount Pleasant. You know, my family has lived here. So it's like, I feel like I know the people pretty well. I mean, I'm happy to get to know them better, but I'm really, really interested in branching out to some more rural counties and places that I don't know as much about.
TS: So what do you say is your strongest skill that you believe will add to the reporting here?
EGG: That's a great question. It's always weird to toot your own horn. But I think my greatest skill as a journalist is my ability to connect with people and to listen. That's my favorite part, is calling people, talking to people, listening to their problems, and using my skills as a writer and a creator to eloquently tell their story in a way that's truthful and also creative. But yeah, connecting with people is really my favorite part of the job.
TS: And finally, Emma, if you could interview anyone, dead or alive, throughout history.
Who would you choose and why?
EGG: Oh my gosh, wow. I wish I would have prepared for this.
I would really like to interview, okay, this isn't... a famous person or anything like that. But I had a grandpa, Grandpa Levi, and he grew up in Alabama. He died shortly after I was born.
But I would really like to talk to him and some of my other family from down there that grew up in the South in the '40s, '50s, '60s, just to kind of talk to them and hear how it was.
I love listening to my family's stories. And I think that the culture is so different in the South and just kind of the way things operate. And even now, you can go down there and it feels like it's like a time capsule just with how everything looks and operates. So I think I would interview him.
TS: To get your family history and learn all about yourself that way, right?
EGG: Totally. Second answer, Dolly Parton.
TS: I'm not even going to question that because that would be one of my dream interviews as well.
EGG: Yes.
TS: All right. Well, Emma, thank you so much and welcome aboard. And we're looking forward to a lot of your stories here at WCMU.
EGG: Thank you so much. I'm excited.
DN: Emma George-Griffin, sitting down as WCMU's new rural life and agriculture reporter, and yes, she did sit down and have that talk with Tina Sawyer.
