Jen Maxfield, MORE AFTER THE BREAK: A Reporter Returns to Ten Unforgettable News Stories

[0:02]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now.

[0:07]Thank you so much. Called moms don't have time to read books.

[0:10]It is a daily podcast 365 days a year, and each day we talk to an author about all of the things related to their career,

[0:18]their book, their life, and more in 30 minutes or less because who has time?

[0:22]I am now an author myself, although I wasn't when I started this podcast, and you can get my new memoir,

[0:28]Bookends, a memoir of love, loss, and literature, wherever books are sold starting July 1st, and my children's book prints is charming.

[0:36]You can learn more about me at zimbyones.com, but really you're here to learn more about the authors, and that is what we're going to do.

[0:43]Also, be sure to check out all the other podcasts in the Zcast podcast network.

[0:48]You can learn more at zcastnetwork.com and definitely check out those shows as well.

[0:58]Jen Maxfield is the author of More After the Break, a reporter returns to 10 unforgettable new stories.

[1:04]Jen is an Emmy Award-winning reporter and anchor for NBC New York.

[1:08]Prior to joining the station in 2013, she worked for eyewitness news for 10 years, also as a reporter, and substitute anchor.

[1:15]Starting her broadcast career in Binghamton, New York, Maxfield worked in Syracuse before moving to New York City in 2002.

[1:22]Her first book, More After the Break, is published by Greenleaf Book Group, where Maxfield revisits the most memorable story she's covered during her two decades long career, which we talk about on the show.

[1:34]She is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and teaches courses in broadcast journalism, including video one, and on-air skills.

[1:44]She is the graduate of the class of 2000, Maxfield enjoys coming back to her alma mater to educate the next generation.

[1:51]Welcome, Jen.

[1:52]Thank you so much for coming.

[1:53]On mom's, don't have time to read books to discuss More After the Break, a reporter returns to 10 unforgettable news stories.

[1:59]Vivi, thank you so much for having me on.

[2:01]It's great to be here.

[2:03]I was so into this book, by the way.

[2:05]I was finishing it on the bus on the way back from this retreat we were just on so much so that I ignored my phone for so long,

[2:12]and it turned out one of my kids had broken a bone, and my husband had been trying to call me, and had to call someone else he knew was on the bus of me, to get me out of it.

[2:21]And he's like, what were you doing?

[2:22]I was like, I was reading this really great book, and I just didn't look up and check my phone for so long.

[2:27]So anyway, it was really good.

[2:28]Well, I hope your child's okay.

[2:30]I'm glad I was in distraction at least just on period of time.

[2:33]Yeah, no, no, no, no.

[2:34]Oh, good, nothing serious, but still.

[2:36]Well, why don't you tell listeners more about More After the Break?

[2:40]And why you decided to revisit these news stories.

[2:44]You wrote about that also in the book, but just to tell people who haven't read it yet.

[2:48]So why you did this?

[2:50]Absolutely.

[2:51]So just to set the stage here, I've been a news reporter for 22 years, and the typical length for a story of mine that airs on television is 90 seconds.

[3:00]And the one constant in my news life is that we pitched stories in the morning.

[3:05]We go out on an assignment with a photographer.

[3:07]I write the story for that evening's broadcast and it goes out on the news.

[3:11]And very rarely do we return to that story the next day.

[3:15]So in the first place, the pace is relentless.

[3:18]And in the second place, the amount of time that we can actually spend on each individual story, both reporting it.

[3:24]And then the 90 seconds we get on the air.

[3:27]It's just not that much time.

[3:29]And there were people over the years who just stuck with me, people who I sat within their living rooms or I was with a breaking news scenes.

[3:37]And I just felt that their stories deserved more.

[3:40]And I was genuinely curious about what happened to a lot of the people I've interviewed over the years.

[3:46]But in particular, the 10 who are featured in More After the Break.

[3:50]And so that's what I did.

[3:52]And I read that was a genesis of the idea just that real curiosity.

[3:56]And I figured that if I was interested in what had happened that viewers and readers would be as well.

[4:02]So I set out to find them.

[4:04]Wow. Did you think about doing that as, I mean, I know it was during COVID at first when you were doing all this.

[4:09]But did you think about doing it as a documentary sort of like a conclusion, like a visual piece to it or no?

[4:16]My first love is reading and writing.

[4:19]So when I was a kid, I actually wanted to be a doctor and I went off to college to be a doctor and I was taking a lot of math and science classes.

[4:27]So as much as I love TV news, which I eventually went into after I got an internship at CNN at the United Nations.

[4:35]And as I said, my first love is reading and writing.

[4:38]And so it was wonderful for me to have the luxury of time and to be able to spend all this time with the families who trusted me now a second time with their stories.

[4:49]And I felt it was also a challenge to write a book without the assistance of video that I've had these last two decades.

[4:57]And really try to take you the reader into the situation that these people found themselves in and make you feel like you knew them and that you understood them without the aid of any video and really just doing it through my writing.

[5:12]Excellent. And how was the process?

[5:15]Well, obviously writing a book is a heavy left right and I don't need to tell you that.

[5:21]And I will say that having been writing on deadline in a moving van for the last 22 years was an excellent training ground for being able to write a little bit and put it down and write a little bit and put it down.

[5:37]And so I did try to write in the mornings before my family woke up, but oftentimes I was trying to write a couple pages in between my daughter's dance classes or while I was waiting for my son to finish up soccer practice.

[5:51]So I was able to do that and really the hardest part was was just getting the people to understand the project and to agree to it and I went into those asks I would add with a lot of humility.

[6:05]I wasn't sure if people would be welcoming me with open arms the second time when I wanted to revisit their stories for my book and I was prepared in some cases to apologize in the event that they were not happy that that their story made it on the news or that they had all this attention in the public eye.

[6:25]maybe they would have preferred to have kept it quiet, but thankfully it did go well with all of the people who I returned to and I'm just so grateful to all of them for participating in the book and letting me write it.

[6:36]So let's talk about some of the stories because oh my gosh just the emotion with which you drew me at least is the reader and obviously it's one thing to know that you know Katrina happens or the Staten Island ferry or the terrorist attack on the west side of highway or all these things which of course I remember, but you find like the one person and make it into something where we all feel like we're in their shoes so even ironically not shoes, but.

[7:04]where the Staten Island you started the book with the Staten Island ferry crash and this man Paul has lost his legs based on basically where he was based on two steps he took at the last second and that he survived and was helped by this British nurse who happened to be on board like all these random.

[7:20]Life fate I mean I feel like all the stories to be honest are about the randomness of where you are and actually maybe I should start with that.

[7:29]Like do you feel like there were things like that that linked all these stories for you.

[7:33]Yes, I remember interviewing Paul Esposito in his hospital bed and thinking to myself that could just as easily have been me flying in that hospital bed the circumstances were so random that landed him there and look I don't interview.

[7:48]I don't have a publicist setting up these interviews for me it's not choreographed nobody wakes up in the morning and things that they're going to be at the center of a breaking news event.

[8:00]And being interviewed by people like me and so I always keep that mindset really present when I'm going up to people and asking them to do an interview with me because.

[8:10]some level of shock in that and part of that does speak to exactly what you're talking about the randomness of life and what people have to go through so that's definitely one of the themes that runs through the 10 stories and the other I think is is really the way that people.

[8:28]And I think that the 10 people who I write about have a lot to teach readers they certainly taught me about being able to deal with a hand you were dealt that you never asked for but being able to do it with a lot of grace and joy.

[8:52]Tell me about what it was like revisiting people like the boy who was man who was killed the gentle giant who was killed on the West side highway who parents had to stay overnight at Bellevue and then find out the next day and you were the only one with the parents before even their family arrived.

[9:10]What is that like for you and then what was it like revisiting.

[9:15]So this addresses I think some of the misconceptions about TV news reporting so i'm glad you brought it up we're talking about Darren Drake it was very amazing vibrant 32 year old young man really at so many exciting things happening for him in his life at that time.

[9:32]What he was killed while riding a bike on the bike path there in law and Manhattan along the West side highway.

[9:38]But yes I mean we're getting to these scenes sometimes so early that to your point the family wasn't even there yet for Jimmy and Barbara Darren's parents and here I roll up i'm a complete stranger i'm with a photographer we're putting together a news story I mean that was a national story right that was that was a terrorist attack.

[10:00]and right in the shadow where the twin towers had once stood.

[10:03]So certainly a major news event,

[10:05]but what it really comes down to in those moments

[10:08]are the families and the people at the center of it.

[10:11]And so look, I would never say that my emotions

[10:15]would even approach what the family's going through.

[10:18]But I am with them.

[10:19]I'm with people sometimes on the best days of their lives

[10:22]and the worst days of their lives

[10:24]and the most chaotic days of their lives.

[10:26]And I'm not a doctor, right?

[10:28]I can't heal the wounds.

[10:29]I can't arrest whoever did it,

[10:31]but I'm there to tell people stories

[10:33]and to share them with the broader community.

[10:35]And I think that is part of the responsibility

[10:38]of the job is recognizing I'm not a news robot, right?

[10:42]I'm not some disembodied microphone

[10:44]going around asking questions.

[10:46]I mean, I'm a human being and I'm there with people

[10:48]during these times that they never forget and neither do I.

[10:53]And so I'll just never forget being there with Jimmy.

[10:56]We stayed with him for quite some time

[10:59]after we had finished up the interview

[11:01]and gotten all the information we needed

[11:02]because we just felt in that moment

[11:05]that I just couldn't leave him.

[11:06]He seemed so alone.

[11:09]And so that's just one of those stories

[11:12]that, you know, as important as it was

[11:14]to get the information out there to the broader public.

[11:17]I also felt as a fellow human being

[11:19]that it was important for me to sit with Jimmy on that day,

[11:23]the day after he lost his only child.

[11:25]And then tell me what it felt like

[11:26]to revisit that particular scenario.

[11:30]Well, for Jimmy and I, I mean, we both remember that day

[11:33]very clearly.

[11:34]And I think one of the things I was able to do

[11:37]in a lot of these chapters is sort of fill in some gaps

[11:40]because I mentioned Darren's mom Barbara.

[11:43]She wasn't even able to come out of the bedroom.

[11:45]I mean, many people do open the door for us

[11:48]and I think it's astonishing how many people

[11:50]do open the door for us and invite us into their homes.

[11:54]But obviously not everyone is in a position

[11:57]to speak with us emotionally on that day.

[11:59]But you know, here we are five years after

[12:01]and Barbara was ready to talk to me.

[12:03]And so I learned so much more about Darren

[12:07]and about their family.

[12:08]And I feel that one of the gifts to the readers

[12:11]is just to give them that additional context

[12:13]in all of those layers and talk to all these people

[12:16]that just wasn't possible on the day

[12:19]that we did the initial story.

[12:20]That's why I love that quote,

[12:22]news is the first rough draft of history.

[12:24]Because what we're giving you on day one or day two

[12:28]is an accurate depiction of events.

[12:30]We're doing the best we can in the short period of time.

[12:34]But there's so much more to these stories

[12:36]that you get when you go back and revisit them.

[12:38]Something that we typically don't have time to do.

[12:42]Do you ever worry that you're like,

[12:45]do you worry for your safety?

[12:46]I mean, I know there's physical events, right?

[12:49]You have rain Katrina and they're, you know,

[12:51]but I mean more with this raw emotion from people

[12:55]who are so destabilized for the most part

[12:58]by something massive that's changed their lives.

[13:00]And in you walk, like, don't you,

[13:03]aren't you ever afraid about the doors you knock on?

[13:05]That's amazing to happen or is it just me

[13:08]worrying on your behalf?

[13:09]Well, thank you for that.

[13:11]And yes, that is a concern sometimes because you're right.

[13:14]You don't know what's behind that door

[13:16]and people are dealing with a lot.

[13:18]And so there is safety and numbers for sure.

[13:21]And sometimes I think on TV shows,

[13:23]they depict all of us in TV news as being rivals

[13:27]and we're just competing for the story.

[13:28]But the reality is that oftentimes

[13:31]when we do have to go knock on a door,

[13:33]we will go in a group.

[13:35]And I may go up with the person from News 12

[13:38]and the person from ABC and the person from the daily news

[13:41]and we decide we're all going to go up together

[13:43]because sometimes that's a safer situation.

[13:46]And I don't report stories on my own.

[13:48]I've always worked with a photographer

[13:50]and we always have each other's backs.

[13:53]So it is very grateful for the friendship

[13:56]of my photographer colleagues because I don't know what

[13:59]I would do without them, not only knocking on doors

[14:02]but just in general, being with people on these days

[14:05]and just getting the stories done on time.

[14:07]So I feel like one thing you do with the news shows

[14:10]and what you point out in the book too

[14:12]is raise awareness and also funds

[14:15]to help some of the less fortunate.

[14:17]Do you feel like there's a way through this book

[14:20]that you're going to continue to give back?

[14:22]It's almost like a, not charity, obviously that's the wrong word,

[14:25]but there's so many causes to help

[14:29]and you draw our attention to anything

[14:31]from a nice man buying space heaters

[14:33]to help one family with a coughing child

[14:36]to other other funds that you publicize on the news

[14:40]and get people to invest in.

[14:42]If you, for the average viewer and somebody reading the book,

[14:47]what should the viewer do to help?

[14:49]Like, and live out some of your recommendations here?

[14:53]So oftentimes there are go upon these sites

[14:55]for some of the stories that we're working on

[14:57]but I think from a larger standpoint

[15:00]we're shining a light on issues

[15:02]that people may not have thought about

[15:04]and I also think that oftentimes we are putting

[15:07]a face to issues that may seem very theoretical

[15:12]or something that you've heard about

[15:13]but don't really understand

[15:15]and there's something about watching another human being

[15:19]tell you their story

[15:20]and really that makes you feel, right?

[15:23]I could tell you 10 stats

[15:25]about how domestic violence, for example,

[15:27]has gotten so much worse since COVID

[15:29]and that it is a really big issue for families today.

[15:33]But Tamika Tompkins, who I feature in chapter five

[15:36]in my book, who's a survivor of domestic violence.

[15:39]She was stabbed 27 times.

[15:41]She spoke with me that day in 2012

[15:45]and continues to be out with me in the world

[15:47]she's doing events.

[15:48]She's speaking about domestic violence

[15:50]to larger audiences now

[15:52]because she is a survivor

[15:55]and I think that people can really feel

[15:59]and understand an issue more

[16:01]if you have someone talking to you about it from the heart

[16:05]as opposed to hearing all those statistics.

[16:07]So I do hope generally that people think about

[16:10]some of these issues that I bring up in the book.

[16:12]And also frankly, I hope that when people read the book

[16:16]that they really take every day as a gift

[16:20]and not take time for granted

[16:22]because you brought up earlier a great point

[16:24]that so many of these circumstances were random

[16:27]and I think that's been the takeaway for me

[16:29]these last 22 years of just feeling so grateful

[16:33]for every day and savoring it

[16:35]because you just really don't know what's going to happen.

[16:39]Oh my gosh.

[16:40]How do you, and you did mention this

[16:43]that one time you were getting drawn in in particular

[16:45]and you had to put on your reporter mask

[16:48]to keep your emotions sort of in check

[16:50]and not let yourself get drawn in

[16:52]because otherwise you'll imagine like your child

[16:53]in the same situation.

[16:55]So what tricks are you using to protect your emotional state

[16:58]and then how do you go home

[17:00]and like have dinner with your kids and be all cheery

[17:03]if you spend your day with all of this?

[17:06]Like how do you reconcile those two worlds?

[17:09]That's the juxtaposition of my life, right?

[17:11]That I could be reporting on something

[17:13]that happened to somebody else's family

[17:15]and then I have the privilege to walk in the front door

[17:18]and have my three healthy kids greet me.

[17:20]It is a challenge.

[17:21]I would say I've spoken with other people,

[17:24]for example, doctors or emergency workers,

[17:27]other people who really do as part of their professional lives

[17:31]have to be with people during some really tough times

[17:34]and my professional obligation in these moments

[17:38]is to get the story out on the air

[17:41]and to share what happened with the larger community.

[17:44]And so it's not that I am not empathizing with people.

[17:49]I mean, I said in another interview,

[17:51]I just switched to waterproof mascara, not crying.

[17:55]But I also think that it would be incredibly distracting

[17:58]and making myself part of the story

[18:01]if I'm doing a live shot and trying to tell you

[18:04]about something that happened and I'm hysterically crying.

[18:06]That feels like putting myself at the center of the story

[18:08]where the focus should really be on the families.

[18:12]So I do certain things.

[18:14]For example, I'll plug my workflow in as soon as I get home

[18:17]on the charger and not really look at it again

[18:20]and sometimes whether it's talking to my photographer friend

[18:23]or calling my mom or going for a walk around the block

[18:27]and or listening to an audio book that is nothing to do

[18:30]with the news.

[18:31]I mean, it could be anything like that

[18:32]just to sort of decompress after some of these days.

[18:36]But yeah, I do think that over the years,

[18:39]I still feel something and I think that the day

[18:42]that I go out on one of these stories

[18:44]and I don't feel anything is the day that I should retire.

[18:47]I mean, now that you've gotten your feet wet

[18:52]in the book world, do you want to write more books?

[18:55]Do you want to stop this like one and done

[18:57]or how do you feel about this whole industry?

[19:00]I did really enjoy the process of writing the book

[19:04]and then I also have enjoyed having conversations with readers

[19:08]these last three months since the book came out.

[19:10]I'm so accustomed to talking to people on the news

[19:13]and not being able to hear them answer back at me.

[19:15]So that's been really wonderful.

[19:17]I think that I had, I did have more free time during COVID

[19:21]not because I was working less

[19:22]because I was working the same or more.

[19:24]It's just as so many of the other activities weren't happening.

[19:28]So if I were to write another book,

[19:29]I do think it would take a lot longer.

[19:31]And then I guess the big question for everyone

[19:34]after you've written your first book is,

[19:37]will the second one be as good as the first?

[19:39]I really felt like I put my whole heart into this book

[19:42]and so that's what's intimidating.

[19:45]If I had to be honest about it about writing

[19:47]the second one would be, could I,

[19:50]could I do what I did on the first?

[19:52]Interesting.

[19:53]So what advice would you have for aspiring authors?

[19:56]Well, first of all, my book looks very organized now, right?

[19:59]I've got the t-

[20:00]10 news stories, and they're laid out in chronological order,

[20:03]but that is not how the book was written.

[20:07]And the book was written in a more organic

[20:10]or haphazard way, one might say.

[20:13]I did not have all 10 stories figured out

[20:15]when I started writing the book.

[20:17]And my process was that typically I was writing one chapter,

[20:20]researching the next and thinking about and strategizing

[20:24]how to find the person for a third.

[20:26]And I actually think it was better this way

[20:29]because if I had picked all 10 stories ahead of time,

[20:32]I don't think I would have made the same choices.

[20:35]And I think that you really needed to see

[20:37]the breadth of stories and human experience

[20:41]that was actually, eventually presented in the book.

[20:44]So I hope that gives people some hope

[20:46]that if you're writing something and it feels like

[20:49]it's not as organized or you don't have everything figured out.

[20:52]I didn't have everything figured out either.

[20:54]And I don't even know if I believed

[20:56]that the book would be finished

[20:58]until I was about halfway through it.

[21:00]Yeah.

[21:02]Congratulations on finishing it.

[21:04]Are you back into the news?

[21:06]Like you're not stopping at all?

[21:07]Like do you have any, are you getting tired?

[21:11]Like this is a stressful life, right?

[21:14]Isn't it?

[21:15]Like do you ever think about retiring I guess

[21:18]or doing something different in studio

[21:20]or do you just love it?

[21:22]I do love it.

[21:23]And I currently do sort of a hybrid model

[21:28]where sometimes I am out reporting

[21:29]and sometimes I am in studio anchoring.

[21:32]And I really enjoy doing both of those things.

[21:34]And I'm an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.

[21:37]I love working with students.

[21:39]And I've been speaking at other universities

[21:41]around the country as part of the book tour also.

[21:43]And I really love this job.

[21:46]I think it's a privilege to be invited into people's homes

[21:49]and their lives to be able to tell their story.

[21:53]So no, I'm not stepping away from the news business.

[21:56]I'm still reporting for NBC in New York.

[21:59]And that's the plan for now.

[22:02]So exciting.

[22:03]Well, Jen, congratulations.

[22:05]The book was great.

[22:05]You're a really great writer.

[22:07]And the way I was drawn into these stories of resilience

[22:11]and how people get through, oh my gosh, insurmountable odds

[22:16]it seems and they get through it.

[22:18]And it's really, really inspiring.

[22:21]Well, Zibi, I appreciate that.

[22:23]And I also hope that you had a couple laughs

[22:25]in the book too, I did try.

[22:28]I don't want people to think it's too heavy.

[22:30]I did try to put off some of those misconceptions

[22:33]about the TV news business.

[22:35]Like I don't have a hair and makeup team with me

[22:38]traveling around all the time.

[22:39]And the live trucks don't have bathrooms,

[22:42]which is a constant struggle, the struggle is real,

[22:45]out on assignment.

[22:46]And we actually do write our own stories.

[22:48]And that was, can you believe that was the number one question

[22:51]that I got from people when I initially announced

[22:55]that I had written a book was, did I write it myself?

[22:58]I was kind of insulting at first

[23:01]and I felt better about it after a while

[23:03]after people had read it.

[23:04]And we're still asking you that.

[23:06]I thought, well, you think I had to pay someone

[23:08]to write that then, okay, but I did write it.

[23:14]As long as it's not your mom asking, I guess.

[23:16]It was not my mom asking.

[23:18]All right, good.

[23:19]All right, well thanks so much.

[23:20]And it was great to meet you, congrats.

[23:23]Thanks so much for having me on.

[23:24]Have a great day.

[23:25]Take care.

[23:26]Bye.

[23:28]Thanks for listening to this episode

[23:29]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[23:31]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,

[23:34]at Zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[23:36]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com

[23:39]and sign up for my virtual book club

[23:41]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.

[23:43]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan,

[23:45]in fact, Texture Sound for the Sound Editing.

[23:47]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions

[23:49]for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.