Post Run High with Kate MackzLinsey Davis: The Secrets Behind Great Journalism & Compelling Storytelling
This week we sit down with Linsey Davis who shares her journey from studying psychology to becoming a renowned journalist, revealing how her passion for storytelling, curiosity, and empathy shaped her career. She reflects on the early moments that sparked her love for reporting, the challenges of breaking into the industry, and the evolution of her role from on-the-ground journalism to anchoring. Linsey gives an inside look at her meticulous preparation process for high-stakes interviews and major debates. Beyond journalism, she opens up about how running keeps her grounded, how motherhood has inspired her writing, and the lessons she hopes to pass on to the next generation. Through it all, she reminds us of the power of preparation, passion, and truly listening to the stories that need to be told.
All right, everyone, welcome back to Post run High. Today's guest is Lindsay Davis. She's an award winning journalist, ABC News anchor, best selling author, mom, and so much more. I'm so excited to get in today's combo. Lindsay, how was the run for you?
It was good. I mean, as I was telling you, I guess I'm just still congested because I was more breathy than I thought. I was like, Lindsay, you are not in shape. But it went so fast just having a conversation. I love to talk and run. There are very few other people who I meet that liked to do the same. I remember one time I was going for a run with my sister and I was like, Oh, this is going to be such a good bonding experience in my head. And we got there. We drove to the beach to run along the beach, and then she hoped in her AirPods and I was like, Oh, I guess we're not talking doing this run. So I just think that the conversation just goes. It just makes the run go so much faster.
Lindsay and I just got back from running a mile through Brooklyn and it was so nice finding out that Lindsay is a runner and that often you prep for a show by going for a run.
It's sometimes it's something I like to do by myself as well. I mean, there's so many benefits to it, but I do like to have that shared passion with other people. And as we were talking about before, we brought it on our show on ABC News Live Prime, and it's just a fun way to get to know people.
Yeah, and we talked about this during the run, but let's talk about how you guys brought it onto ABC.
Because I love the concept.
So we decided maybe four years ago that it would be a great idea to just bring something that I was passionate about and incorporated into the show. And so we started thinking about running on the campaign trail and people who were literally running for office, that we could kind of have a little fun with that in a figurative and literal way and run with the candidates. And so the first one we did was Beto O'Rourke, who was running for governor of Texas at that time. Then we did Doctor Oz who was running for Senate in Pennsylvania. Ended up doing a number of people. It was interesting Nancy Mace at that time, who's a congresswoman in South Carolina. She had long COVID, so she said she couldn't run anymore, even though she was a runner. So then we kind of started expanding and let people kind of pick whatever exercise or activity they wanted to do. So we went paddleboarding with her and started you know, biking with different people, but we still got it race to November and just we were just moving forward in whatever way on the campaign trail. And I just loved the idea because quite often, in particular with politicians, you know, you have them all buttoned up and kind of sitting all quafft and you're just asking the basic same questions about you know, abortion or gun control or whatever it is. And this was just a way to kind of just get to know them as a person and really humanize them and just find relatable qualities because you know, running or walking or hiking it's something that everybody can do. And I think that it just, you know, it gives a signals to the viewer. There are ways that they're just like I am too.
It's so true that movement fosters incredible conversation. So I love knowing that you guys have been incorporating that into your show, and it not only makes the guests feel human and look human, but I feel like it also for an interviewer. It helps you come up with ideas and maybe things that you would not have thought of if you weren't moving your bodies.
There's something to it that I find really inspirational. Like I will think about again something that might be upcoming that we're going to be whether it's an inauguration or a or some big event, and I'll think, oh, wow, we should bring this up. We should talk about this aspect. And as I was mentioning too, just to kind of multitask. Quite often i'll listen to it audible, you know, an audiobook while I'm running to prepare for that next big event that I'm covering.
I love knowing when staying active is a big part of somebody's life. So I want you to kind of back us up and tell.
Us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up, What were you like as a kid.
So I'm from South Jersey, Moore's town with an E. As I always say, not to be confused, because there's a Moors town in North Jersey. So I'm in a bedroom community of Philadelphia. Go Eagles, by the way. But I think I was very extroverted as a child. I used to dance like Michael Jackson routines during recess, and you know, entertain my family. I would pretend that I had a radio station for whatever we and I remember being in my grandparents' living room and I would like tell like silly jokes and laugh and be like ha ha, that was just a joke.
You know.
My family all kind of entertained this concept of me being this entertainer. And then, interestingly, I don't know, maybe in late middle school or then getting into high school, I kind of became introverted. I started to just be a little shy, and I think I still am. I mean, I'm the kind of person who at a party where I don't know many people, I'm not gonna go up and introduce myself. And it's something that I think surprises people because I have this very public persona at work, but I actually am really kind of a quiet homebody. I love running, obviously, but I love a good book as well, and watching movies, and really, because I'm so I think on the go with my job and career and regularly on a plane. I love just kind of the quiet times at home with family. I would say during high school and everything, I ended up being kind of a nerd. I was playing computer games at home on a Friday or Saturday night, always had a good group of friends. I just for whatever reason, I wasn't the you know, the one out at the life of the party or anything, but just all of a sudden just kind of became a little more introverted.
I find that with a lot of people. Often you go through kind of high school and your adolescence, and it's oftentimes people stray away from kind of some of the things that make them them sure, and it's cool to know that you did end up coming back to that.
It's full circle in a different way.
You know. You think you learned that you like being more to yourself in your personal life, but you do like being extroverted with work.
My mom always tells the story about how I would, you know, entertain and pretend I had my little radio show. It is interesting saying that, you know, somehow there was kind of a seed. I guess that was planted early on of the concept of how I wanted to present information to people, and that now I'm you know, doing this for a living and loving it.
What do you think your younger self would think of you now?
I think my younger self would be surprised that it all worked out in the end. Again, just because I kind of went through that period where I think I kind of like shrunk a little bit, like I just wasn't like the big personality and I can't even think of, you know, what it was that caused that. But yeah, I was very into sports. I think it wasn't until I maybe was thirty that I ran more than three miles ever, you know, at one time. And really what happened. I lived in Indianapolis. I was working at Indianapolis affiliate there and the station hosted the Mini Marathon, which I believe at the time, I don't know that it still holds this title, but it was the largest half marathon in America, and the draw was that you got to run around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They would always encourage us at the station to participate, and I lived along this running trail called the Monon Trail, and I would just be sitting there, you know, eating my chips on the couch and seeing people running by and biking by and rollerblading by. After a while, I started kind of preparing and training along the mona On Trail and ever since that, I started running that every year. And then, as I was saying to you while we were running, how I met my husband was because my cousin had asked him, you know, what are you looking for in a woman, and he simply said one thing, the very high bar of she has to like to run, and that was it. Even though I have some other qualities I think I can bring to the relationship.
It's amazing the people that you meet through running. Let's back up. I want to know how you got into journalism and what it was about journalism, you know, outside of love and entertaining people as a younger kid, what was it about journalism that you were interested in?
So I went to University of Virginia. At the time, they didn't have a communications major, but I wanted to be a psychologist. I figured out I think, you know, you had to declare, I think by your second semester what you wanted to major in. And at eighteen years old or however old I was at the time, I was just like panicked, you know, I needed to decide, and I had already gone through in my mind several concepts. Initially, I always thought I wanted to be a lawyer, and then I felt like, if I'm in a courtroom, there's always gonna be winning and losing, and I'm super competitive, and I thought that just wouldn't be very hell ultimately for my psyche of just like winning and losing all the time for my career. And then I decided I really liked talking to people. I like listening. I think sometimes I go because I I write children's books also, and sometimes I go to schools and read, and like twice I've been asked by some of the students there, the young kids, what's my superpower, which is like a okay, that's a good question to think about. And what I've decided it's empathy. I think I'm able to imagine, you know, walking a mile in someone else's shoes. And so I decided, really I was going to be a psychologist. And then I studied abroad in London that second semester my third year, and it was the first time I was able to just take other classes outside of psychology. I had had a Spanish exchange student from high school for whatever reason, I ended up in the apartment by myself watching last Notesia was watching the news in Spanish. It was almost like that Charlie Brown mom moment of like want, want, want, and just like in that moment, I said, that's what I want to do. And from that time on, once I got back to UVA, just started now researching, Okay, what steps do I have to take, because I didn't want to leave that college to find a communications program to start all over again. So I just still graduated with my psychology degree, and then I went to grad school. So I came here and went to NYU and then got Because it's different now fortunately for students at the time, in order to get an internship you had to get it for college credit. You couldn't even offer to work for free, you know, for a station. So basically I went to NYU just so I could get an internship and did end up interning a WNBC, and I just think it was so helpful just to get a foot in the door and just understand, you know, how the newsroom works. And ever since then just was off to the races. And I really I don't regret, you know, the psychology major, because I think that it helps me relate to people and just kind of meet them where they are. And you know, on our show ABC News Life Prime, we talked to authors, entertainers, politicians, and everybody is kind of coming in at a different tone level and a different you know, background, obviously, and I just think with that background that I have, it just helps me be a little more relatable.
And I feel like having that psychology degree, you learn certain things and mannerisms about people, and it helps you figure out how to interact with kind of anybody. And I also love knowing that you have that very empathetic side of you, which is so important in interviewing.
Quite often I will go into an interview and I think the best question or the best interaction is nothing I planned ahead of time. It's just something I responded to based on listening. So now that what I will say, Because initially I was saying like I was apologizing to my parents because I was like, oh my gosh, you know, you basically have to pay this fifty thousand dollars fornyu so I can go work for free and get this internship. But what that master's degree afforded me was that I could teach college classes. And so when I was in Indianapolis there was a Franklin College, I started teaching this writing for Journalism class, and I've ended up loving being able to teach college students and just when they get it, you know, when they grasp There was just nothing more rewarding for me just to and just to see their excitement and their enthusiasm, and it's just I'm so blessed really that I was able to go through this journey in the way that I did, because I think it's it's all just kind of come full circle.
Absolutely, and it's amazing to be able to go back and teach students what you wish you had known when.
You were there, exactly.
When you first started interning at these networks, it's a very competitive industry. What was your first job when you did start working.
So I was in Syracuse. I was working at the CBS affiliate there and it was basically like a paid internship. I would go out and get mos like which was man on the street. So I would, you know, for whoever was anchoring and they weren't really leaving the building. I would go out and ask the people, like, what do you think about this? New law that's coming to New York. Hillary Clinton was running for Senate for the first time, so I did an interview with her at the time.
Was that your biggest interview?
That was my biggest interview in New York for sure.
Ah. So I just have to say man on the street style interviewing, which is what I started with as well, builds confidence and improv skills like no other.
I agree, And you know what I've learned again maybe that little psychology background, I am pretty good, Like I can ninety percent of the time tell who's going just their body language, who's gonna stop for you and actually answer your question before they were like they opened up their mouth like I'm kind of like, you know, I'll be working with a photographer and they would say, you know what about this guy? And I was like, no, there's no way he's gonna talk to us. And at a certain point you just want to be really sensitive to time and making sure you can get you know, come back with those like four different soundbites. So I think I have a good I'm very perceptive in that way. Who's actually going to talk to you and give you maybe like a decent answer. Some people will surprise you for sure. I remember a bunch of people were sick for Columbus Day that year, and so they just needed me to go out and do an interview. It was my first time on air. I was super nervous. I had no idea what I was doing. I wrote a script that was maybe like five minutes long, and you know, really it needed to be a minute and a half, but that was my It was just very fortuitous because everybody was six. So it was like they turned around, like lindsay, you're going out and doing this, kid, And shortly after that they allowed me to come back. I can and you know, keep doing it pretty regularly after that.
And I know there was another big moment like that in your career. You went from correspondent to being an anchor in twenty twenty. What was the learning curve like going from correspondent to anchor? And you can tell me if I'm getting the terminology wrong, Oh.
No, you're right, I'm right one hundred percent. As I had was always like working my way up the ladder and getting to bigger market. So I started out in Syracuse, then I was in Flint, Michigan. Then I went to Indianapolis. So during my time in Indianapolis, and I ended up being there for about five years, I went from the weekday morning reporter to weekend anchor. Well I was still then, I was doing both. I think then I became like night beat reporter and I did that three days week and then I anchored two days a week. So I kind of had that skill set of being able to anchor and report. I didn't have aspirations of being an anchor. I really just love storytelling. I like talking to people. I like telling their stories. Just kind of fell into the opportunity to anchor it. And even though I always had loved it when I was in local news and being able to do both.
What do you think is the difference between reporting and being an anchor.
I feel when you're actually out on the street and going to the bridge collapse, the plane crash, whatever it is, you're you know, actually gathering the different elements for the story. You're talking to people, you're seeing the visuals, and you're focused on just that one story for the day. When you are anchoring, you're more removed quite often, and you're telling all of the major headlines of the day and you're tossing to different people who are out in the field or on the scene at a different location. So you kind of become a jack of all trades and know a little bit about a lot Versus when you're actually the correspondent or reporter, you know that story in and out. You have your sources and contacts, and you're keeping up with them and really staying on top of any developments with that particular story. As an anchor, what I'm there, it's kind of my job is to tell you what's happening in the world today. Are you safe with regard to you know, war or COVID or stocks, you know what, all the different aspects of any given day's news.
It's amazing the range of topics that you guys have to cover on a daily basis. Is there a briefing that you go through before going on air?
So every day for Prime we have a twelve o'clock Senior's call. Really it's not too long, maybe fifteen twenty minutes, and we're just kind of discussing the obvious headlines of the day, the things that we want to flesh out a little bit more and give a little more nuance and give a little extra time too. And then some of the more what I would call fringe stories. So some of the stories, because we have the luxury of time, we're able to kind of add in some stories that you may otherwise not have heard of. And we do something called prime focus every day where it's an extended story. It might be that where we really focus on something in great detail that you likely will not see anywhere else. And that's what I think is so unique about our show. And to go back to your point of, you know, being an anchor versus a correspondent, the nice thing about our show for me is I'm able to still do both. So even you know, yesterday I was in Illinois. We were doing a story a jailhouse interview with someone who claims that he is innocent and is wrongfully convicted. So I'm able to kind of get off the desk every once in a while and still have those direct connections and do The reason why I got into this was the storytelling. And so it's really again, I'm kind of living a dream in that quite often you're one or the other and I and I am able to do both.
In the setting that you were in yesterday, what is your approach to getting him to open up.
You know, I don't tend to bring notes, So I think that when people see like the notepad and like the pen and oh no, but that that's.
No, that's on my runs. I don't bring notes.
I just think, especially in a scenario like that where you want to disarm, I like to look at it as a conversation and not an interview. And so I'm approaching it like, let's just talk, I will say quite often, which I really see as a complement. People will say, oh wow, I just felt like we were just having a conversation that was so easy. I was so nervous about this, and that was painless. And so I do think that there is an aspect of people when they sit down and they're like, oh, I'm gonna get interviewed and I'm gonna get grilled, and they see like the long list of questions, where people become a little more tense and don't give you their most authentic answer. So I just look at it like a conversation. And again, mostly I'm following up, mostly because I kind of feel like I come in so prepared and I've researched. If you've written a book, I've read it. If you've started a movie, I've watched it, so a lot of it can just be really organic and just whatever my inherent curiosity is, I'm gonna then ask you about it. And quite often just in the conversation, people will say things that actually become bullet point reminders for me, like, oh, yeah, that's right, we mentioned whatever aspect that they just said, and then I'll it becomes a reminder for me that, yes, I wanted to ask about.
That twenty twenty four presidential debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris.
What does preparation look like.
For that kind of a stage when you've got sixty seven million people watching.
It's the most preparation that I ever do in life. When I did my first debate in twenty nineteen, which was a Democratic a primary, I was the most nervous I've ever been in my life, bar none. I remember talking to my best friend and I was just like, it's months away, and when I think about it, I'm having heart palpitations. You know, like, what do I do? I think? Like anything? You know, once you face the fear and you do it one time and you decide, oh I did that and I lived. You know, I lived through it just gets so much easier. So I think that even though the stakes were higher, arguably for the debate that we did in twenty twenty four, because I already had done it a few times at that point, it just didn't feel as nerve wracking because I just felt, Okay, I've done this, I understand how it works. Going into twenty into twenty twenty four, it was a little easier to anticipate just because I had done it a few times before. I was able to, you know, work a little smarter rather than harder in learning as much as I did.
I feel like, at the end of the day, modering a debate like that really is a service to the American people. So it's like you have to go in more prepared than you ever had within the craze of world news and debates, which can sometimes be very negative. I love knowing that you've tapped into a different side of storytelling through writing children's books.
By the way, guys, all of these books are so thoughtful.
Oh thank you, so can you kind of walk us through some of your books and where the inspo comes from.
Thinking about my son as he was, you know, two or three, and wanting to watch mom on the news, and I just felt like, oh, this is this is too heavy, you know, for a little mind to have to watch. So I felt this was something that I could share with him that would be the good news, you know, the positive news. And so I knew when I shortly after he was born that I wanted to write children's books. And I just carried it with me for a few years because I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know where to even begin, and I didn't know what I wanted to write about. And one day when he was like two or three, and I was driving, and he was in a backseat of the car, and he asked, Mommy, does God open up the flowers? And I just thought, what a suite and at the same time introspective question. And I, in that moment, was like, I'm going to try and answer that question in a book that's I think that's my idea. And unbeknownst to him, he really has been my inspiration for each of the books that I've written, you know. At one point he said he came home from preschool and he said, how come Santino has two grandmas and two grandpas and I just have one of each and he didn't remember his paternal grandmother. His paternal grandfather had already passed before he was born. And so I ended up writing this book, How High is Heaven, about this little boy who's trying to go to heaven to meet his grandparents. Because when we had had this conversation, because he said, I want to go see them, and I said, you know, you'll see them one day, you know, they're in heaven. And he would start asking them questions about what is heaven. And fast forward maybe two or three months, and we were on a plane and he was looking out the window and he was like, I don't see them, and this was out of nowhere. I said, you don't see who? And he was like, I don't see Grandma Pee. And so he inspired me, you know, to to write about, you know, kids who are losing and unfortunately it was really during COVID when so many people were losing loved ones and and just trying to explain death I think is a really complicated topic obviously for a young person, but it's it's necessary to have those conversations and just you know the world that he was growing up with the police protest, it was right you know, after George Floyd was killed and COVID was happening, and there was just a lot of tumult. That he was about five years old and was just asking me questions that were really hard questions, and so I would take his questions and really use it as material for, you know, trying to write a book to explain some some some hard truths. I guess in a in a very palatable and appropriate way for a young mind.
I love it, and I especially we love women obviously on this podcast, and I especially love Girls of the World World. Yes, it's empowering.
It's cute.
It shows women that they can do anything, especially little girls.
So even with that one, it's funny because I have a boy. But he inadvertently again inspired that book because I remember one morning I was he loves waffles. So I said to him, like, why don't you just come in here and you can learn how to make the waffles. And he was like, Mom, that's for girls. And I said, what, No, it's not cooking. It's not for girls. And I said, what are you going to do when you grow up and you're not living with mom anymore? He said, my wife is going to cook And so I just thought that's it's so interesting that he has assigned gender roles already. And I think at the time he was like seven years old, I really wanted to empower girls, even for him, you know. I mean, I think that it's that males have a role in understanding early on that women are equals and women need to understand that so and you know, both sexes. I think it's so important, and I think that it's important to plant these seeds early and not have to change minds as adults, but really inform young people as early as possible.
What is something from your career, maybe one thing, one lesson that you want your son to grow up having learned. You know.
I think it really goes back to girls of the world. I think that I just want him to realize that a woman is an equal partner. It's funny to me that he even had this assumption that women are the ones who are at home cooking because other than waffles on a Saturday morning, I'm not really.
Maybe it's just like motherly energy though, you know what, girls can do anything.
That's right, and we can moderate political debates.
Yes, I think also I want him to know that he can do anything that he wants to. You know, I think that early on my parents instilled in me and my I have an older sister that the world is ourn't oyster and the sky is not the limit. And I think I was either smart enough or silly enough to believe them, And so I want to instill that same concept in my son. That you know, there's a famous quote, whether you think you can or you can't do something, you're right. And I think so often we limit ourselves. We put parameters and closed doors and believe that, you know, our options are limited. I just want him to grow up believing that he can do it if he thinks about it and just wants it that and desires it, that he can do it.
As somebody that wants to get into the world of broadcast journalism and become a great storyteller on my own, What is one piece of advice you have for me?
Whatever you do. You know, there's a quote that says, you know, if you want to write books, it's write like a reader, right, And so you start to whatever you're consuming, you start to get an appreciation for what works, what is effective, what draws you in. So I would say, watch the news if you want to be on the news or you know, that's if you want to be an anchor, if you want to be a reporter, study the people. Find your favorite anchor, find your favorite correspondent. What makes them your favorite? I mean, the thing is we are invited guests into people's homes, and what makes that person stand out that you want to you trust them enough to invite them into your living room every day. And so that's my number one piece of advice. Whatever it is you want to do, find who you think is the best person to do it. And that's not to say that you become or emulate that person, but I think you just get a sense of style and effective and what works, and you know, and in an aspirational way, you know, what is that person doing that? What are some of those takeaways that I can use to incorporate into my own style, into my own voice. And I think that that's something that I wish if I could go back, I really would have paid attention at an early age, you know, twelve thirteen, fourteen, to really pay attention to because ultimately, storyteller telling, I think is a formula. I think there's a style. I think there is a sensibility that you over time learn and I, you know, just happened was like kind of in my early twenties when I was learning it, I wish I had learned it a decade earlier.
I was asking somebody the other day, a mentor of mine, you know, is there a class you can take to get really good at interviewing? And she was like, well, of course there's programs in schools and universities, but honestly, you learn.
By doing and by watching.
Exactly what you're saying, Lindsey, what do you have coming up that you're super excited about that you want everyone to know about that's listening or watching.
So I'm looking forward to and I don't have a date yet. I imagine it'll be in April, but we've with Jamie Snow, who I was just mentioning. I went and interviewed him in a prison in Illinois. He says that he's innocent and that he claims that he's been wrongfully convicted for more in excess of twenty five years for a murder that he says he did not commit. We went and interviewed all from Georgetown University students. Jason Flomm, of course, author John Grisham and then went and interviewed Jamie Snow his two daughters who are now grown, and so really all aspects and this is something I having to have a personal interest in criminal justice and injustice. We've done three prior to Jamie Snow jailhouse interviews, all three of them ended up being released from prison. You know. We were doing all just kind of a series on wrongful convictions. So I'm really eager to share that with viewers. Hopefully that'll be on ABCNIWS Life Prime at some point in April.
That's going to be fascinating. I am so excited to watch. Thank you so much Lindsey for sitting down with me today, and thank you to everybody watching and listening.
Post Run High. Thank you hum
