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Hey everyone, it's Oda Kotb from the Today Show

0:03

this week on my podcast Making Space. I am

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joined by someone I think you might know, Dateline

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NBC correspondent and beloved

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journalist Keith Morrison. Keith

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and I have known each other for a very

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long time and I consider him not only to

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be a colleague but a friend. In

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this episode, we dive into everything from

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his early days getting started in journalism

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to now becoming a pop culture

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icon. I hope you

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enjoy this sneak preview of our conversation. Keith,

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first of all, I just want anyone

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who's listening to know this, I've known you

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for a long, long time since I first

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started working at Dateline. And

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I have to say you were one

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of the warmest and most kindest spirits

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because it can be scary stepping into

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this whole sort of network

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thing. And it struck me like

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I have to say when I started working at

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Dateline and met you, my heart just kind of

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rested because I was like really nice cool people

1:01

work here. So tell me

1:03

about you becoming a journalist because

1:05

you have this as I think one of

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the old other producers described, you're like the

1:11

Mr. Rogers of murder mysteries.

1:14

You've got that vibe. So

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how did you decide this was the right field

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for you? Oh, I didn't really. Mostly

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failed out of other fields. To

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your first point, when

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I went to Dateline myself, it was

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the same kind of feeling because it

1:34

is, I mean, what's

1:36

that famous line, the TV

1:38

business is a cruel money trench

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where thieves and pimps run free and good

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men die like dogs. But

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Dateline wasn't like that. Dateline has

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always been a family of people who care about

1:50

each other. And when

1:52

you came along, everybody cared about you

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and I felt the same way

1:57

myself. So that's, yeah, that's

1:59

Dateline. fine. But

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I, you know, I got

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into this business just because, well,

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do you really care? Does it? A long,

2:10

long, long time ago. I actually really want to know. I want

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to know. I want to know. A

2:14

long time ago, I was

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busy doing things other than what

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I was supposed to be doing at college. There's

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like political clubs

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and things, very important stuff. But

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I didn't pay any attention to my studies and stuff. My

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dean, the dean of the school I was

2:34

in, said, why don't you go away

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for a couple of years and grow up and you maybe

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you should come back after that. I

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wasn't self-adulter, of course, but I'd said that's

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fine. I would. I didn't have any choice.

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And my dad was a preacher. This

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was in, it was, I was let

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go from the school in about February. My

2:56

dad was a preacher and every spring

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they would send young theology students

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out to the little

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small towns around Saskatchewan to

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fill in for ministers who were taking a month

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off. So you spend the whole summer

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doing that. And

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I had, you know, I wasn't in theology school, but I

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thought, well, I've been around my dad when he's

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preaching for my whole life, so I sort of

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know what to do. So I

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did that for the summer. And that's

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what made me realize I didn't want to be in the religion

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business. When

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that was over, then I was really stuck. I didn't know

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what to do. And I was

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too soon to go back to school. So

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I was sitting in my grandfather's

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house one day watching television and

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the early evening local news came

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on and this guy started

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reading a story about something or other. And

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it was like a little revelation that came

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over me. And I said to myself, I

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can do better than that. And

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so I started applying around

3:58

local TV and radio

4:00

stations until somebody hired

4:02

me in a little radio station. Thanks

4:06

for listening. You can hear my full

4:08

conversation with Keith Morrison by searching, making

4:11

space with how to copy new episodes

4:13

available every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcast. Hey,

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