National Public Radio reporter Ari Shapiro said in a speech Monday that his interest in the White House originally had nothing to do with politics, but his experiences covering president Barack Obama’s administration since 2010 changed that.
Shapiro, who was the university’s second speaker in the 2013-2014 radio broadcast journalism series, spoke in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center Auditorium about his experiences as a White House correspondent
His stories have appeared on public radio networks across the country.
During his talk, Shapiro recounted his experiences as a White House correspondent, including covering Mitt Romney’s campaign trail in 2012 and meeting President Barack Obama on Air Force 1.
Shapiro said his interest in the White House originally had more to do with curiosity than an interest in politics.
“I really like stories; I like meeting people, and I like learning about new things and the world around me,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro, who spends one in every three weeks covering the White House, described the experience as “sprinting on this treadmill,” as he is continually covering whatever the president does on a daily basis.
During one of his first encounters with Obama, Shapiro said he remembers being close enough to see the razor bumps on the president’s chin.
“It was a strange humanization of this guy,” Shapiro said. “I realized— for the first time really— that this was not just, you know, the President of the United States. This is a guy who wakes up every morning, shaves and gets razor bumps just like anybody else.”
Shapiro said his encounters with people across the United States during his months on the campaign trail opened his eyes to the country’s diversity.
Shapiro’s career will soon take a radical turn as he moves from Washington, D.C. to London. Once in Europe, his focus will shift from United States politics to any world news that may be of interest to the American public.
“Life is too short to do any one thing for too long, and I’d sort of thought about what I would do next,” he said. “It was when that position opened that I thought, ‘What an amazing opportunity.'”
Having listened to him on the radio in the past, senior Ryan Quinlivan thought Shapiro’s view of the world, as well as his insight on the nation and its politics, was interesting and unique.
“What’s interesting is that NPR, rather than just reporting the news, tells some really incredible stories about incredible people,” Quinlivan said.
Community member Sheryl Burkhardt said Shapiro’s talk gave her a clearer insight into his work.
“I didn’t realize that (the White House correspondents) were sometimes there and sometimes out in the field,” Burkhardt said.
Shapiro said he is excited for his future job in London, as it will give him the freedom to report on a wide variety of topics.
Nick Cocchiarella can be reached at cocc7813@stthomas.edu.