Pt. 1, Making Connections with Donna Apidone: An Unlikely Beginning

Donna Apidone, NPR's Morning Edition Host for 25+ years, shares about her unlikely beginning as a renown radio interviewer.

(transcribed from the WeBeTheChange podcast episode published on 3/19/2025)

Everybody was like, you know, you should find a real job. Don't try to do something crazy like study communication that'll never get you anywhere. Get a real job. And I ignored them. --Donna Apidone

WBTC is thrilled to roll out the red carpet for NPR's Donna Apidone, celebrating her profound journey and the exceptional contributions she has made in the world of broadcast journalism and public communication.

Donna Apidoni is the genuine, reliable, and engaging voice you may recognize from her 25 years of hosting NPR's Morning Edition, reaching over 100,000 listeners who made her an integral part of their morning routine each day.

I appreciate Donna not only as the master interviewer and speaker that she is, but a real life cheerleader in helping me to create this podcast. She's truly an incessantly compassionate, wise, and radiant person.

 So let's get started with our series called Making Connections with Donna Apidoni. This is part one, An Unlikely Beginning.

I really have never considered myself a news person or reporter. I'm just a person with a journalism background who tells stories and talks to people.

PROLOGUE:

In this first segment we'll hear about Donna Apidone's childhood fascination with the voices talking on the radio, and how she ignored the advice of others to follow her passion. We also discuss how to navigate difficult conversations with grace respect and compassion. You'll come away inspired to embrace your own dialogues with openness and vulnerability, using insights that Donna shares on how to transform conflict into connection.

Colleen: 

 I'm honored blessed and privileged to be here with the Donna Apidoni. So glad you're here, Donna.

Donna:

I'm delighted to be here. I didn't know I had to add a the in front of my name, though. That's a great honor. Thank you. (laughter)

Colleen: 

Well, I didn't know either till it came out. And I'm like--well, yes, you're a celebrity--you know, the NPR lady of the Morning Edition, and you have the accolades. But I don't know you in that way. I know you as Donna, and such a treasure as a person.

Donna:

Thank you--as you are.

Colleen: 

I was just thinking this morning about all the amazing people that you have interviewed in so many ways and written about, been involved in production and what you are bringing forth from that.

I feel like I'm just entering the wilderness of that world. And the name John Muir came to mind when I thought of you. I get to interview John Muir this morning!

You have known this trek so well, from so many different angles. What shines in my understanding of what you have done so far is, you have made the wisdom and the brilliance of these people accessible. You have somehow connected with that spark in them and made it available for all of us.

I wonder, did you know early on that this was your calling per se, or did you just kind of somersault into it?

Everybody else was listening to the music. And I was listening to what those DJs were saying.

Donna:

I knew it right away. I knew it as a kid, but it always takes a different form than you think it's going to take. When I was--I don't know, eight, nine, ten years old, everybody had their favorite radio station and we'd all listen to it. And everybody else was listening to the music. And I was listening to what those DJs were saying. And I was so fascinated with how do they know what to say?

So that was always there. And then when I was, 13, my mom had a friend who worked at a radio station and she said, let's go on a Saturday and see what he does. And she was wanting to see what he does. And I just tagged along. It's not like she was doing it as an educational thing for me. And I was just like... (she has her mouth open, by the way.)

Yeah. My jaw was on the floor. I was just so mesmerized by the equipment and everything about it. So I knew I wanted to do that, and as I got into high school and started looking at college and career opportunities, everybody was like, hey,

you know, you should find a real job. Don't try to do something crazy like study communication--that'll never get you anywhere. Get a real job!

And I ignored them.

I actually thought I would be a TV producer. And in college, I worked for a PBS station. And I thought I was going to do something like work for Children's Television Workshop, the people who produce Sesame Street--that was really what I wanted to do. I wanted that educational/production, and I was pretty sure it was going to be in TV. Never was. I got out of college, finished my work at the PBS station when I graduated, and immediately went into radio. For some reason, where I was living at the time, a fairly small town, it was pretty easy for me to get a job at a radio station. And I really didn't touch TV very much along the way.

Now I'm doing more TV, but yeah, it was radio all the way. Who knows how these things happen with their twists and turns.

It also was never meant to be news. I am surrounded, have for many years been surrounded, by really good news reporters and writers. I have a journalism degree--a master's in journalism, so I consider myself a journalist only in title. I don't hold a candle to some of the people I've worked with. I really have never considered myself a news person or reporter. I'm just a person with a journalism background who tells stories and talks to people.

The first thing you said was very interesting because it was a very precise decision for me to be the person who puts a virtual arm around anyone who's listening: We're going to be okay. This is going to be fine. I know it's awful right now. I know we are hearing something weird right now, but I'm with you. We're doing this together. We're going to get through it. And everything's going to be alright.

So that was that was a decision at some point. That did not happen accidentally.

Of all the people I interviewed over the years, I think there was only one person I didn't fall in love with.

Colleen: 

But that was very tangibly real, I'm sure, for each and all of your interviewees to feel that with you.

Donna:

I've been told that. Yeah, I've been told that. I was also told that by just people listening to the radio on an average day. They would say, You know, you said it was going to be 150, but it's going to be okay. And we're going to like that. That happened too. Yeah, I did hear that a lot from the people I was interviewing.

There's an authenticity there, and that sounds egotistical for me to say, but that's what it is when you look at somebody and you're just so interested in what they have to say, I fall into that every time. Of all the people I interviewed over the years, I think there was only one person I didn't fall in love with. I really like this person. I don't like the book. I don't like what they do, but I really like him or her as a person.

So that was real and being able to give them a comfort level just comes automatically from that. And being able to turn that into what an audience thinks is a good show or a good interview also comes directly from that. I'm aware of the audience. I'm aware of the answers the interviewee is giving me,--all that stuff is happening in my head and in my mind, and I'm tracking it as we go. But at the same time, if you don't fall in love with the people you're interviewing, it's not going to happen.

You do that; you fall in love with everybody you talk to.

Colleen: 

Well, I fell in love with you!

You are the perfect person to ask this question, which is... I'm just in the early, very early side of launching this WeBeTheChange podcast. And some of the people on my list, I actually have some disagreements with their perspectives. But I love them as a person. And part of me feels like, you know, I'm not sure if it's really safe to interview them. What if they say this and, then it's assumed that that's how I feel and so forth. When you've encountered that, how has that been for you, and how did you navigate through that?

How can we understand each other without starting an argument or without being combative in any way? And since the two of us were willing to not be defensive about what we were saying, it created that space.

Donna:

I navigate through it in the same way I navigate through any other conversation.

I had a really long conversation privately with a friend of mine recently, and we got on the topic of politics, and we agree on certain things, but really disagree on other things.

It was a brilliant conversation where neither one of us took a strong stand, but we were very inquisitive of each other, and we kept coming around to-- Well, I feel this way about it. Why do you see it that way? Or can you explain to me why you think this and not that? Or how did you come to that opinion, it doesn't match this other thing you said?

And several times we called each other on being in conflict with something we had said 20 minutes earlier. Well, if you said that, then it doesn't match this. Oh, you're right. Let me think about that. I guess what I think is this. And that rather than that and this.

We just kept coming around it as friends to this middle ground. Like, how can we understand each other without starting an argument or without being combative in any way? And since the two of us were willing to not be defensive about what we were saying, it created that space.

So I think you do that naturally anyway, you create space with the people you're with and around. I think you're going to do that very naturally.

You can have that conversation because you truly see each other at the essence and know that there is no conflict at that level. It just doesn't exist. And from knowing that, you can have these inquisitive, reflective conversations that actually help you both grow.

Colleen:

Oh, thank you. Thank you. That means more than I can tell you. I hear in what you just said something super valuable, I'm sure not just for me, but to the general climate right now. I know there are several people I've spoken with who are like deer in the headlights. They don't know how to talk with members of their family and people who are dear to them, about the elephant in the room. And they're terrified; some of them are terrified.

To pretend that the elephant's not in the room is one way that I think we have to employ sometimes. But what you described about this conversation with your friend, to me, feels like sacred ground because you can have that conversation because you truly see each other at the essence and know that there is no conflict at that level. It just doesn't exist. And from knowing that, you can have these inquisitive, reflective conversations that actually help you both grow.

I witnessed that once in my partner when we were at a dinner party and my jaw was dropping because I thought I didn't think this was possible, but look at this! I felt like I had to stop chewing my dinner and just listen, because it can happen.

I saw a Facebook post from a dear friend of mine somehow it came on my feed. I was triggered. I mean, I was traumatized. I was in tears and there was just something about the image that I saw that struck me to the core. I was in a different place. I don't know exactly what that was. I have an idea, but I was really emotional. I could not have had a conversation at that moment with probably anybody. But I did use the tools that I have learned over the years in my transformational coaching, which I got into out of personal need. It took me a while actually, I had to kind of pull some of them out of the closet. I had to to work on where that trigger came from and cradle it and accept it and make it safe to go there together in my own self.

The acid test for me was sharing a delightful, warm-feeling meal with them over the holidays. I felt like this is good; we actually did not approach that particular subject directly. But indirectly, I heard myself expressing things. There was no division between us in life principles that were really relevant to me at the time.

There was nothing but wholehearted agreement. So I feel like I didn't fall in the gutter and get carried away into some drainage pipe somewhere. I picked myself up. And it's so good to know we can do that. And this is the perfect time to practice because there's a lot of intensity in the air.

We're here to reach that middle ground. We're here to have compassion. We're here to check ourselves...and say, where did that come from?

Donna:

Intensity is the right word. There's a lot of intensity in the air. But that's why we're here. We're here to reach that middle ground. We're here to have compassion. We're here to check ourselves as you did and say, where did that come from? And try to figure it out and then use it in the next case and be that much wiser and that much brighter, because we have the experience . 

EPILOGUE:

What a conversation; Donna Apidone's journey and wisdom remind us just how powerful storytelling and human connection can be. From following her passion for radio against all odds, to creating space for open, honest conversations, she shows us the magic of curiosity and compassion.

What were your biggest takeaways?

I'm reminded that navigating tough conversations can actually bring us closer when I approach them with openness, respect, and a willingness to really listen.

Here's a question for you. When was the last time you had a conversation that challenged you, and also helped you to grow? And how did you grow from that experience?

Donna's insights are a beautiful reminder that we don't have to agree on everything to stay connected. We can just keep showing up with an open heart.

 Join us in our next episode where we find Donna at the intersection of ministry and media. We'll hear her share why she became an ordained interfaith minister in 2009, and how that deepened and expanded her world of diversity, depth, and understanding world religions and backgrounds and--most of all, human connections.

I'm going to end this episode with a song I wrote to some words that you may recognize as the prayer of St. Francis. A big hug to all who embody the heart of this prayer, which reminds me a lot of Donna Apidone.