It’s a grand, grand caper. You get to leave, go talk to strangers, ask them anything, come back, type up their stories, edit the tape. That’s not gonna retire your loans as quickly as it should, and it’s not going to turn you into a person who’s worried about what kind of car they should buy, but that’s kind of as it should be. I mean, it beats working. — David Carr
Though I didn't know it at the time, the proudest moment of my career came when a 70-year-old woman handed me a baby and a wiener dog outside a church in Alaska.
I'd been standing there, microphone-in-hand, interviewing voters on election day. I introduced myself as a reporter, and before I knew it, into my hands a woman dropped a 3-month-old child and a leash tethered to a feisty Dachshund. She told me to watch them and vanished inside — leaving me dumbfounded. She came out five minutes later.
"I knew I could trust a reporter," she said as she reclaimed her companions.
I think about that moment when I ponder why I do what I do. My name is Jake Steinberg and I'm a devotee of local news and a proud public servant. I’m curious about people, technology, urbanity and nature. The friction between them is where I’ve found the stories I most want to tell.
I recently graduated from the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism. I'm spending 10 weeks this summer reporting on natural disasters for Carnegie-Knight News21. After that, I hope to bring my passion and experience somewhere with stories in need of telling.
I'm inspired by the work and words of fellow Twin Cities native David Carr, and I aspire to be even half as tenacious. When I'm not reporting, I like to cook things involving chickpeas, chip away at my reading list and mull over Bob Dylan lyrics.
