10 Questions with The Daily Beast's Brandy Zadrozny

03/05/2018

Guild member and Daily Beast journalist Brandy Zadrozny has worn many hats. From a mixologist to a librarian (she did earn her master’s degree in Library Information Sciences from Pratt), Zadrozny didn’t start out as a reporter. And although she covers social issues, science, and crime for the Daily Beast, sometimes she truly just enjoys writing think pieces on The Bachelor. Get to know Brandy:

1. If you weren't working in journalism, what would you be doing?
I've had a lot of jobs — bartender, middle school English teacher, college librarian — but if I left reporting tomorrow, I'd go back to school and become a nurse midwife. I'm fascinated by the work of bringing babies into the world and few jobs can beat it in terms of actual importance for women and humanity at large. 

2.  Who's your favorite journalist or writer — living or dead?
Oh gosh. Joan Didion, Herman Melville, Calvin Trillin, Pamela Colloff.

3. What could the news business use more of?
Patience. 

4. Less of?
Competition and scoop mentality. 

5. Name a piece of journalism that moved you profoundly.
Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer has probably had the biggest impact. But lately, a lot coming out of Propublica has been incredibly moving and important. In this recent series, a team of women led by Nina Martin have been investigating maternal complications and death. Martin's first piece was a terrifying account that rocked me for days.

6. What makes you hopeful about the future of journalism?
People in newsrooms seem to be listening to women. That's a start. 

7. What worries you?
We still haven't found a sustainable business model for most journalism. To place so much power in the hands of benevolent benefactors is problematic. 

8. When you're not reporting, what occupies your time?
I have three very young children. So that. 

9. Why is being in the Guild better than not being in the Guild?
There is strength in numbers, power in solidarity, and workers are better with job security. 

10. If you could give someone starting out in journalism one piece of advice what would it be?
Talk less, listen more, and read the whole piece. 

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