Murder & Magnolias - Keith Morrison on Making Space with Hoda Kotb

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

As a bonus for Dateline fans, we’re sharing a preview of the Making Space with Hoda Kotb podcast. In this week’s episode of Making Space, TODAY co-anchor Hoda Kotb is joined by our very own Keith Morrison. Keith and Hoda have known each other for a long time, since Hoda was a Dateline correspondent back in the 1990s. They dive into everything from Keith’s early days getting started in journalism to now becoming a pop culture icon.You can listen to the full conversation by searching “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” or by clicking here: https://link.chtbl.com/ms_sflw

Hey everyone, it's Hoda Kotb from The Today Show. This week on my podcast Making Space, I am joined by someone I think you might know, Dateline NBC correspondent and beloved journalist Keith Morrison. Keith and I have known each other for a very long time and I consider him not only to be a colleague but a friend. In this episode, we dive into everything from his early days getting started in journalism to now becoming a pop culture icon.

I hope you enjoy the sneak preview of our conversation. Keith, first of all, I just want anyone who's listening to know this. I've known you for a long, long time since I first started working at Dateline. And I have to say, you were one of the warmest and most kindest spirits because it can be scary stepping into this whole sort of network thing.

And it struck me, like I have to say, when I started working at Dateline and met you, my heart just kind of rested because I was like really nice, cool people work here. So tell me about you becoming a journalist because you have this as I think one of the old other producers described. You're like the Mr. Rogers of murder mysteries.

You've got that vibe. So how did you decide this was the right field for you? Oh, I didn't really. Mostly failed out of other fields. But to your first point, when I went to Dateline myself, it was the same kind of feeling because it is, I mean, what's that famous line?

The TV business is a cruel money trench where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. But Dateline wasn't like that. Dateline has always been a family of people who care about each other. And, you know, when you came along, everybody cared about you. And it was, and I felt the same way myself.

So that's, yeah, that's dateline. But I, you know, I got into this business just because, well, do you really care? Does it? A long, long, long time ago. Yes, I actually really want to know. I want to know. I want to know. A long time ago, I was busy doing things other than what I was supposed to be doing at college.

You know, it was in various, uh, like political clubs and things, very important stuff, but I didn't pay any attention to my studies. And so my Dean, the Dean of the school I was in said, why don't you go away for a couple of years and grow up and you, maybe you should come back after that. I was insulted, of course, but I said that's fine. I would. I didn't have any choice. And my dad was a preacher. This was in, it was, I was let go from the school in about February. My dad was a preacher and every spring they would send young theology students out to the little small towns around Saskatchewan to fill in for ministers who were taking a month off. So you spend the whole summer doing that. And I wasn't in theology

school, but I thought, well, I've been around my dad when he's preaching for my whole life, so I certainly know what to do. So I did that for the summer. And that's what made me realize I didn't want to be in the religion business. But when that was over, then I was really stuck. I didn't know what to do. And I was too soon to go back to school. So I was sitting in my grandfather's house one day watching television. And the early evening local news came on. And this guy and the early evening local news came on. And this guy started reading a story about something or other. And it was like a little revelation that came over me.

And I said to myself, I can do better than that. And so I started applying around local TV and radio stations until somebody hired me in a little radio station. Thanks for listening. You can hear my full conversation with Keith Morrison by searching Making Space with Hoda Kotb. New episodes available every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.