Leah’s Reporter’s Notebook #1: Do as the Romans Do

Leah gears up to report from Knoxville. Photo Credit: Geoff Gusoff

By Leah Donnella

I never went to journalism school, but I often imagine that on the first day of it, students are given some sort of handbook full of Official Journalism Rules. Some, I presume, would be very serious ethical considerations (Don’t make assumptions about your sources; treat people as humans first.) Some would be more practical (Double check that you’ve hit “record”; never leave the house without a pen.) Then, I imagine, there would be the “just trust me” rules – wisdom accumulated from centuries of reportorial trial and error. First in this category, I have to believe, would be: Learn to drink coffee.

There are undoubtedly some reporters who can sit across from someone for an hour, asking intimate questions and making direct eye contact, without the slightest bit of shame. I am not one. I found, while interviewing, that everyone was more comfortable if we had something small in between us; a mug to grasp, a void to stare into, something hot to sip on when we needed a moment to think.

Besides, I learned that people all over the world go hard for their country’s tea or coffee. You’ve had Indian chai, but have you had Somali chai?, I was asked a few thousand times. Have you had single-source Rwandan cold brew? Have you ever even had real coffee, or do you make do with the swill they serve up at American restaurants? (The truth was none of the above – before this trip I survived on about eight cups a day of Kroger-brand decaf green tea, G-d help me.)

So in Nashville and Knoxville and Clarksville and Memphis, I ventured from cafe to coffee shop, drinking cup after cup of Ethiopian coffee and Usambara tea and sometimes, when my body was vibrating, just hot water with honey and lemon. The first few weeks, after a long day of interviews, I would lie in bed at night, staring at the ceiling and thinking, I will never, ever, ever sleep again.

Each evening I would vow never to drink another sip of caffeine. But the morning would come, and the interviews would begin, and I would think, one more cup can’t hurt me, dammit. I believe that a big part of connecting with people is trying to step out of your world and into theirs, if only for a few minutes. So when in Tennessee, I drank as the locals did. I trusted that eventually, my body would catch up with my lifestyle. And until it did, I helped myself fall asleep by embracing another local drinking custom: good ole’ Tennessee whiskey. —LD

Renata Henderson is COO, graphic designer and head roaster at CxffeeBlack in Memphis. Photo Credit: Leah Donnella

Leah (and three cups of caffeine) in editing mode back at NPR West in Culver City. Photo Credit: Adrian Florido