Long-time NPR reporter Peter O’Dowd was recently elevated to co-host of “Here & Now,” the daily show where he’s worked for more than a decade.
HPR has taken note of “Here & Now's” coverage of Hawaiʻi, including interviews with artists Kalani Peʻa and Jake Shimabukuro and Gov. Josh Green. (The show can be heard on HPR-1 Monday through Friday from 9-11 a.m. — right before The Conversation.)
The Conversation spoke with O’Dowd about how reporting has changed in the age of misinformation and how to overcome the gloominess of difficult headlines.
Interview highlights
On changes while working on “Here & Now”
PETER O’DOWD: I think that more than anything, the industry has changed a lot. Just print and broadcast, you name it. Everything has just gone through the wringer, really, culturally, economically, that sort of thing. And so I remember when I first started at "Here & Now," it was in 2014, so like 11 years ago. But I do feel like we were able to get out in the country a lot more. We would have an idea for a project, and we'd be on the road. I remember we covered the 2016 election. We were on the road all summer long, going to dozens of states. And it was great. It's not that we don't do that anymore, but I think one of the biggest changes is that we're all really aware of being good stewards of the resources that we have. So we want to tell the same ambitious stories that we've always been doing, but we got to sort of be more careful now. We got to think about it. We have to realize that every dollar that our stations send to us, and every dollar that we get — because we're not getting money from the CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, anymore — it matters a lot more. And I feel like that sense of uncertainty is the biggest difference.
On how to deal with disinformation
O’DOWD: Well, I can say that as a journalist, it's scary. It feels easy to get duped. And so I guess from that perspective, I would say we just have to continue doing what we're good at, which is vetting stuff, not rushing to get on the air. … As a journalist, we just have to pause. We have to say, "All right, how much do we trust what we're saying right here?" Because we cannot make that mistake. We cannot put something on the air that is fake, that's false, it's fabricated. And so it's a scary little area that we're in right now. And I think the answer is to slow down and to double check and to triple check, and just to do our jobs as journalists.
On the importance of covering stories across the country
O’DOWD: One of my main goals is to recognize that the country is such a fascinating place, and in order to cover it, as we say, we do, we have to go there. We can't ignore Hawaiʻi. We can't ignore Alaska. We can't ignore southern Arizona or El Paso, Texas. We have to pay attention to what's going on across the country, because that's the only way we understand some of the complex issues hitting this country very hard in the communities who live here. So I think we can't do our jobs unless we make a very concerted effort to go to individual states to individual stations and to get them involved. It's so easy to follow the news out of Washington, D.C., the economic news out of New York. If you're a show that's based in Boston, or even if you're in Los Angeles, like, it's not the same as everything that's going on in the interior of the country. I think public radio recognizes that, and I think we all know that that's important, but actually doing it takes time and energy. Every day you wake up and you have to realize, are we in the country? That's what we sometimes say in our meetings. Are we out in the country enough? And then we might make an adjustment.
On embracing a variety of news stories for audiences, finding public radio
O’DOWD: We do have to live in the misery of the world more than we would like to, and I certainly understand when the audience feels the same way; they've got things to do, they're busy, they want to live their life. They don't want to live in the mud, so to speak. But I think most people know that it is important to know what's going on in the world. But I think our job as journalists, as the people who are behind the content that's on public radio, is to do a little bit of everything, is to remember that the news is more than doom and gloom. The news is also to delight and to entertain people. You'll hear me laughing maybe more than you like on the air, because I take great interest in things, and I think we need to bring curiosity to the air, and we need to have fun on the air. We need to remember that all of these things are part of what it means to be human. And that's what the news is, too. We have to incorporate it all, or we will lose people, I think, who just can't take all the negativity. ...
It wasn't until after college that I realized that in order to be the writer that I wanted to be, it had to be in public media. There was no other option, because once I did start listening to public radio, later in life, and I heard the opportunity that it presents for storytelling, for taking people places, for using sound instead of my own words to tell a story, it was really, really captivating. And so for me, I came to public radio probably in my mid-20s, realizing that this was the kind of writing that I wanted to do, to be clear and concise and to use short, direct, declarative sentences. It really, really appealed to me as a way of communicating, as a way to capture people's minds and their hearts.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 12, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
