F.A.T. Podcast Episode 79 – Evan Dawson Part 2

On this episode of the Food About Town podcast, I am bringing you the second part of my interview with Evan Dawson from WXXI. You most likely know him from the show Connections that he hosts every day from 12-2pm which tackles food, politics, policy and everything in between. This second episode transitions over from wine into talking about Evan’s career and interviewing in general. This is a change of pace for the Food About Town podcast, but while I had him in the studio I wanted to learn more about how he runs Connections.

There aren’t a lot of longer discussions with Evan out there and I am very proud to bring it to all of you. We hit a lot of serious topics and this is one of my favorite talks I’ve done. I’d appreciate it if you could share this out. This really scratched an itch in my head and I hope it does for you too.

This episode is brought to you by Phrank.ly. Phrankly is working to make sourcing and distribution for restaurants, farms and specialty goods more transparent and change the way people find their food. 

I took a note from Jesse Thorn’s The Turnaround podcast (highly recommended BTW) where he interviewed interviewers about interviewing and went on a meandering journey through how Evan has made his name here in town. I hope you’ll indulge me in not covering food for an hour because we didn’t mention it at all in Part 2 here. I think it is important to have these kind of conversations and I will definitely take these opportunities when they come up. Evan is one of the most visible journalists in Rochester and I think this interview offers up some perspectives you may not have heard before from him.

We did briefly talk about his contentious interview with Lovely Warren and how he handles those kind of situations. This was a huge topic in Rochester recently and I was glad I could ask him about it. I touched on his journey from working in TV to an established radio show, the ups and downs of commercial TV, and how he balances his own opinions in the questions he asks. We spent some time on experiential anecdotes vs evidence based data which is an important topic for me. We also spent a fair amount of time talking about a recent episode of Connections with people from the local Black Lives Matter movement and how that interview was handled. I think it was one of the more riveting hours of radio I’ve heard this year and getting Evan’s perspective on it was fascinating.

Check Evan out on Twitter to see what is coming up on Connections and listen to his show daily on WXXI from 12-2pm or catch it on the podcast feed through your favorite app.

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Thanks!