Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Brandy Zadrozny, Reporter, NBC News

“I can report from my backyard with my feet in a baby swimming pool.”

- Talib Visram. Photograph by Gioncarlo Valentine

The pandemic has made everything crazy in terms of disinformation and conspiracy theories, so what was an all-encompassing beat has now become somehow worse. Everybody’s lost their minds. There’s always something that is desperately in need of someone to shine a light on. So it’s been good in that way, because my work is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I feel fulfilled. But, the stakes are so high.

I cover how technology is influencing people—how it changes the way that we communicate and what we believe. That takes being extremely accessible. I like that anybody can get in touch with me. All of my favorite stories have [started with] basically one woman in a Facebook group messaging me to say, “What do you think of this?” and catching my attention. So when you invite that, [it] comes with a lot of bad stuff. [The hate mail I receive is] a lot, I can tell you that. And it’s from all sides—Instagram, Twitter. It doesn’t really get to me, because these people don’t know me. It’s often about my physical appearance, which I feel pretty fine about. I do have a level of empathy for these folks that I probably shouldn’t, so I tend to view it more with bemusement and sadness than anything else.

I can report from my backyard with my feet in a baby swimming pool, and that’s great. [Working through the pandemic] has been a nice way to show management, and all of the media companies, that a lot of our work can be done from home.