As the year comes to a close, Vermont Public Morning Edition host Jenn Jarecki has been reflecting on 2025, and something in particular stands out: a visit from NPR Morning Edition host Leila Fadel this past April.
Fadel was on a reporting trip in Vermont to interview Moshen Mahdawi, a student protester living in Vermont's Upper Valley, who'd been swept up by ICE at an immigration appointment where he thought he was going to become a citizen.
The morning after the interview, Fadel came into the Vermont Public studio with Jarecki to listen to her conversation with Mahdawi as it was airing live. The event deeply moved Jarecki, who reconnected with Fadel earlier this month to talk about that moment and many other things.
They bantered about the Thanksgiving holiday, when Fadel "fake helped" her sister by rolling pre-made rolls.
Jarecki also asked about the time pop icon Sabrina Carpenter told Fadel that she had the most calming speaking voice in the world. The award-winning journalist called it a "career highlight" and said it put her "on cloud nine."
They also talked about Fadel's trip to Vermont.
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Leila Fadel: Well it was a highlight for me, too, getting to be at the station interact with you. I know we're up at the same time every day and probably speaking to Vermont at the same time or following each other, but we'd never met before, which was amazing. I found there to be just a kindness and an openness to everybody I met in Vermont, a curiosity. And it makes sense to me why there is support for the public station there, because I can imagine that everyone I met depends on it and listens to it and supports it. So it made me feel grateful to come out there to visit, to meet people, and I wish I had gotten to spend more time.
Jenn Jarecki: Well, we hope you will come back again very soon.
Leila Fadel: Yeah, definitely.
Jenn Jarecki: Would you describe for listeners like what it's like when you travel for a story, and how member stations like Vermont Public play a role in that?
Leila Fadel: The blessing at Morning Edition is that when I go into any part of the country, I can lean on the people who are from there because we have a station that is covering the community that I'm going to be visiting. I can reach out and, without fail, reporters and editors and producers are willing to open the doors of their studios, are willing to give me advice and tips on what I'm doing, are willing to tell me, "That doesn't really track. I would look at this, or talk to this person." And so, unlike a lot of places, it doesn't feel as much like parachuting because I'm parachuting with this cushion of real knowledge that is helping make sure that our work reflects the community we're visiting.
Jenn Jarecki: So, it was one of the greatest privileges of my professional career to listen to that interview with you, like, feet from me here in the station. What motivated you to come in to hear it, instead of just sitting outside and listening to it? Why come in with me and listen?
Leila Fadel: To me, listening is something you do in community. First of all, it's my interview, so you sort of lose your perspective after hours of like editing and "cut this" and "keep this" because it ends up we have nine minutes and we interviewed him for half an hour or whatever. So being able to be with somebody else who's hearing it for the first time and reacting to it for the first time, and who also has the listening ears of a host, right? Like you do this every day. You listen to audio every day, you create audio every day. And so for me, it was a beautiful thing to be able to listen to it with you. Seeing you get emotional and being touched by the interview felt like, OK, that means America will feel that, too, and this hit the right note.
Jenn Jarecki: Sorry, I'm getting a little verklempt...
Leila Fadel: It was amazing, in the sense of getting to listen to it with you. I mean, we do the same thing, you know, for a little bit of different audiences, but we do the same thing every morning. We want to inform. We want to get to the person who's at the center of a story. Make sure we give our mic to the most powerful and the most powerless. Do the fact checking. Do the work. When it finally goes on the air every day you're still nervous, like, "Did I do everything in my power to make this as objective, as fair, as honest and as reflective to the experience we had in the room?" And I just want to underscore that, because there's been so many attacks on journalists — as if we sit around trying to be biased. Actually, our entire day is taken up with what have we missed? What voices could we bring on? How can we do better tomorrow? Because we aspire, not perfectly always, to be reflective of this entire country.
Jenn Jarecki: Even once the story is published, I think those questions are still asked. And you are kind to say so, Leila, and we do similar things, but you are doing you are doing the good work of talking to some of the most powerful people in the world, some of the most popular people in the world, and holding that space for upwards of 14 million listeners every morning.
Leila Fadel: It's a privilege and it's a huge responsibility. I know that I'm a stand-in for the listener, for the American public, that turns to us to ask the hard questions, to dig deeper, to get reflective. You know, every interview is not the same. Sometimes I'm speaking to people who really do have power to change the life of Americans in this country, and in that moment, you want to make sure you're prepared, you're asking the right questions that listeners have on their minds, and you're not afraid to make things uncomfortable because that's the important question to ask, no matter their reaction. And sometimes the job is to listen and and ask questions in the right moment about art and culture or an experience that someone's been through to build a bridge to maybe somewhere that our listeners might never visit, whether that's Vermont or Damascus. So I don't take it lightly, what I do. I think things through, I prepare as much as possible with a staff that is talented and amazing of editors and producers who are working to book the right guests, to to do the research, to do the work. Do we do it perfect every time? No, but we're always looking to try to get there.
