Lester Holt Expects some of the skills he developed during one of the earliest points in his career to keep it going.
The NBC News veteran, who started on the radio and was once known as “the fastest microphone in the west” When he worked for San Francisco Station KCBS. Now he dips back in sound, with his first original podcast series. In “The Last Appeal” was issued as the latest podcast from NBC News’ “Data line“Holt will investigate the case with Robert Roberson, a Texas man who is planned to be killed on October 16 for shaking her two-year-old daughter so hard that she died of a brain injury.
“A shaken child may seem to be a narrative sign, but not necessarily,” says Holt during a new interview, noting that so -called “Shake Baby Syndrome” is a theory “that has been largely discredited in recent years. Under “The Last Appeal” – four episodes planned for Air Monday. October 6 to Thursday 9 October – Holt reviews the case and even tracks the management detectives on what thinks he made a mistake.
For Holt, the project is a reminder of the value of audio and conversation in journalism after years that is spent as One of the most recognizable faces in a strong visual medium. “I use different muscles and learn a lot. I’m still a TV guy, but like many TV guys I can see the future” for podcast and audio work.
Holt traveled to Palestine, Texas, to talk to the principals and experts in the case and were sometimes deflection of celebrities he has gathered over the years to get down to real talk. “I knocked on some people’s doors” with others on a trailer, he explains, and a woman, after seeing who visited, shouted to her family, “Lester Holt is on our porch!” Still, says Holt, “She stopped being an important interview.”
In fact, the absence of cameras may have helped. Interviewers may feel less frightened, he says, and perceives less need to play or perform. This leads to deeper conversation that podcast listeners can evaluate. “Much of it is healthy,” he says, noting that the listener will hear his car door melt and his car begins when he grows up to meet people for interviews. “This is sound, but it is a very effective way to tell,” and the story “is a great way to take people into the heart of a story.”
Holt has not made a break with the visual parts of the news. After passing away from the anchor job on “NBC Nightly News” earlier this year, he still hosts “Dateline” and makes some stories for the long -term franchise as well.
Holt’s probe in the Roberson case actually marks his latest dive in criminal justice – a topic he has investigated on several points in his career. Longtime viewers may remember that he spent three days and two nights locked inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary 2019 for a “Dateline” special that gave viewers a rare look at the prison’s high -risk criminal unit. He also moderated a town hall on criminal justice at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Dan Slepian, a veteran “Dateline” producer who has worked with Hold on some of his previous reporting, is involved in the current podcast.
Examination of questions that are bound to mass prison, says Holt, often shows convincing stories. People who look at the reports are tense to ask, “makes this all safer, which really is what we want,” he says. In addition, many of the subjects in the middle of such stories do not always receive a voice when discussing them, and he appreciates the chance to showcase people who are not always allowed to contribute to debates on major issues.
The anchor “took summer” after leaving “nightly” – something he has not been able to do in several years – and learned to decompress a little. “I’ve learned to get past the broken news moments,” he says when he needed to find out if he had to get on a plane to cover a national history of imports. Someone else is on guard, says Holt.
Now he thinks of other projects he can deal with -for traditional “Dateline” reports and other NBC news places. “I’m wide open for ideas,” he says, “and have had some preliminary spit ball calls.”
