This week on The Book Drop, we dive into News Literacy Week with special guest Daniel Vanourney, Lance staff member and circulation manager for The Lance, Westside High School’s student-run print publication. Together, we explore the importance of news literacy—the ability to evaluate whether information is trustworthy—and the vital role student journalism plays in an informed community.
Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the original intent of the conversation. It is provided to improve accessibility and may not be a strictly verbatim record of the audio.
Transcript
Daniel: But state journalism, I think, and local journalism is important because it gets the stories that might not otherwise be told by the national publications. Right? It gets them told.
[Music]
Maggie: Hello and welcome to The Book Drop, Omaha Public Library’s podcast about books, our community and the joy of reading. I’m Maggie Petersen, and I’m the outreach manager for Omaha Public Library. And I’m joined as always by…
Amy: Amy Mather, the partnerships manager for Omaha Public Library.
[Music crescendo and ends]
Maggie: There's something about the cold that just makes me lose all sense.
Amy: Yeah, it's brutal and gets too much.
Maggie: We're in an Arctic freeze.
Amy: We are. Happy winter.
Maggie: Happy winter. Yeah, we are one month down. Yeah. So that's good.
Amy: It's true.
Maggie: I've always said the worst thing about winter is, like, all of the things I look forward to. And it happened in the first week. And then I just kind of have to white knuckle it. Yeah. Until the end. Yeah. And it's long and brother
Amy: Wear our sleeping bag coats.
Maggie:. I hate wearing a coat. It's so much material. I'm so overstimulated. I'm just like,
Amy: Are you really? Oh, my God,
Maggie: It's okay. Okay. I'm living a nightmare. Yeah, well, I can tell you that. Welcome to the Book Drop podcast. Yeah, we're having a terrible time. Just kidding. We're having a great time.
Amy: Inside, where it’s warm. Yes, indeed. Yeah.
Amy: So, how's, the TikTok exiting going?
Maggie: So I kind of. Time is meaningless. I realize it’s been a whole week since I stopped being on the TikTok. And I thought I was going to guide that when I first got it off and be like, well, we'll see how long this last. I have not gotten back on it since. But I have to tell you, I feel very disconnected in a way, that was where I was getting everything. All of my pop culture, all of my fashion, all of my local stuff, all of my news, everything.
I mean, maybe not that like my sole source, but it was where I'd hear a lot of things first and then follow up with other sources. But it's weird. I'm having to learn a whole new lifestyle. It feels like.
Amy: Well, I'm also having to figure out where I'm going to get my pop culture news, because that was you.
Maggie: I was your reporter and my source was TikTok.
Amy: Exactly. So I feel a little, also a little.
Maggie: I promise to do better by you. I'm going to figure it out this week. I feel like I get a lot of my stuff on Reddit right now.
Amy: Oh, well, that's okay. I will say I did have a – I couldn't remember what I was going to ask you, but it was a pop culture thing that I needed to consult with you. And then I felt lost.
Maggie: I remember we were in a meeting or something. You're like, oh, I meant to ask you. This celebrity couple broke up, right? And I was like, who? Because you just said literally that celebrity couple. And I'm like, who? Who didn't? I don't know, but I think, oh God, you would have known it. I probably would have if I had been on TikTok. Give me as little information as possible.
Amy: You figure, it out. You're chaotic that way.
Maggie: And it is chaos. It is chaos. Well, it's good, good timing to be talking about this because we are coming up on News Literacy Week.
Amy: I know this is our second episode. We did one last year during News Literacy Week. Amazing. It really was because we had a phenomenal conversation with Matt Wynn. The founder of Flatwater Free Press. And it was a really fun, interesting conversation with him. So we're going to add some of those links back into our show notes. Just because they were so great.
Maggie: And it is a busy time for them. So it is while we would love to have them on, on whenever, whenever they can, I know you still wanted to recognize the week and so we did have a very extra fun guest this week.
Amy: And we have an origin story of how that happened. But let's, we'll introduce, so we had a great conversation with Daniel Vanourney, who is the circulation manager of the Lance at Westside High School.
And I first met Danielle, so the email got forwarded to me from a collection development manager because he had reached out to her wanting to expand the reach of the print publication of the Lance, and Deirdre had forwarded it to me. So I reached out to Daniel and he came by and we met, and I was immediately struck by how passionate and energetic also, what?
I mean, that's amazing. Very charming. He was so charming. And, we love, we adore him. And so we now have the Lance available in all of our branches for folks to pick up and take home. And I love the stories. I think it's such a cool thing to have a journalism program in the high school, where they really get to, test out their, all the things related to journalism.
Maggie: Yes. It's obviously in a lot of journalism classes, you're learning the basics, you learn like the mechanics and everything, but then actually do, go out and practice it.
Amy: I know I think all we had was a yearbook, I don't think I mean, I was not in that crowd. So I was more in the me hang out with the, the garage bands crowd,
Maggie: Much cooler than I was.
Amy: I don't know, I should have been hanging out with the journalism crowd. However it is, it's been, it's been such a delight to actually have the connection to Daniel and to see where it all starts, and that I like to see where he will go to because this is last year. Yeah. In high school. Yeah.
Maggie: So we got to go to West Side High School and actually interview him and get lost in West Side High School. Yeah. Which was also fun.
Amy: Oh we did, we were trying to get to the recording room but we made a wrong turn and ended up in the cafeteria.
Maggie: We got set straight a couple times. We did.
Amy: But the nice lady in the cafeteria said, you're welcome to come back and have some food if you'd like. And we were like, we might, we might actually do that. It's that time of day. Yeah, yeah.
Maggie: So, stay tuned and hear our conversation. Let's hear more.
An Interview with Daniel Vanourney, Westside High School | The Lance
I'm Daniel Vanourney, I am a senior at Westside High School, circulation manager and staff writer for the Lance, which is our journalism department's, print news magazine. And I like movies. I like music. I like books. Excited to be here today.
Amy: We're so excited to be here with you and to interview you for News Literacy Week.
Daniel: I know, yeah, it's nice being on the other side. Normally I'm the one doing the interviews okay I'm sure. Yeah. It's nice being on the other side.
Maggie: How often are you interviewing? Would you say
Daniel: It really just depends on, like, because our cycles are usually like two week cycles. So got two weeks, get two stories. Just depends.
Sometimes I'll do two stories that do are both interviews. Sometimes I'll do one as I get needs interviews. One that's like, opinion or review or something. Sometimes I'll do two opinions or reviews, so it really just depends. I will say sometimes when you got two interviews, it's like, gotta lock in because yeah, luckily my freshman year I made the mistake of not downloading Otter to transcribe interviews.
And now I started doing that like my sophomore year. Saves me so much time. Because I just basically export it all into a Google doc, and then I can just copy and paste quotes where I need them and so much to it.
Maggie: Well, we're here to talk today about newsletter news literacy. We have and one thing we just want to kind of touch on is the world of high school journalism. I think it's something that maybe, some obviously, some people are maybe a part of when they were in high school. But, other people might not be kind of aware about it. So can you tell us more about, like, I guess, your experience with it?
Because at Westside you have the Lance. Can you tell us a little bit about, like, its history? And what you cover is student writers, photographers,
Amy: And you have a print edition as well as an online edition. Yeah. And they serve two different audiences. Is it separate content?
Daniel: So yeah, we have Lance and shield. Shield is our yearbook. Lance is our print news magazine. To my knowledge, those two, both been around forever. Those are like the two original publications nowadays. We're kind of split off into like a few different ones because there's wired, which is our online. It's our website. Westside Wire Net and Lance and West Side Wired. Both are similar in a way, because a lot of the Lance stories do get uploaded there.
There is a digital version. I think that we do through ISSUU that we put on Wired and then but it's a sport. It's mainly it's a lot of sports stories. So we try to get our staff through this semester thankfully by like six people, which is nice.
Maggie: How many people total then do you have right now?
Daniel: About between – because Wired and Lancer together like they're trying to merge the two publications. So they're like more intertwined, which is nice. Which makes sense to me, frankly, because it's a lot of the same type of content that you see on both of them. So we're about 20 to 22 people probably right now. Which isn't too shabby because, yeah, two years ago, because this is the first year that we're, like, really trying to intertwine the two of them.
Last year we were maybe like 10 people on Lance, so. And then we. Yeah. So it's like nice that we're intertwining them. And then because frankly again a lot of the content is the same which is nice. So yeah.
Amy: And what got you interested in pursuing, investing your time and your talent into the Lance.
Daniel: Yes. Well, my dad went to Bryan High School and he was like his newspaper's editor for the last two years, I think, when he was at Bryan.
So he was just kind of did it. His degree is in like communications from UNO. So I kind of just did it because he did it. And I'm like, you know, I'll see if I like it or not. So took the semester long last communications course, which is just like the prerequisite to join any of the publications.
And we also have sports journalism, photojournalism and WTV, which is where we're like right now, which is like the broadcast YouTube side of things, which are all newer in West Side Wire. It's obviously anywhere because the internet was not around 70 or so years ago. It's been here my entire life.
Maggie: Oh wait, that's crazy. The internet's been around your whole life.
Daniel: Yeah, basically, because, I mean, I was born in 2007. Iphone got released a couple months after I was born. So basically, it's been the modern internet to some extent, has been around my whole life, which is crazy to think about.
Maggie: Wow. I mean, it makes sense. Yeah. I don't know if my brain gets there on its own. Yeah. But yeah,
Daniel: So I did journalism because my dad did it and I liked it. And here we are four years later. Yeah. Loves good storytelling.
Amy: I think it's at the heart of how we connect as a community, I think. And we learn about each other. Yeah. Yeah
Daniel: And yourself I think too, 100%. Great. Yeah. Great way to put it I love that. So what kind of things to report on for the lands. Yeah. Oh so some of the opinions of ten. I've got to think about this because.
Oh so I did an in-depth that actually made it to NSAA state journalism. Okay. Last state journalism company. Yeah. So NSAA, you know, you think of them. It's like football. It's like Nebraska State Activities Association. Okay, okay, okay. I believe is what it stands for. And they like basically are the state governing body for like all the high school sports and stuff.
As it turns out, there is a journalism competition that falls under them for state, which is like really weird to think about because normally I think of them anyway, like sports, football track at field fields that you think.
Maggie: It’s kind of like the Olympics, we have all these, and then also now breakdancing. I'm here for it. You don't need to convince me.
Daniel: Exactly. So it's like you think of it in sports because a lot of times I think people. So it's like Nebraska State Athletics Association, it's activities. So there's e-sports, there's journalism. I'm sure there's a couple other random things I can't think of. I think speech and debate probably would fall under them too. So, we have journalism though.
So I did an in-depth, that made eighth place state journalism, which was nice last year, and that was over Shield time, which, is like our homeroom. Okay. Stands for like, I can't even remember the acronym. That was literally the title of it because a lot of people don't even remember the acronym. So I'm like, you know, the title is going to be with acronyms.
So it's like service. Yeah, equity, inclusion, health yeah. Something or other, something or other. I don't even remember the full acronym, but I did that because I'm like, Shield time is a waste of our time because it's like 8:00 to 8:10 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Wednesday we're out at 250, so we're about 20 minutes early. So there is no shield time.
It's like a one credit class a semester now, which it wasn't my freshman year because our principal got a new principal switch from D. Opperman, I think, J. Opperman, Now we got Dr. Dostall who's also first name is J. Got him my freshman year. So it's also a senior year of being a principal. It was said kind of in a way.
So we got him. He made it a credit class, switched out. We also used to have half bonds. So it should be like 14 months instead of ten. Got rid of the half months though because we just stopped utilizing them I guess as like schedules progress and change and courses get modified. Yeah. We're one of ten high schools that uses modular scheduling.
So the nice thing about that is 37 minute classes, unless it's like a double mod, which is like about 80 minutes. So 37 minute classes is nice. I don't know how Ops and Millard and but poly and do the like block scheduling I would hate that. Some schools do hour, some do hour and a half, some new two hours.
Daniel:
I don't like it. It sounds horrible to me. I like my 37 minute classes, but it's the downside – So the downside of modular scheduling though is that there's cross sections that sometimes the classes are scheduled in there, like conflicts. So you got to figure that out with your teachers.
The nice thing though is that oh another downside, which is like a downside if you're new to West Side and you're getting transferred from a different school or even as a teacher, right. It's one again, 37 minutes. Got to get people off their phones and to focus. And you got like 35 solid minutes to teach them. And then again 37 minutes cross sections.
Every day is a different schedule. It's not like the same schedule every day due to the modular scheduling, which is nice because it lets you take a lot of classes. That's kind of West Side's idea when they implemented it. I think too, it's like we want more class variety. So I'm like in fashion, I'm in Pottery six right now.
And those are like all semester classes. So I'm like pottery six honors I'm in photo, I'm in fashion journalism marketing to love it through marketing. I'm in and then there's all like three required like science classes, math classes, English classes, government slash social studies slash history classes.
Maggie: Nice and well-rounded.
Daniel: Yeah. And then there's other business classes. There's engineering classes.
Amy: Sure. So so you writing this article, what was the result?
Daniel: The result was that there was some one or principal doctor Dot still made every teacher at like some staff meeting. He was like, you guys should read this article. So he almost made it a homework for them to read it. Had a talk with our one of our vice principals here again we have multiple vice principals.
We're a big school. Yeah. So yeah like 2200. Yeah. Which is insane. So think of Creighton or basically half the size of Creighton High School or Creighton University. We're roughly half the size of their undergraduate class. I think I'd I mean, we talked about it.
Maggie: So I, I'm terrible at looking at things and knowing how many are there.
Daniel: I'm pretty sure Creighton's enrollments about 4000. So we're both halfway half enrollment, which is insane. But yeah. So that got me talk with the vice principal. So they're like work. They're still kind of working on improving it, I think for underclassmen and stuff. Obviously as a senior, it's like your last class action here.
So still working on it. But it did open up that conversation, which was nice I love it.
Maggie: And that's a lot of times that's like kind of the hardest part. It the hardest part is like how do you even kick start the conversation and then do it.
Daniel: Yeah. So that's nice because that opened up that door, which was nice. Non opinion or editorial pieces. There's a few. I did one, one Mootz pizza opened up across the street, a Countryside Village did one when they opened their brick and mortar over there right now. So that's.
You guys can go say hi to Collin. Might be there. Brant might be there. You guys can go say hi to them. They're amazing. Did a story on them, though. The brothers. So, Brent is like the day to day manager, and he's Colin's father. Okay, so it's like a kind of. It's like Colin started it. His whole family's involved there. They got West Side students working there.
Some college friends work there. So it's like very family involved, which I really love. The staff there is always really nice. I love them, but it is story on them. So that was like my first issue of sophomore year haha. So then after that I dropped those issues off and then I kind of just kept dropping ashes off there fast for to this year I'm circulation manager.
One of my goals is that we're going to get in the library, finally get in contact with Amy, finally email the right person and they get me in touch with her. Yeah. And, you know, a few months later, here we are. And we got Lance in the library, which I think is awesome.
Amy: And we're talking to you because I think it's so awesome to think about journalism from, high school level and like what you all do to promote news literacy and just to do rich storytelling across, like,
Maggie: you're also just kind of in a different landscape. I think a lot of other. You're coming up in the time of journalism where I mean all sorts of things are happening.
Amy: Especially like in our climate right now, where news literacy is very fraught with like how how do you get the story out there? And now I'm curious. I mean, sometimes we go off script at the questions, but it's a conversation takes that, to different directions.
But this is News Literacy Week, and I'm sure you all have discussion with each other about like how to be at the heart of the story, the truth, making sure that you are, producing a story that is honest, honest, and, that people are knowing that you're distributing accurate news. And you probably talk about the state of what is happening out there and how to discern, like what is real, what's not real, and all that.
So what is your current discussion in the climate that we are in
Daniel: Currently, honestly, with like Lance and stuff, the nice thing is that they're pretty open to us. We can do pretty much whatever. Which is nice. I love that, honestly. With like high school journalism we try to chase a little bit of everything. So as long as we feel like we're telling it as unbiased as we can, telling the truth of whoever we might be interviewing, making sure, getting the story right, you know, following up with them if need be.
And then of course, there are like AP style guidelines because we do follow AP style, which is pretty much industry standard except for a few publications here and there. That have like their own style. But I will say one thing I do like about Lance and Wired especially is that's free. We don't really have a lot of ads when when we do, it's like coffee shop.
Like we don't really go for a lot We're very and again we're a school so we're a public school. So it's not like we have to make a profit. Whereas like the Omaha World Herald likes to hide behind paywalls, which I don't personally like. I will always go for the paywall removing websites, because there's some good stories that they've done and Washington Post also tends to hide behind paywalls.
Any of the big like national publications generally have paywalls to some extent. I always say go for the paywall blocker because there's a lot of good content, usually to some extent, but they like to hide behind paywalls. Lance is free. We distribute it to the library for free. We distribute it to Mootz for free, which I think is great because I think making it accessible and free is a big thing.
KETV is nice because they're free. The only downside with them is that they have all the hidden ads that look like news stories, and they're like kind of junk mail ads, like they're not anything super sure, interesting or relevant to, especially teenagers. But that being said, that's still better at the end of the day to be ad supported than hide behind like paywalls and stuff because kids gotta make a profit somehow I get and that's where you get like Flatwater Free Press which is nonprofit.
Not really ads, are like donor funded and they're amazing. They make really great content too, that I think sometimes legacy publications like the World Herald might be either too big to produce because again, they own like half the newspapers in Nebraska. They have like a Platte Valley one. It's ridiculous. It's insane. So I think that not only is Omaha World Herald too big, but they're also a legacy publication.
I think that might be too scared to kind of chase some of those stories that, like the Flat Water Free Press, is unafraid to go chase because they're newer, more modern. Just got the website. There's like no print edition that I'm aware of. So that's really nice. And again, bias in news. Gotta do your best to eliminate it.
But there's I mean it's human nature. There's I don't think one way or another that it's going to ever fully be eliminated, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. It's just got to be careful with that line. If you’re too biased, that's where we start getting into like misinformation disinformation and people's emotions start to get in that story.
And then it's just like got to draw that line so it gets gets complicated.
Maggie: So how are you guys finding your stories. How do you assess like what you're going to cover. Yeah.
Daniel: So the nice thing again with science that I said is like we are able to pick our own stories pretty much. So people have done like reviews, like I think they're trying to do.
Someone's doing a review for this next issue, either Wyatt or Lance on The Housemaid, which is just came out a couple weeks ago. Great film. Love it. My freshman year, second semester when I joined Lance, I did a story on Westside doing walkouts because there were a couple of legislative bills at the time that were like very homophobic, anti trans legislation.
So I was doing a story on the walkout to those because I myself am bi. So it's like kind of affects me to an extent. So I did a story on that, which was really good. Got a couple good photos actually for that one too. I thought because I did the photos for that one, which is nice. And that was before we switched to like the magazine format too.
Over the course of Lance's history, we've had we were pretty much newsprint format to some extent. It was just like how it was folded in. The logo has gone through a different few different iterations. Sophomore year, when we switched to the magazine paper magazine shape format, which I think is nice because a photo quality's better, you can have more freedom with design, I feel like.
Maggie: And how often is it published?
Daniel: We aim for three times a semester, six issues a year overall. Sophomore year, I think we only had five issues, which is fine, but we aim for six issues a year through the semester.
Maggie: And how many articles roughly do you think are in there?
Daniel: About 20 to 30 pages. It just kind of depends again, on staff. And I did a story on Memoir that year when Memoir opened. Flagship does a good job with the restaurants. And I got it interviewed the chief operating officer. So for a lot of people, it was like flagship.
Most people know them, probably from Blue Sushi, because that's like the biggest chain that they have. There's legacy, which just closed at the end of the year because they're rebranding that to Clio. Yeah. They're or are they really there? Yeah, my dad was a waiter there. So that's how like we knew before, a lot of people knew because the rebrand that's Clio.
There is a Blatt downtown that I don't think is going anywhere just because they get all the College World Series traffic. There's no that's not going anywhere. They have Roja and then they just open up like a Memoir. Champagne lanes, Clio, all in downtown, like right next to each other are So I did an interview with the chief operating officer.
There's four owners that are all friends, so they all kind of like the specialty, like Hitchcock, who's the operating officer that I interviewed. He, like, kind of focuses more on like, the day to day operations. One of the owners does like the design of the restaurants and like the architecture behind them. So they all kind of have, like, their own little specialty.
There's a culinary officer who's one of the owners that does like the menus and stuff. So really cool. Team got to interview at their corporate offices, which are based like the Blue on Maple Street. Corporate offices are like bottom level of that building, which is actually okay, what a lot of people I don't think realize they're corporate offices are pretty cool.
I will say that they have like a whole wall of just menus for like Omaha restaurants. And I know you said that you guys have like a collection of menus.. So that was really cool. They have like a test kitchen. Their corporate offices, like their support staff and stuff are all there.
And so that was really fun to do. And then I interviewed like, one of the, like the district level managers for Flagship at the time was fun. Got to take like little tour. So that was just like really fun doing all of that. And then I did the minutes story. Another story I did that. I really like that I think you should do on is a Vala story that I did.
Amy: You just literally that's my specialty spoke love to like has her heart and soul because
Daniel: The three sisters are the owners currently. As her parents have gotten older, the three sisters have taken over their owners now. And I read the oldest one, I believe it was their names. All. I get mixed up because it all start with K’s..
I think it's Kirsten who was the one I interviewed. She's the oldest one. She like, does more of the food and social media aspect. I will say I did that at the grandmas barn, high barn, the not the type of, oh, the one where they have the, the ones open roast beef sandwiches. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Grandma's kitchen village. Yeah, yeah. Grandma's kitchen did the interview. You guys should go. I've never been there. You've never been. So it's like Omaha staple I know
Maggie: She's a transplant though, so she came as an adult. And I went as a kid and it was very different, very different. And I had my, my youngest or my youngest, my oldest, I went one time that we were going to be home. And I remember going out there, me like, oh my God, the prices are what? Okay. Yeah, we'll just check it off the list. Oh no, they have me hooked. Absolutely. I'm a defender. I know the prices are expensive, but it is. It's like Disneyland.
Daniel: It’s like fall Disneyland. That's the way I like to think of, farm Disneyland
And I mean, that's the whole terminology they use.
Maggie: I called it a harvest themed, harvest themed theme park. It is less a pumpkin patch and more of it.
Daniel: And the terminology they use is that they're like in the agro-tainment sector, it's very so it's like combining agriculture.
And I think they do it really well. I mean, they're like a multi-million dollar company. Sure. When you look at how many tickets they sell, the food sales. Yeah, they're like $1 million company.
Maggie: And it's they are making the money and they are. And but my defense for them, they're obviously putting in so much, they put so much of that money back into that place every year.
Yes. New rides, new experiences. And really, once you're in the door, you don't pay for anything else unless you want to buy food or like, souvenirs, like, yeah, everything is included.
Daniel: Yes, this is true. The rides are an included. Yeah, that is really not okay. But yeah, that was like the nice thing about that though was one I'm like someone that likes to know, like the behind the scenes to everything, which again, like the memoir story, the military story, those are two examples of that.
The other one. So I interviewed her 80 minute in person interview, longest interview I've ever had. Had to actually buy the premium order version because I forgot that it stopped recording after like 30 minutes on the free version. Yeah. So I had to get the premium version to unlock it, which is fine. I don't mind it. It's only like 15-16 bucks a month, which isn't horrible, especially if you're like doing using it like all the time.
So that was really fun. And then I interviewed, Brad Doolittle, who does like all he's like the the term I came up with is like, he's like the Vala-neer of Valas. Oh, so like, think like Imagineer at Disneyland. I think like a volunteer because he like, does, like all the little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I know now they're different.
Because he does like all the animatronics design. So I do like a 40 minute phone interview with him about that, which is really cool about that. And then merge those two together. The online store is way longer than the print story, because we had to cut it down because we should we should limit ourselves to just like a two page spread.
Other magazines, you know, they'll do multiple page spreads. We just limit ourselves to two page, spreads or just fine. Cutting stories down is a good skill to learn, I think. And then another story I did was like, you go to Countryside Village, right? That entire neighborhood. And it's kind of like a crescent around the city.
Substandard roads. You'll find them crescent around the city. That's its own thing altogether. Yeah. And those roads over there, unless you're like on countryside property. Because Countryside does keep. I mean, they just replaced almost all their sidewalks on their own property. But the public roads there, they're not up to city code. So there are substandard roads and the city won't mean it.
Yeah. And the city won't maintain them unless the homeowners get them up to city ordinance. They got to get them up. So I interviewed like the county engineer and then who used to be the city engineer. And then I interviewed the city engineer about that because
So the homeowners have to pay to have it repaved and, you know, getting city roads over there would be like $1 million project. Like, city roads are not cheap. Concrete's not cheap. I mean, getting it to city code would be expensive, but I just thought that that was really fascinating because I'm like, there's a public school right across the street, and you guys have these really sketchy roads that are falling apart.
And so I was like, you know, I'm going to dig into this. So I did that story, which is interesting. I learned a lot about the history of how Omaha has just had really bad luck with its concrete mixes.
Maggie: That's its own...
Daniel: Which is also like its own thing. So that kind of got brought into the conversation. So that was like a really interesting story to do. So I just kind of go after what I'm interested in. I love it and usually it sticks pretty well.
Maggie: So I was gonna say on that note, I've got a question I'm going to tuck in here. This isn't on here. But then we'll end with the very final one. Why do you think local and local journalism is important?
Daniel: Yeah, I think it's important because also being in like high school journalism, we get to go to the Journalism Education Association, slash National Scholastic Press Association conventions. There is one year we skipped out on it because it was in Kansas City, and we're in Omaha. So we went to the, one in New York City that's held by Columbia.
That was like a month before all the protests started happening and all that craziness went down, thankfully. But otherwise, I've been in New York City, Boston, Seattle, Nashville. We're going to Minneapolis in April.
Yeah, I know, so we're going there though in April. So a lot of that, like a lot of those like breakout sessions that they do, they're like based around like local journalism, which is really fun. And you get to learn a lot. You get all sorts of free swag from all the colleges that go really fun. Actually, the Nashville one that we did in November, it was held at the, Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort, and we got the hotel rooms there, the convention rate rooms there.
So it was amazing. That was like a blast. Totally ten out of ten. We'll go there again. Now, I understand, kind of like people live in Nashville, actually, which is something I never thought I'd say,
Maggie: You get exposed to other places like that.
Daniel: So that's another thing I like too, about journalism is you get the chips that you get to go on opportunities with, which is really fun because you get exposed to other cities, which is, I think, important, especially with the sheer size of the United States.
But local journalism, I think, is important because you have to have locally based journalism, because a nationally based journalism is great for like the federal level, national level, even sometimes maybe state level. If you're in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, where like the governors there are like basically their own mini presidents. But state journalism, I think, and local journalism is important because it gets the stories that might not otherwise be told by the national publications.
It gets them told. Nonprofits like the Flatwater Free Press really, it'll go after like those deep cutting stories that again legacy publications I think are either too legacy or too afraid to necessarily chase after. And their nonprofit, which is absolutely incredible in itself, which I think is important to support them. So I think it's just important because it tells the stories that otherwise will not be told.
And in a lot of ways, I think it does it at a more ethical level with more integrity than sometimes a national publication. So you just want their clickbaity headlines and they just want the clicks to get their revenue
Maggie: They live here. They know the story. They know the people.
Daniel: Yeah, exactly. That's how the story happened. That's how the real story happened. That's how the flagship story happens. My dad again used to work at the Legacy Black location before they shut it down last month. So I was able to get a couple of contacts to him. Which was nice. So yeah. Yeah.
Maggie: Well we'd like to end with a little bit because for the library. We want to know what are you reading? Or your favorite reads.
Daniel: So I used to be like super into reading in elementary school. And then I got this thing.[holds up phone] So I'm not as big into reading as I used to be. Unfortunately. However, I do love physical media.
I just actually issue through, there's a story in there where I kind of like go after and defend physical media, because I think it's important. You could get a Kindle and if that's your jam, that's great, but you don't own it at the end of the day, right? Unfortunately, yeah. You get a physical book, it's yours to keep.
You get a DVD or Blu ray. It's yours to keep streaming services. You don't own it. They can edit the content. They can do what they want, pull things back. They can own things back. They can buy each other up. I think that we're lacking in regulations on the FTC's part over the last decade, because I feel like a lot of those studios are just eating each other up and they're monopolizing.
You look at Cox Communications in Omaha, I'd even argue that they're kind of a monopoly. Luckily, we have Allo and Google Fiber, which I know people are excited about just because that's going to break up Cox. And maybe for them to be more competitive. But some books I like, so I have two non or two nonfiction and two fiction.
Okay. So the two non or the two fiction that I'm going to recommend are the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and like two books behind on that made by Shannon Messenger. Got to meet her at San Diego Comic-Con a couple of years back. Those books are like pretty thick books. If you can read Harry Potter, then I think you'll be fine with these books.
Got pretty thick, like five, six, 700 page books. Yeah, I think there's a couple that even range in of the 800 page category, which is insane. But I read them like fifth, sixth grade, got through them, loved them. I think that they're just really good because they're like younger. They're like, you can read them as like a ten, 11 year old.
I think, again, if you can read Harry Potter, but I think that there is some stuff that if you're a teenager or like 13, 14, 15, you appreciate on a deeper level than if you're like ten, 11, 12 reading them, because they're like young adult fantasy. There's some romance and there's some comedy. Okay. It's like, yeah, it's like standing up for kind of what you believe in.
And then there's The Hunger Games, which also again, standing up for what you believe in. There's good lessons to be learned. Like even when you look at people like snow and it's like, you know, to some extent, I think that there are some people that can kind of relate to him and his story, which is like crazy, but it's important.
So those stories are also good. They're also, I think, unfortunately, politically relevant in today's society. Nonfiction books I'll hit you with are The Ins-and-Outs of In-N-Out Burger by Lynsi Snyder, who's the owner and granddaughter of In-N-Out original, founder. Like that just kind of talks about the story of In-N-Out founding her experiences working there.
So that's it's really fun. And then the other story, the book that I'll give you is, I believe, okay, I forgot the name, the exact name of it. So you guys can correct me if you know, but I believe it's like inside the House by Shari Frankie. It's like something like that. [The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke]
Maggie: The House of My Mother, or something
Daniel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's by Shari Franke, who's the eldest daughter of Ruby Franke who? Yes. Eight passengers. I used to watch them a lot. Is a kid. And then all sorts of craziness went down after I stopped. Kind of watching them. She got arrested. So it's like a memoir slash autobiography by her about her experiences going through that.
And it's a really great book, especially if you grew up watching like all those like Mormon YouTube family vloggers. A lot of them are based out of, Utah because they're like all like Mormon and stuff.
Maggie: And California recently passed laws of how you handle the funds that come from family vloggers. And there's a lot of family vloggers who were living California or purposely leaving, but like, coincidentally being like, no, we just we really want to live in Nashville now. But yeah, because California passed laws. Yeah. How they handle the funds. Yeah. Off their children.
Daniel: Yeah. So that book I thought was really interesting, just because I had a connection to it, because I used to watch them all the time as a kid. So yeah, those are like the four different books I would give you guys if you guys need recommendations.
Amy: Yeah. Yeah. We love to, I love it. That's awesome.
Daniel: And I know for a fact to the library does carry almost every single one of the, like Hunger Games books. I know for a fact because it's Hunger Games. What library wouldn't cover that? I know for a fact they cover a lot of the, keeper of the Lost Cities books because I used to.
That's how I started reading them. Was from the library. Millard branch. Favorite library branch I oh, Millard branch is my favorite branch. Love them.
Amy: Thank you so much for taking time out to talk to us today, and it'll be fun if you, could come over to Central when we open then.
Daniel: And, yes, I am planning on exploring that because, yes, I look at the building and it's like, so modern looking that I almost question the architects who designed it. Like, I don't know, I'll have to see it when it's like open and when I go inside. But during the construction and like this building just looks too dang modern. Of course, Westroads, Crossroads is across the street, and that's just a dirt lot with Target. So maybe once that development finally gets up and going, it'll fit in a bit more. But I am excited about that.
Amy: But if you're inspired to do a story for the lands we would love it.
Daniel: I know we might lowkey do one because I might need a story in April when you guys are opening that. So I honestly very well might be doing a story on that. Yeah. Was that would also be relevant to Lance. It'd be relevant to you guys because yeah we carry you guys carry Lance now.
Amy: Thank you so much Daniel.
Reflections on a Visit to Westside High School and Conversation
Amy: What a great conversation with Daniel. I had a lot of takeaways from that conversation. And I know this is not quite related to news. News literacy Week, however, I went I mean, how many students would you have thought to go to Westside when we walked up, I was like, maybe a thousand altogether.
Maggie: Yeah, we talked about this on the way out that one of my worst traits is that I am terrible at guesstimating things.
I'll be like, surely I'm surely this theater can hold 150 people. It's like it's actually 14,000 to be like, oh, so we had that moment. Yeah, yeah. So it was it 4000
Amy: That's 4000 students I can't even picture. That's a lot. Yeah. It's weird, I had appeals. I know it's very it's very compact. It's compact.
Maggie: And yet you and I both got lost. Twice.
Amy: It felt very big. It's kind of like the sneaky little houses that you see and you're like, oh, that looks like a small house. And you go in and you're like, whoa, this is a big house. All this stuff and hiding. And you see a big house and you go in and you're like, oh, this is a really small house.
Maggie: I think for me, one thing I was very struck by with was talking to Daniel. You know, when we talk about like, well, how are you finding stories and how you identify like what you're going to cover?
And some of the things he told us about if like when he's, when he's finding those stories, I think at the core of it, it was just this like attention to detail where he's noticing, like the big things. But I'll take these also, like the really little things, like the effects of of other choices and decisions that are being made.
And, you know, it's such an interesting age range to be in high school because you are kind of mini adults in a way, like you expected to carry yourself in a certain way, but very little agency in some ways that you don't. You know, other people get to make decisions for you and they do affect your life.
So I was really struck by that, just that attention to the detail and and wanting to report and share information and make sure that fellow students are aware what's going on. And I think it kind of starts here. Yeah. So I'm, I'm interested to see what this even this whole generation of budding journalists does.
We are moving to an area. It's like I who 15 years ago could have predicted something like TikTok, like showing off and being such like a primary source for people. What is to be the next 15?
Amy: The misinformation out? Yes. And how to really figure out like what is fact, what is not.
Maggie: And especially when you think of like the deepfake eyes that you can fully, you know, just make it
Amy: Social media is full of it.
Maggie: That is one of my favorite, Reddits to look at is, is it AI? that someone will post a picture or video and we, we can all debate, but now there's a big debate in that subreddit of like, are these bots trying to perfect their AI? Like, are they going to be like, what do you think of this picture?
Is this AI? And then it was going like, the fingers don't look right or late, this little part. And it's like we're just training them to be better at it.
Amy: So I now so I okay. Maggie early I think it was this past week. I asked you a question even though you're not on TikTok anymore, but I wanted it. Now what you thought the 2025 trends as? I do love thinking about trends, but I did read somewhere and I feel like you're following the trend is that people are like exiting these platforms and engaging from yeah, yeah, these like electronic sources. Yeah, yeah. Big capital. Oh yeah, I know I do.
Maggie: I think the movement's been there for I mean probably as long as. Like there's, there's obviously been the voices to, to speak against it, but I don't know. And I understand that I have my own bias because I'm doing it right now. But I think what got me to start doing it, as I was hearing about it more and people talking about it and their approach and, and how they how they kind of have, done this in their lives.
And I don't know if there's something to that of just like just being able to hear it more and that more people are doing it.
Amy: Yeah. But I also think changing something like that app and really, I mean, that was a significant change for you. Yeah. You're going to learn things about yourself. You're giving yourself different. I mean, your brain is going to have more space.
Maggie: Yes. It's going to 100%. Absolutely.
Amy: I'm I'm excited that you did it. Even though pop culture news. I will have to find somewhere else. I'm really looking forward to let's read magazines together. Actual magazine of fun.
Maggie: I’d be into that. I was gonna say I'm looking forward to months and years, ahead of you coming up, going, oh my gosh, did you see about that one celebrity?
Who was it? I don't I don't know, I just know that a thing happened with a guy, you know. Oh, was it a guy? I don't know, it might have been like oh no.
Amy and Maggie's Book Recommendations for News Literacy Week
Maggie: Do we want to talk about some of the book?
Amy: Yeah, I want to know. Was that easy, hard for you? I actually I found that I had thought about this a lot and it was actually tricky for me.
Yeah, thought about it like, how can I expand this in a way that actually makes sense and bring it back to news literacy? So how was it for you
Maggie: This was hard. Yeah, mostly because we did an episode about this last year and there were so many good titles on the list, and so I was trying to limit myself of not repeating.
Sure, I think it's going to be impossible. So I think we're going to pull some of those titles that in slightly because there were so many good ones. Yeah. In that vein, one of the books I found that we didn't have a last time that I thought was a good ad for right now is, Ghosting the News, Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy by Margaret Sullivan.
What made it stand out to me is the, I feel like a lot of the retrospective books of talking about, like, oh, the history of journalism and the importance of, of local, you know, local news sources. It's a little bit more of that if like, it's the remembrance. It's the fond memories of looking back. And this is not a nostalgic remembrance.
It's really an alarm bell about the importance of local and homegrown news. The crises that these sources face. And it's a call to action. So really powerful book. It's not. It's a pretty easy read. It's not super long. So I think it makes it a little bit more accessible, but I think for right now, local, news reporting, news reporting.
Thank you. But they're kind of under right now for, trying to get the news out there. I think it's an important book to read,
Amy: I love that, yeah, but you. Great edition.
Maggie: Thank you. Yeah. Did you find, you found more, though? I was looking at your notes.
Amy: Yeah, but I had to think about it for a long time.
And, so I feel like this might be my, my approach for the year. I always think about, like, what I want to read because it's not been published yet. Something maybe I've, I at one is currently reading and it relates and I will tell you how. Okay. And one is not a book. It's a DVD that I remember and I just was channeling her.
Okay, so the first book, which is I think it's coming out in February. It's called The Greatest Sentence Ever written by Walter Isaacson. So I have seen this, posted for like, new nonfiction to watch out for, over the past few weeks. And it's this. I mean, normally it's I don't know if I am ignoring it, but it tickled my mental something.
So I was like, oh, this is interesting. So I if I really want to actually listen to it on audio because I think that'll be great, I don't really dive heavily into like super history type books. I'm more of a historical fiction kind of gal. But anyway, so, the premise of this book is to celebrate America's 250th anniversary.
Happy birthday. Walter Isaacson takes readers on a deep dive into the creation of one of history's most powerful sentences, which we all know. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and it lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation. So, Isaacson unpacks its genius word by word, illuminating the then radical concepts behind it. And I thought, oh, how fun would it be? Just a deep dive into this one very impactful thing.
And to make all these connections to it. So I, I really hope I mean, I'm gonna probably put in a little request to make sure that we get the audio version, because I do want to listen to it. So I thought that was fascinating. And it does relate to everything that we…
Maggie: I'm also impressed that you were able to say that sentence and not sing it to the tune from Hamilton. [singing] We hold these truths to be self-evident…
Amy: Oh my gosh, I've never been good at that. I've always admired people who can just, like, whip out a, you know, lyrics in, in the beat up, not my strength.
Maggie: You heard me whispering just then. I also can't do that.
Amy: So I support you, Maggie. So. And, And you probably do this as well. Like when we have, like, a little bit of a tougher podcast not that, that this is tough, but it's tricky. Like, it's not one of our strengths. And we will have we love media, we can't whip out like, titles, right?
Yes. Like some of our, you know, news folks, cam. So the second one I was thinking about, because I was thinking about Jane Jacobs. [Citizen Jane] Okay, so I was remembering watching, I think it was in 2017 film streams, and. Oh, God. Who was it? That was a there's a collab, of, another organization in Omaha.
So she was just really a remarkable woman. So I'm just going to, we have the DVD, so watch it so little note. It is a timely tale of what can happen when engaged citizens fight the power for the sake of a better world. Think about that for a moment. Are you arguably. Oh, my God, I can't say that word, Margie.
No one did more to shape our understanding of the modern American city than Jane Jacobs, the visionary activist and writer who fought to preserve urban communities in the face of destructive development projects. I really loved that. She was an amazing woman. This film vividly brings to life Jacob's 1960s showdown with the ruthless construction kingpin, Robert Moses, over his plan to raise lower Manhattan to make way for a highway, unleashing a dramatic struggle over the very soul of the neighborhood.
So think about that. Soul of the neighborhood communities, neighborhoods, making a better world as connecting together like it's it's really great. And I think those are great things to think about as we consume all of this.
Maggie: I'm pulling up a documentary that made me think of that has ties to Omaha.
Amy: Like. Oh, okay. Nice. So that, I, you know, we'll add that to the show notes and we do have some of our books, so we'll add that in as well. But it was a remarkable film. And then my last pic is something I'm reading right now, and it's called When Trees Testify: Science, Wisdom, History, and America's Black Botanical Legacy, and that's by Beronda L Montgomery.
And it's actually not quite in our collection yet. It is on order. So, maybe by the time this podcast drops, it will be there. But she's amazing. And, I met Beronda here in Omaha because she was, you remember our, friend, our good friend Ramona? So she was in conversation with Ramona for MCC’s National Book Foundation celebrating the 2025 Science and Literature honoree.
Ramona as well. And she by far was such a great she did such a beautiful job of asking some of the most deep and thoughtful questions. She blew me away. I've never, you know, a lot of times, you see in conversation, it's like the typical questions like, well, where do you get inspired? All great questions, not saying they’re bad.
But she asked some really interesting questions. So I mean, it was just beautiful. And I just was stunned by her. And, and of course, I bought her book. She had her book there too, but she came out with this book and I was curious about it. So I'm actually listing it on audio. So just a little bit more about that.
So she is talking about the histories of trees in America and also the histories of black Americans. So she kind of goes through the trees Pecan trees were domesticated by an enslaved African named Antoine; sycamore trees were both havens and signposts for people trying to escape enslavement; poplar trees are historically associated with lynching; and willow bark has offered the gift of medicine. These trees, and others, testify not only to the complexity of the Black American narrative but also to a heritage of Black botanical expertise that, like Native American traditions, predates the United States entirely.
So thought that absolutely relates to all of this, because it is, thinking about talking about the history and the what is, sounding, surrounding actually black history through the trees. And I think that's really a beautiful way to story tell. And I am loving it. It's such a great book. So I'm about halfway through.
Maggie: I was going to say ties also really nicely to my new news source, but just read it because tree law is really big on there. There are a lot of laws regarding trees and what you can. Yeah, to them I and what happens when you take out trees and how much money you have to pay and so, so.
Amy: Well I didn't know. I mean, I would think that with giant sequoias, I'm sure people can't just go. You can't really. I don't even know how you would take that tree.
Maggie: If you took down your neighbor's tree when you weren't supposed to.
Amy: Do you have a favorite tree, by the way? So growing up, there was a lot of weeping willows and west for like two level weeping.
Yes. Beautiful. And she talks about weeping willow. So that brought back that memory. And I would say it's still very much in the, in my top trees. Okay. But I love what I've read. So I love it. But top trees, I mean, everybody loves an oak, but the oak has a lot of leaves. They, they keep on giving fall
Maggie: What this is reminding me of recently, when I was trying to find my husband's parking, pickup truck in a parking lot, and I had to set up a text that says, fun fact.
Did you know that all trucks look exactly the same, even if they are a different color and brand and make a model?
Amy: I can't tell you the number of times I've gone to get in the wrong car. What I thought was my car.
Maggie: Yeah, that and that happened. I got all excited. Approach so many trucks. As our truck, it was never a truck
Amy:. So the red bud is my favorite. You totally know it. All over Nebraska. We had like seven of them in our tiny little backyard, and they were all volunteers.
And love a good magnolia. Yeah. Well, we all do. You throw me a pine.
Maggie: Japanese maple.. I'm just going to start saying tree words. Yeah I know, oh, but I mean, the lovely thing about this book is, like, you're.
Amy: I'm learning so much scientific facts about the tree, which I do love sciency things. And I also love how she's intertwined the, the history through this and the literacy through this. And also, I just want to make sure that we're going to add all the goodies from our 2025 interview with Matt Wynne.
Maggie: I feel like all the little goodies and the the books and titles that we talked about at that one, it was like, oh yes, so fun. I still support all those. Yes. And we'll also have, Daniel gave us some boo recs. We'll talk about those.
So he gave us a few of just books that either he used really enjoyed or just he thinks speak to maybe the experience of, of, you know, not just being a silent witness, but like, you're watching and you're. Yeah, you're telling. So the Hunger Game series by Suzanne Collins. Yeah, all of them, but
Amy: I've not read it.
Maggie: Oh my gosh, you actually, you know, it's supposed to take place in Appalachia. What does district 12 is supposed to be? Appalachian. Okay. She's very, like Appalachian coded. Just like she's just in nature. They are very well written. Another was the keeper of Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger, who I have. I have heard of that series. I have never read any of them. Right. But we do have that in our collection.
And then for nonfiction, he selected, the House of My Mother, A Daughter's Quest for Freedom, which is by Shari Franke, who is a former child, family vlogger, whose mother slash the family vlogging situation came crashing down pretty publicly.
Amy: It was recently, right?
Maggie: Yeah, yeah, we could talk about it for a while. We'll talk. I'm going to yell at you off mic about it. Like I say, yell because you'll just be absorbing the words and I'm just going to yell, It was a hit last year. So we do have that in our collection.
The last was another nonfiction book and it was just the ins and outs of In-N-Out burger, the inside story of California's first drive thru, and how it became a beloved cultural icon. And that was by Lindsay Snyder.
Amy: And I'm absolutely going to read that, because one of the thing that Daniel and about this time you've heard the interview is that he talked about visiting mama and talked about hospitality and service and all of that.
Query of the Month: What's on the Top of Your TBR for 2026?
Maggie: This is also an exciting episode because we have kind of, did a little mix up of how we normally do our clearance of doing one every single week. We're having a query of the month to give more people time to submit his answers. And we have a lot of answers this month.
So we're kicking off 2026. We were just asking what's at the top of your TBR? So get ready for some good suggestions.. So first up, fan favorite David said Hope Without Optimism by Terry Eagleton. Eagleton is my favorite living philosopher and public intellectual, and this book is definitely a vibe for how things are. I love that you have a favorite public intellectual, David.
Amy: Gabby said. And Now, Back to You by B.K. Borison. It's When Harry Met Sally-inspired meteorologist love story. What more could one want? I will agree, I love a meteorologist.
And then. And then rom Laura we have the Hunger Games series and prequels. I've never actually read any of the before, and it's time that I do see I know I'm gonna I'm reading. I really am Laura. Yeah. Thank you.
Maggie: Next up, McKayla. See who had a few suggestions. Cool machine. Cool Machine, which is the Harlem Trilogy, number three by Colson Whitehead.
Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson. With love from Harlem by ReShonda Tate. Phases a memoir by Brandy. Brandy, brandy, do you listen to the good gospel of Brandy? No, I love Brandy. Okay. Underlake by Erin L. McCoy. Excuse me. Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and Kin by Tayari Jones
Amy: And then next up we have Samantha the Elsewhere Express.
Maggie: And then wrapping us up, Cass. The Fellowship of the Rings, specifically the audiobook version, which is read by Andy Serkis. who famously played Gollum in the movies.
Amy: And we have one listener response.
Maggie: one listener response, which came from LinkedIn from Richard L, coincidental reading project with my son and I, as we not knowingly bought each other the same book for Christmas. Oh my God, that's hilarious. I love it, which is the only God Can Judge Me. The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur by Jeff Pearlman I love that I probably want to read that.
I know me too, the Tupac documentary that came out a few years ago. I don't know if I can remember what it was called, but it was like, basically like the story of Tupac and his mother. Which is a very. Yeah, it was very good. I'm going to go find it. It was wonderful.
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Every book, resource or thing that we mention that we can link to on the internet can be found in list form in our episode description, so if you miss something we talked about, check out that list.
The Book Drop is produced by Omaha Public Library. Our theme music is Trapped in Amber courtesy of the band Lucid Fugue.
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