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Matt Katz: This is The Takeaway. I'm Matt Katz in for Tanzina Vega, happy you could be here with us. That's an interesting tonal phrase, right? "Here with us," because for so many of us, 'here with us' has been a year-long, abstract concept. Let's talk about that for a few minutes.

This week marks one year since our team here at The Takeaway began working from home. For the most part, some of our crew has been working from the studio all along. That's Jay Cowit and Vince Fairchild, our control room crew, Jay's our director, Vince is our engineer. They both sound design the entire show. Say hi, guys.

Jay Cowit: Hi.

Vince Fairchild: Hey.

Matt Katz: They've been making the show together for nearly 13 years. Amazing, amazing work, gentlemen. We also had help from board ops Claire McKean, Debbie Daughtry, Shaam Sundre. Brave souls who traveled into an empty Manhattan for months to keep this show running.

For the most part, almost all of our producers, digital editors, assistants, interns, and our host Tanzina have been working from home remotely and me too. I'm in my bedroom closet right now, I'm staring at an array of various colored pants that I used to wear. It never stops being weird. In fact, the show was cycling through four different hosts when the pandemic hit as Tanzina was off for maternity leave, so it was an instant adventure.

Our Amazing, amazing engineering crew at WNYC gets a ton of credit for making it sound so smooth. Winshaw Meister, Allen Black, so many others. We've all experienced a lot over the last year and we know you have too. Of course, we've learned things along the way about our work and ourselves. We wanted to give our crew the floor for a little bit to talk about what it's meant to make The Takeaway and how to do it when we're all apart. Let's start with producer Ethan Oberman.

Ethan Oberman: In the year since we've gone remote, a lot of my work as a producer has actually stayed the same in terms of reaching out to guests, and even editing audio from home. What I don't think we've been able to recreate, unfortunately, is the experience of being able to turn to the other producers who sit next to me in the office and brainstorm ideas or react to breaking news. That's what I've really missed the most.

Matt Katz: Here's David Gebel, our executive assistant and the chief mensch at The Takeaway.

David Gebel: I found the switch to working from home really difficult initially. Number one, I don't like change. Number two, it had to happen quickly. Number three, I'm old enough that I was really fearful of knowing how to do things remotely. I surprised myself that I used to be very fond of paper, and I have figured out how to do my job with little to no paper, and actually, it all goes faster. Certain things are fine. I really miss camaraderie and social energy but, truth be told, I get a lot done when I work remotely.

Jackie Martin: My name is Jackie Martin. I'm the line producer here for The Takeaway. I've been working from home for a year now. It's been challenging trying to produce a radio show from home. Communication is never good over the computer or Slack. I also have two daughters who are schooling from home and a husband, who's also working from home.

Having to keep them happy and fed three times a day and dealing with the dog and the house stuff while working, has been difficult. It's bittersweet because it's been nice actually being with them and spending more time than we ever have together. I'm excited to get back to work, but I'll miss them a little.

Matt Katz: Producer Meg Dalton told us about some things I think a lot of you can relate to.

Meg Dalton: For me, the biggest change has been the blurred lines between home and work life and what that's meant for how we relate to one another. A deep level of empathy has become so necessary in the workplace as we all try to navigate different experiences of loss, pain, isolation, frustration, and so much more. We're all going through something collectively but also individually too.

Some of us have had to juggle childcare and other caregiving duties on top of putting together a daily news show. Others including me have lost friends or family members to COVID-19 or have even contracted the virus itself. Each of us is dealing with so much in our personal lives and it's become really important to remember that day-to-day.

Lydia McMullen-Laird: My name is Lydia McMullen-Laird and I'm an associate producer for The Takeaway. My favorite part of the past year has been working remotely in different parts of the country. I want to give a special shout-out to our listeners in Michigan, my home state. Even though our show is produced in New York City, we care so much about how this pandemic is affecting people all across the US and internationally. I'm really glad I got to experience that and report on it. Also working in sweatpants has been so awesome. I'm definitely not ready to transition back to hard pants.

Amber Hall: I'm Amber Hall, senior producer here at The Takeaway. It's been a really weird year. In some ways, I can't believe it's already been a year and in some ways, I can't believe it's only been a year. I used to complain about the back of my chair hitting the person who sat behind me and our crowded newsroom, everyone talking on the phone made it hard to concentrate or hear your own conversations, but boy, to go back to those days, how nice it would be.

I miss my colleagues but doing this work has taught me a lot about adapting. I know that we can produce a radio show from anywhere. I think we could do it from the moon.

Neil Armstrong: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

Matt Katz: For some of us, like our sound designers, it's the little things.

Vince Fairchild: I'm at the studio, the only other person at the studio with me is Jay, the technical director, everybody else, including the host, is working from home. That means I can't see anybody else. Now, we have our Zoom meetings and those are what they are but that's only a very small part of the day. Sometimes I can't even go to those because I'm really busy with all the other production of the show.

I can't see anybody else on the staff most of the time. Before the pandemic, I hated Slack. Now, this is how we communicate most of the time now. I'm dependent on Slack to have any kind of conversation with the people who are working from home.

This drives me crazy because it really slows down the conversation. I can't have the fluid conversation that I would have with somebody in-person. It just takes a lot longer to understand what somebody is saying. I really can't wait to be back in-person with the rest of my staff to have what feels like a more human conversation.

Jay Cowit: Every host has a different home, so every home has a different sound. This is a hard thing to deal with but it's fun too. Certain hosts have noisy streets.

[background noise]

Or are in airplane routes.

[airplane noise]

Others have very noisy pets.

[dogs barking]

Or like Tanzina, a very cute one-year-old baby who is very talkative.

[baby cooing] [background conversation]

All the guests have this now also since all of them are home and we've learned to embrace it and live with it because everyone has home noises, and I think our audience gets that as well. In some ways, it's a little more natural, people are at ease. These noises are part of our lives, so it colors the sound a little bit except birds.

[birds chirping]

Birds are the worst. They're the worst broadcast animals. They're high pitched, they're constant, they don't stop. Birds are just the worst. Other than birds, it's been really fun and it's been a nice learning experience for us in the tech room.

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Polly Irungu: Hi, my name is Polly Irungu. I'm the digital editor at The Takeaway where I do all things digital and social for the show. I think the biggest challenge for me has been, "How do I actually unplug from it all?" With my job, I'm online for my work and so for me, it's like the first thing I do in the morning is, I pick up my phone look at a few one, and then throughout the day, I'm also looking at a screen. How do I stop being glued to a device is what I'm working on.

Because when you're at home, you're not able to turn to a coworker and say, "Hey," and chat with them. You're not able to walk around the office, not able to go to the coffee shop across the street. It's like I'm constantly staring at a screen and so I'm just trying to figure out more ways to give my eyes a break. If you have any advice, any of the listeners out there, if you have any advice with how to stop being so glued to a device, feel free to reach out to me, I'm always curious.

Matt Katz: Our executive producer Lee Hill has been reflecting on all of this. This guy has a pretty impossible task keeping us all together.

Lee Hill: One of the more challenging things about working remotely was, one, the speed at which we had to move. I was in executive meetings and was told, basically, this needs to happen and it needs to happen very soon, and so very swiftly, we moved to broadcasting from home and producing from home, and it is also been a challenge, I will say personally, to lead from a distance.

I feel like I'm a much more in your face leader from up close in close proximity, so leading over Zoom and keeping people motivated and keeping us focused on our North Star, which is to bring you the information and stories that help you understand the world better has been tough, but so proud of the team for rising to the occasion.

Matt Katz: Of course, Tanzina Vega, who spent the early part of the year raising her newborn before entering into remote hosting full time, is seeing things from a very different perspective.

Tanzina Vega: It's been almost a year, and I've been hosting The Takeaway from a coat closet, surrounded by shoes and winter coats and hats and gloves and other things that I look at every day. I've tried to create an environment in the closet that is reminiscent of our studio in New York with a collage on the wall and some fun things to look at.

I've found ways to have my coffee and to sometimes grab some breakfast while in the closet and remain able to host the show while I also have my one-year-old on the other side of the closet door.

On the one hand, I'm grateful to have had the space, even if it's a closet to be able to work from. On the other hand, I miss seeing people in real life, I miss seeing guests in the studio, I missed interviewing folks in person, and I miss the daily interactions that are so important to journalism, which is so much a team sport.

I'm very grateful to my crew at The Takeaway for finding ways whether it's through Zoom or other technologies for us to stay afloat. I'm also deeply grateful to my closet for somehow allowing itself to be converted into a radio recording booth. We'll see how things turn out in the upcoming year, but so far, this is how we're doing the show.

Matt Katz: I'm floored by how Tanzina and the team have worked to tell us the news day in and day out over the last year. There's an exhaustion that comes with telling these stories. Some of them so tragic and difficult, and then turning away from all that to make sure your kids are in school on their screens or eating their lunches or not making too much noise while your spouse is in a Zoom meeting with their boss, and all the while just remembering to check in on friends and elderly relatives to make sure they're okay.

As for me, I'm a reporter by day so I really miss being out on the field, interviewing strangers in-person, learning new things the old-school journalistic way. One day soon, I'll be back out there and of course, I'll try to bring some of that reporting to the show.

Anyway, we appreciate you spending your time here with us every day. It's not easy to be a part of the team Mrs. Drinks at the Brooklyn Air Bar, but having you with us for part of your day is special too, and it keeps us going. Thanks for being part of this and talking with us every day too.

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