Asking A Lot!
Fran Stoddard –
Keeping Beat with Community

By Margaret Michniewicz

Fran Stoddard recalls vividly the summer evening she was outside hosting a barbeque when her phone rang. “This is the Supreme Court!” boomed a gruff male voice, that went on to brusquely convey the message that Chief Justice William Rehnquist had declined her request for an interview on her Vermont Public Television (VPT) program, Profile.

“I was this close [to getting him],” she recalls of Rehnquist, who for many years had a home in Greensboro, VT until his death in 2005 – and who had been high on Stoddard’s list to court for an interview.

While that live-to-tape conversation with the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court did not come to be, there has been no shortage, however, of luminaries who have sat across the table from this award-winning interviewer, as well as many other intriguing individuals who may not be household names. Profile, which Stoddard has produced and hosted since October 2001, features guests from Vermont as well as from the national and international realm.

“I can show you my continuous running list [of potential guests] and it never gets short! Which is great!” Stoddard laughs as we talk in the kitchen of her Williston home.

Guests are selected with the criteria that they are individuals who have made a significant contribution, with diversity in terms of gender, race, occupation, issue, and geography. Stoddard describes her modus operandi: To consider the audience; research thoroughly; be responsive; value knowledge and inspiration over merely entertainment; get to the hard questions in a human, not sensational, “gotcha” way; and to listen intently.

Stoddard let us put her in the guest seat to talk more about Profile, the art of live interviewing, the thrill of Taiko drumming, and much more.

Vermont Woman: Tell us a bit about the process and timing of Profile.

Fran Stoddard: How it usually works is I book two months in advance – and sometimes even further out. The taping usually happens 10 days in advance, and sometimes it’s only two or three especially if it’s somebody who’s a newsmaker.

VW: And it’s taped live… ?

FS: Yes, that 26 and a half minutes is usually live-to-tape – last year was really the first time ever I had some lee-way to do a little editing, bringing in a few more images, asking an extra question or two and having that [edited in]. We all had to get used to that – and, once you get into editing it takes a lot more time – people energy and resources – but it was wonderful to be able to have that when digital came in, though I don’t use it all the time.

But the reason I do so much planning and research ahead of time is I’ve got to make it work in 26 minutes – and I’ve got to take it through the arc of a story. I usually have two pages of questions – and… sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t! Sometimes, we’ll go to page two much more quickly than [I had planned for]! (Laughs) But, that’s okay: fortunately I should and I do to some degree know the lay of the land so I can go to these questions that I thought would come later and come back around to some other things I may have missed.

Sometimes I get to most of my questions and sometimes we don’t; I want to follow their train of thought and not mine – but I also want to keep moving, so the audience is engaged. And even though they might think ‘oh, I wish she’d followed up on that’, they hopefully will find ‘Oh! But, this is interesting! I’ll hang with that, for a while.’

VW: What was a most awkward moment, an agonizing moment, or a moment you wish you could edit out?

FS: Well, it happens every single time I walk away from the table.

Usually there’s such adrenaline going for both me and the guest. Another thing that’s critical for me to make that 26 minutes work is, I need to assess what that person needs from me – do they need for me to be outgoing and funny or just serious with them? And that’s, I think, one thing that – if anything’s led to some success it’s about that. It’s not that I’m compromising who I am; I’m just bringing out a part of myself that’s going to help that person feel comfortable enough to reveal some things and what’s interesting. Because people [say to me], ‘you’re so nice, it looks like you’re having a good time’ – which is true – but I also hope that I ask difficult questions, challenging questions – [which] usually comes later when the guest has calmed down and we’re engaged, and they’re asked some pretty difficult questions and they’re okay because the trust level is there – that’s hugely important in the work I do.

And again: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t – when I’m on air and someone is rambling on about something… (grimaces). I usually try to assess [in advance] if they are a rambler or very succinct so I’m prepared for that. For the very succinct people – I’ll have a few more questions. For rambling people – I’ll probably let them know that I’m going to be rude and interrupt them (smiles). I move them on. So they’re okay with that – they’ve kind of agreed, ‘oh yeh, I do that!

I’m totally fascinated with people and what makes them tick – I can go on listening and listening forever but I also, in the back of my head, when I’m listening – am thinking, are we going too long there, how can I move this, should I go down that avenue – all of these thoughts are happening at once.

VW: Who are difficult interviews?

FS: To my surprise it’s that actors – and younger artists – have been sometimes the most problematic. Actors really like having a script. And I didn’t get that – I thought, oh! (scoffs), they’ll just go on and on and they’ll be [great]. I’ve had to work at figuring out what kinds of questions they’ll respond to – that took me by surprise. Artists who’ve been around for a while have been asked a lot of these questions before so they’re more prepared. Younger artists? They’re artists because they’re expressing themselves, through some other kind of medium. Writers, no problem. They’ve been working on articulating things through words for a long time. But visual artists, performing artists, are much more challenging than I would have ever thought. So I prepare differently for them. So if there’s ever been an “Oh my word!” moment [laughs] in the midst of it all it’s usually been with an artist.

VW: Do you give people the questions in advance?

FS: I do not. Sometimes, again, depending on who it is – some people who are new to this process and who I feel will be rattled – I will say to them ‘these are the areas that we’re going to cover and these are kind of my goals about this interview.’ And, for people who don’t know me at all – I’m not a “Gotcha!” interviewer… I want to get deep, I want to really give something to my audience – that’s very important to me, I don’t want it just to be flat – but I’m definitely not a Gotcha!

But there’s only one person I gave my questions to that I thought that was okay; it was somebody who had a disability and there was a very specific thing that we wanted to get done and say in a way around disability and overcoming it. And that was very important to him. So out of three or four hundred people – one person has seen my questions.

VW: When they arrive on the set, how much time do you spend talking in advance?

FS: Five or ten minutes. I may or may not have talked on the phone with them beforehand.

VW: Is it more difficult having more than one guest at a time?

FS: I SET love having two people – there’s a dynamic that goes on there and actually the crew doesn’t like it because it’s more complicated – you need to think about who to have on camera and all that and again, it is live. I try to work with the crew to anticipate certain things and what images we’re going to use when. So they’re flying by the seat of their pants, too.

One of the things that really touched people about Marcelle and Pat Leahy is that he held her hand the whole time – people were just near tears! They just thought that was the sweetest thing, and it said so much about the Leahys. There was a farmer who wanted to have his daughter on because she was the next generation – she brought her daughter who then insisted on being in her lap. That was a surprise, and that was difficult and didn’t work as well as I’d hoped because it became very distracting.

VW: What interview has surprised you the most, and why?

FS: Everybody’s so interesting… Gwen Ifill who I had on last year was one of the most delightful, down-to-earth, lovely women I’ve ever met! We just had a great time. I don’t know if that was a ‘surprise’, but I didn’t know what to expect; I have a lot of respect for her. But for her to just be so fun, and interesting and down-to-earth was just a wonderful gift for me – and, I think, for the audience! And most of the people that I have on are so accomplished; there are very few people who have been… [pause] difficult.

There have been people who I’ve been surprised by how much they revealed… and, how willing they are to go to a pretty raw place. And, I’m moved by that and I have to watch my protection of them when they go into that – [the late artist] Stephen Huneck revealed a real vulnerability about who and what he was that was very moving; but after he died [by suicide], we ran it again and people saw it in a whole new way… [softly]

VW: What other challenging or surprising interview situations have you had?

FS: Moses Pendleton, the co-founder of Pilobolus and [artistic director] of MOMIX – I have never sat across from an Energizer Bunny – somebody who’s just so hyper! His energy was on such a faster vibration – vibration’s a good word – he was just on a faster vibration than anyone I’ve sat across from and that was interesting! I mean, do I slow my heartbeat down? [laughs] Do I try to match [his]?! That was interesting! Because I wanted to keep him engaged and he was so engaged with what was going on.

So sometimes there’s a whole energy thing across the table which is interesting and [knowing] what’s a good reaction – and I think my reaction to [these situations] has been honed over the years, about what’s going to move the interview forward, not make me feel comfortable necessarily.

VW: Do you go back and watch – not out of vanity – but out of necessary critique?

FS: It’s painful, it’s so painful. I force myself … as much as I can! (laughs ruefully) I force myself to see if I can see some of the continuous mistakes I make – I’m always appalled at how many ‘ums’ I still let myself in for, and there are other things – it’s painful. But I force myself to do it.

It’s also important because when you’re talking to people you go ‘mm-hmm, mm-hmm’ – and I just [need to] swallow all of that. It’s very important that I’m not making extra sounds, or, doing that [laughs fakely]. Why did you laugh there?! And, there is a tendency that when I do smile or laugh it’s hard for the director because he sees me doing something new. Mike Dunn does the technical directing and he’s very good.

VW: Who would be the three people no longer living you’d love to have interviewed and what would you ask them?

FS: Well I really wanted to interview Justice Rehnquist – he had just written a book about the history of the Supreme Court and it turns out that’s all he would talk about. I said it’s fine if we don’t talk about decisions or that process but, what you think about the law, what you think about the Supreme Court, how your background led you to where you are – that would be important – I can’t just talk about the history of the Supreme Court when I’m talking to the Chief Justice when he also has a place in Greensboro, Vermont. So, anyway – he finally turned me down.

I’m sorry I didn’t interview [Governor] Dick Snelling – I think he made a huge difference in the state on a lot of levels. And someone else I wanted to interview, but wasn’t able to before she passed on was Tasha Tudor [the late illustrator and children’s book author from Vermont].

VW: Who’s on your wish list you’ve been pursuing but without success?

FS: Bill Moyers – he said he would do it if he was up [here] – one of his best friends lived in Burlington, and – you never know, that could still happen! He’s one of my heroes, so that would be something.

VW: Who do you admire of other interviewers and why?

FS: Terry Gross certainly – I think she does very interesting work – I’m very jealous that she can talk to somebody for two hours and have it edited and have producers listen… Actually, she’s somebody who said “Maybe next time.” But, she couldn’t believe the format! She was horrified! And that was interesting. We kind of left each other: I was jealous, she was horrified [by the live-to-tape format].

I really like the On Point guy [Tom Ashbrook] – I like how he works people and works the subject, how he draws people out; I like how incredibly friendly he is but how he keeps after the issue; he’s dogged at making sure that the issue at hand – that the deeper questions aren’t ignored. And those are the people that I admire.

Barbara Walters; I have a different style – but boy, she broke some barriers, she’s dogged, she does her homework, she’s got really good ideas and instincts about these things and she [turned the whole interview world around].

There are a lot of good people out there and I’m humbled to be among them – but it’s really about what does this person have to offer all of us? What can move our – I mean this sounds so lofty but – what can move our community and society forward just a little bit by what this person has done, by their example, by their perseverance, by their courage? That’s really what’s interesting to me.

VW: Do you have battles of who you can have on; have there ever been any flat rejections?

FS: [pause] Occasionally, and I’ve gotten used to people that the powers that be feel uncomfortable about – and it’s funny, for some reason they started to feel uncomfortable about novelists! I think they felt that it was becoming a writers’ show – I certainly do a good number of writers. Poets and novelists have so much to say to us because they are looking so deeply at society and what it’s about. Poets [especially] – and there’s so many poets in Vermont and so many good ones – what are they seeing about the zeitgeist of our time, how are they viewing us – because they think about this all the time. So it’s kind of funny that I got a little push-back about that.

VW: Have there been controversial reactions to any interviews?

FS: No, not at all … One of the riskier things I did just recently on Memorial Day – I had a young man, a veteran, who had PTSD and he had done some things that would offend the military. He knew it had damaged him and he found a way to help work through a very serious illness [the Combat Paper Project]. I really thought that I’d get push-back. And all I got were people with PTSD who wanted to thank me for having him on – I was astonished. But that also says something about Vermont and the state of Vermont.

VW: Turning now to your background. How did you end up in Burlington?

FS: I was brought up in Cleveland, Ohio; my father was from Brooklyn and my mother was from Kentucky. I went to school in Chicago and Washington DC; and I wanted to know what it was like to live in a small town. A lot of my friends were up here, my father’s first cousin was here so I had enough connections here to come to Burlington and see what that was like. So I moved on to a farm in Richmond for the first year and did all the back to the land stuff – this was 1979. I was there for a year and then moved in to Burlington for about 10 years and then moved out here [to Williston].

And things fell into place: I was a freelance photographer, had an internship at the Free Press, a Sunday morning radio program and pretty soon after was offered a job at Channel 22 – and that’s where I got my start in television.

VW: What are some of the other things you are doing currently, not just this program?

FS: I’m on a lot of boards and am currently board president of Hunger Free Vermont. I helped get the Vermont Journalism Trust up and running which I think is very exciting and very important work [including VTDigger.org], to make sure that deeper stories get told – how is that going to happen? I feel very blessed to still be connected with Vermont Public Radio; I think they are a great institution. I also do some freelance video production. I find myself doing more facilitation – through boards and through my board work. Basically I’d say I’m kind of an educator and a connector.

VW: An activity you are very involved in is the Taiko drumming group of Burlington. How did that come about? What is the appeal for you?

FS: The way Taiko fits into my life is: it’s athletic, it’s meditative, it takes total concentration – you can’t really do anything else when you’re doing Taiko; and it’s a good group of people, it’s a community. And it’s also learning about another culture, all the time, in these very intricate ways. So, for me, it’s shutting out everything else – it’s doing something that gives people a lot of joy usually when they see it – they’re very moved, and it gives them energy and it gives me energy… There’s a performer in me; so that’s where my performance energy goes as well.

I got involved because I started knowing a lot of people in the group. In the early 90s I started dating, a man who became my husband (Harry Grabenstein), who was very involved in the group, and I realized I knew a number of other people in the group and I thought what an interesting group of people – I thought I’d see what it was like. And I went to a few practices and I just really took to it. For me it was a relaxer – I loved somebody just telling me [for two or three hours] what to do!

VW: And, drawing on your own objectives for what you want to glean from your guests – what do you hope it is that you’ve done to move our community forward; what example would you like to be known for having set?
FS: That is a tough question, so I'll keep it brief. I think all journalists add value – and I hope my work has done that by presenting interesting people and ideas. I am so fascinated by the human spirit, its struggle and determination, that it is a gift for me to share people and stories that exemplify quest and striving. If a show inspires or encourages new effort, if it increases empathy or understanding of a complex idea, or better yet, nudges a viewer to become more involved in community or an art form, then I am happy.