Listening better, hearing more

When journalism professor Kavitha Cardoza chose a beat early in her career, there was only one left in the newsroom — education. It was a lucky circumstance. She quickly learned how to add depth to her reporting by focusing on people and issues that were often overlooked. Here, she shares tips for positioning yourself to spot what frequently goes unnoticed.

1. Ride with vulnerability.
Her first national NPR story brought her to an annual biker festival in Illinois. Up to that point, her only previous encounter with biker culture was reading Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels.

She was immediately hit with fear. It lasted only until a heavily tattooed biker walked up to her, told her he loved NPR, and said he listened all the time.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’ll never do that again. I’ll never stereotype. I’ll never not go up to people because I’m scared of who they might be,’” she said. “I have to give everyone a chance.”

2. Recognize that everyone has challenges.
When the 2007 recession hit, Cardoza talked to older community members who lived through the Great Depression. She wanted to hear their stories — how their parents sewed clothes from flour sacks, how they ate the same food for months because it was all they had. She’s also interviewed children who lost a veteran parent after they returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When Cardoza was a teenager, someone said to her: “Everyone is carrying a cross. Many times you don’t see it, but just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.” Cardoza hunts for those crosses.

3. Hold on to others.
As part of an audio project in college, Cardoza rode along with a worker as he cleaned up highway roadkill. When they got out of his truck, the outing was riskier than she thought: They had to run across a four-lane highway. Intuitively, they held hands and ran across the road together.

She’s carried that moment with her for more than two decades. “There are so many things that could hit or harm you, and the secret to getting through is to just hold on to each other,” she said. “We have so much in common because we’re human.”

4. Amplify others’ voices.
As an immigrant from India, Cardoza often felt like an outsider. Her identity could have been seen as a disadvantage — a journalist who doesn’t know the community. She wanted to challenge that perception.

“I feel, especially as an immigrant, it is such a gift to be able to be a journalist because I’ve learned so much more about the culture and about people,” she said. “You can ask nosy questions!”

In her work, she seeks to amplify the voices of others who feel out of place.

“I want them to feel their voice is important and that someone is listening,” she said. “To me, that’s one of the most beautiful things about the American dream.”

5. Seek joy.
Just because people have difficult lives, it doesn’t mean that their lives are devoid of happiness. “I try to look for moments of joy because that shows me how resilient people are,” she said.