Good advice from Ray Suarez

Here’s another fine episode of the podcast In Contrast : “Representing” in Broadcasting, with host Ilan Stavans interviewing the journalist Ray Suarez. I especially like what Suarez says about the choices he’s made in his work:

“I always thought, ‘Look, at the end of the day, I have to own myself, and I have to think I’m okay with me. And how much do I have to give away, how much do I have to transform in order to play this game as the game is being presented to me?’ And I always tried to square that circle by saying, ‘All right, who do I want to be at the end of the day: promoted and a jerk, or owning myself and owning the way I want to be in the world and maybe missing out on that promotion?’”

And on refusing to play office politics:

“I never wanted to play that game, and I never wanted to be that guy. And whether that hurt me or helped me, I don’t know. But when I look at it all, there are things that don’t add up to me. But I’ll never know what the answer is, and I don’t want to make myself crazy.”

On Twitter, Ray Suarez identifies himself as a “job-seeker.” He’d make an excellent replacement for a recently disgraced PBS host, don’t you think?

[The things that don’t add up would likely include the trajectory of Suarez’s work at the PBS NewsHour. The transcription is mine.]