🎙️ What my Emmy Award-winning TV years taught me about audience connection.

In partnership with

Oh, hi!

Before I worked in city government, I spent almost a decade in New York producing news at MSNBC and documentary TV at MTV, including the Emmy Award-winning series True Life and 16 and Pregnant. That experience shaped everything about how I lead, how I hire and build teams, and how I use storytelling to connect with people and audiences.

Which is why this episode of Oh, hi! Stories is such a meaningful one.

I sat down with Betsy Forhan, a two-time Peabody Award winner, Emmy-winning producer, and one of my earliest bosses and mentors. We talk about our time creating real, people-first stories at MTV—and how that same storytelling mindset is missing in too many cities today.

…oh, and how we also produced a show with Diddy—which is a story in itself.

Governments are doing critical work—keeping our planes safe, our water clean, our neighborhoods connected but if we don’t tell those stories in the right way—and in the places where people are already paying attention—they won’t see it. They don’t understand it. And worse, they don’t trust it. Shouldn’t the same practices that work in the private sector for audience engagement be applied in the public sector?

🎧 Listen to the clip where I talk about why it’s time for governments to invest in creators, not just button-pushers.

And this conversation goes beyond media. It’s about leadership, risk-taking, and the responsibility we have to meet people where they are—and let them in on what we’re doing and why it matters.

🎧 Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon 

Thanks for tuning in,

—Dana

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