YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → A Sit Down Interview with Nicholas White

A Sit Down Interview with Nicholas White — Transcript

by Cougar News Entertainment · 7,355 words · 1,022 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00good afternoon everybody and welcome to
0:03another podcast of CN my name is David
0:05Kudo and let me uh first introduce
0:10everybody here I only have one co-host
0:12today so introduce yourself hi Aon lza
0:15so we are here with a very very special
0:18guest this afternoon yes um I've been
0:20dying to have this interview for
0:22probably the better part of four months
0:24uh talk yes I've been eagerly talking
0:28about this so um
0:30let me give a little backstory first so
0:32about four or five months ago Aaron and
0:34I did a red carpet for a movie called uh
0:37Forsaken and we were happy to meet this
0:40fantastic reporter uh for US Weekly
0:43amongst other things and so his name is
0:46Nicholas white and Nicholas has been in
0:49the business for probably the better
0:50part of 15 years um so let me basically
0:54here's how that whole thing started but
0:57um so here's how you get protected them
0:59so so he's on Facebook his Instagram is
1:03Nicholas all lowercase ni i c h
1:10l.e. like Mr White his LinkedIn is the
1:14same thing and Facebook
1:18facebook.com necky white so it's pretty
1:21simple without perod exactly without the
1:22period so um anyways let me introduce
1:26Nicholas how are you Nicholas uh it's my
1:28pleasure to be here what introduction
1:31so um we basically have been talking on
1:35and off for about four months now and as
1:37I said I've been dying to get you on the
1:39show because I know all of our listeners
1:41would love to hear somebody who's inside
1:43the RO Essen so why don't you tell us a
1:46little bit about yourself sure my
1:48pleasure uh let's see I started as a as
1:51a Hollywood Reporter I guess uh
1:53in2 I got uh I got my bachelor's degree
1:57in journalism from uh University of
1:59Missouri pretty good school 2001 and uh
2:02I applied for about 30 jobs sen year and
2:07uh I had pretty good grades they weren't
2:09you know I think I had it probably about
2:11a 36 okay so it was you know so the
2:13upper almost I you're talking almost a
2:164.0 solid but not yeah and uh I didn't
2:21get any job offers out there and I
2:24without knowing right exactly so I was
2:26just going to sort of the college job
2:28fairs
2:30you know was all cold
2:32cold and uh I had also applied to some
2:35some graduate journalism program so that
2:37was kind of the major fall that's the
2:40the sa fall that okay and I got into
2:44Northwestern uh in Chicago which is
2:47another good program uh despite what
2:50some of my missou professors told me of
2:52uh you know you don't need to go to
2:55journalism School twice it did however
2:57make a worldly difference in terms of
2:59getting getting a job in a Major Market
3:02so that's where they quite right about
3:05that after my graduate I got the
3:08graduate degree from Northwestern or
3:09which a year later uh again looking for
3:12a job uh it's it's tougher than it might
3:15seem in print journalism uh 2002 it was
3:18you know it's been a little tricky over
3:20the last 15 20 years just with Revenue
3:22shifts but uh I the most promising job I
3:26had on a grad school Prospect was uh an
3:28editor assistant that there at a
3:30Furniture magazine
3:33furniture and about $27,000 a
3:38year no Jordan's Jordan Furniture maybe
3:43but no so wow that's
3:45amazing7 tiny little trade magazine and
3:47you had you had to travel eight weeks
3:49eight weekends out of the year so you
3:51know a hard it was a lot lot uh I got
3:54man so uh I was talking with the dean of
3:57The Graduate School just throwing
3:59getting against the wall sort of thing
4:01and he goes well we got one of our lungs
4:03who writes Entertainment Weekly in LA
4:06and uh a little research about the guy
4:09he uh was real uh established with
4:12magazine so it was a good contact to
4:14have and uh they got me on the phone
4:17with the editor brought me out for an
4:19internship it was only supposed to last
4:21six weeks uh did you know worked hard
4:24when I was there they go you can stay
4:26longer you want for the fall so was
4:28another four months
4:30and uh I kind of developed a eache for
4:32myself at that time as the red carpet
4:34news guy I got I got a cup know when you
4:39get an internship for a major you know
4:41stage you want to try to develop a niche
4:45somehow possible in other words a reason
4:47for them to H right and I didn't know
4:49that but you're just kind of going up
4:50there doing your best yeah so I um one
4:53of my first events I was so excited to
4:55meet Bill
4:57mahart incorrect uh
5:00here and uh you know he had beened for
5:04some 911 controversial statements that
5:06he made so it was kind of an
5:09unceremonious and uh you know I told him
5:11how much I love the show and it was just
5:14being genuine you know and he ended up
5:16giving me a little uh news SCP at the
5:19end the at the end of the
5:21interview uh where he teased that he was
5:23going to do real time withar which uh
5:26you know still on the air yeah um and it
5:29was know real sort fake thing but
5:31sometimes in journalism that's really
5:33all it takes that one that one scoop
5:36that you can just yeah well with news
5:38you know news sometimes isn't completely
5:40clear just like so it's
5:43like right and when you get on a stage
5:45and millions of people uh you want to
5:47make sure you're right yes so uh you
5:50know uh could be challenging that way
5:53but he did it and you know gave it got
5:55back to the uh office uh they're real
5:58surprised because they said B Mar is can
6:01be difficult so you know the fact that
6:02you're were able to Brak through to them
6:04and then also get news uh they really
6:06like that so I ended up getting my name
6:09in the magazine a couple different times
6:11as
6:11an um which was fairly unar fairly rare
6:15was this one of syndicated new stories
6:18that got uh by you know in 2002 it
6:22wasn't quite um uh you know internet
6:26picking stuff up I will say however
6:28variety recorded it like a month later
6:31and one of my know PE everything we send
6:33me emailing
6:35iy so um it was syndicated in that sense
6:39but it didn't get by the first they wer
6:42around um uh so anyway so that
6:48internship end and I was really looking
6:49for jobs on I didn't get H as a staff or
6:53week which is you know fairly common
6:56unfortunately I think in the eight years
6:58they had the buau open
7:03so that's those AR good arts in your
7:04favorite right and uh so it was kind of
7:08like well you know just sort of go Clow
7:10sort of thing but the experience was
7:11there experience was there and you know
7:12you can take it you know it's up to me
7:14to take it for right so it's you know it
7:17was a great experience uh I realized at
7:20that point s
7:22and he's he's wearing a a Cardinals hat
7:25for all the sports fans and we'll get
7:27into that a little bit later but uh you
7:29know for anybody who's a sports fan out
7:31there St Louis Cardinals are like I mean
7:34I know the blues are doing very well in
7:35the playoffs by the way are you a hockey
7:37fan small sorry to oh breaking their
7:41hearts talk yeah yeah
7:45so yeah so but um so he's wearing
7:49Cardinal hats so he is you know DieHard
7:51Cardinal fan so continue um so uh you
7:54know in terms of the N car for myself in
7:57Hollywood I was like why would I want to
7:59throw that way to go work so okay move
8:02back to Hollywood try to find something
8:05goad no so when you when did you
8:07actually move out to LA so did you
8:09actually move out to LA at 02 then and
8:12start2 2002 is when I got okay and uh
8:17that went through the end of2 so I moved
8:18back
8:19AT3 uh started freelancing around okay
8:22in Earnest and you know I work you knoww
8:26and they started giving me a couple
8:27high-profile events you know like the
8:29car and the Bruce Almighty premere
8:33things which were just so excited did
8:36they just say hey uh we'll give you the
8:38opportunity to try this we'll it was
8:40kind of like uh well we got you know
8:42they don't hire out La sort of like well
8:45we got this new guy pretty good you know
8:48we see how he does and they give you a
8:49trial time and you get come back with
8:51some stuff it to nice if not they can
8:54just kind of people around yeah um and
8:58uh also did at that time US Weekly and
9:01early evening of my career uh at that
9:05time it was not adding up to so uh I
9:08went to a Northwestern
9:11network uh for just random ideas I end
9:14up getting hired as uh another
9:17freelancer physan but it was much more
9:20uh constant at people magaz which is
9:22sort of a you know in the same thing and
9:26that ended up being a really fruitful uh
9:29relationship that kind of established my
9:32Premier as a journalist out here and was
9:35actually I think where I you know made
9:38my my biggest contributions uh from 04
9:41to 2010 that was the time where you know
9:43Revenue models signific shied for print
9:46to online right and during that time you
9:49know nobody tells you it's happen just
9:52very gradually and uh as it was
9:54happening I was sort of establishing a
9:56mold online report
9:59online just thought
10:01same yeah and uh and you know they the
10:06the there's still an after that you know
10:09an awful lot of nudes uh is broken from
10:12these events for all the various
10:15celebrities uh you know so I feel like
10:18just being on on the Vanguard of that
10:20you know The Cutting Edge of that and
10:22and uh fantastic experience you know you
10:25can kind of take it with you the great
10:27thing about journalism experience is
10:28from
10:29uh perspective is that it's sort of
10:32broad Life Training you can you know
10:35kind of take it with you
10:37to however you want you're essentially
10:40being an inquisitive person about life
10:43so you know uh take it wherever you want
10:46Yeah so basically I mean if see as you
10:50may mention you had you've been writing
10:52for all these major celebrity magazines
10:55which I mean there still in Publications
10:56today but basically US Weekly people so
11:00I mean that's that's still um the
11:03biggest thing so um you know you talked
11:07about your first bed carpet which was
11:08great so let me ask you I know and I'm
11:11going to get into this a little bit more
11:12in depth a little bit later but I know
11:14you just went to the Civil War red
11:17carpet so everybody wants to know at
11:19least I want to know how crazy is that
11:23uh Civil War carpet was a lot of fun um
11:26I it was my first experience in The
11:27Avengers universe
11:29I uh so had you never you had never gone
11:31to a Marvel red procket before or uh not
11:34I hadn't done the Avengers Premier done
11:37the captain so this was an all new thing
11:40to me I've done you know a lot of right
11:43you know to do sty
11:46Y which by the way for all of the
11:49listeners out there you have to
11:51understand Nicholas can go into this
11:53more it's very close and it's very tight
11:56so why don't you explain to that and
11:58nobody who's ever been on red Propet why
12:00don't why don't you explain what is like
12:03to actually be on it sure uh it's it's a
12:06little different for every event uh it's
12:08very much uh context for in the sense of
12:12you know you're going to be brushing up
12:13against people you don't know and you
12:15have to be tolerant of uh you know
12:18people with big egos or pick up a lot of
12:21space or you know this or that so uh you
12:24have to be really accomodative to uh the
12:27situation of the last minut
12:29when you watch Red Carpet stuff on TV
12:31it's usually you know from e or
12:34Entertainment Tonight or Access
12:36Hollywood or something and they often
12:37times have an awful lot of space to uh
12:40spread out and it looks uh you know uh
12:44much more convenient clean that it is in
12:47real life you know once they get past
12:48sort of those three or four major
12:51broadcast out it turns into a little bit
12:53of a a scrum you know the space gets way
12:56much smaller yes and as you know
12:58somebody been essentially print reporter
13:00uh my whole career you know they they
13:02put print you know 95 99% of the time in
13:07with scrum so uh you know that's part of
13:10the the job description and I mean I've
13:13seen people over the years who aren't as
13:15good at it or aren't as comfortable and
13:18would you say that some I'm sorry uh
13:20would you say that some people uh treat
13:23that side of the the news like scrum
13:27you're saying they treat you
13:29less intriguing gity yeah I mean it's
13:33you know because it you know if you can
13:35just imagine if you were going up to
13:36somebody at a party or something and uh
13:39a bunch of people want to talk to you
13:40and then you know there's some people
13:42sort of like showering stuff GN your
13:44your attention by then is not really
13:46fully there you're kind of just want to
13:47wrap it up it can be tough to get
13:50credibility so to speak uh at the end of
13:52line so that can be you know that's part
13:54of the challenge uh and that's where
13:56your sort of uh relationships
13:59Hope come
14:01through fly down but yeah know that's a
14:07challenge getting them to listen even
14:09though
14:11voice I have a question actually um I
14:14saw on your LinkedIn that you say you
14:16had developed a curent def finding in
14:19technique yeah I feel like um what I
14:23mean by that is um a little bit of what
14:27I touched on earlier think
14:29with uh sort of just finding this news
14:33format of getting news from events and
14:35stuff I think that that really started
14:39with uh you know my generation at that
14:42time in terms of uh there was an awful
14:45lot of news that was being left on The
14:47Cutting of floor um before online about
14:52so about 20072 2008 things really
14:55started to change and uh so the story
14:59started to
15:00become um yeah more uh it was more kind
15:05of getting value out of something that
15:07wasn't there
15:09previously and uh employers I really
15:12like that you know what I mean you're
15:15making money for uh you know it can be
15:19tough sometimes to go into a large
15:22bureaucratic organization like you know
15:24people or one of these try to get get
15:28stuff
15:29SC magazines much earlier or
15:33new yeah yeah um and um so uh you know
15:39that was fairly significant in the sense
15:41that we were able to kind of you know
15:44guide the ship in a sense in s different
15:46direction um the the format for which
15:50the story format for which uh story
15:54format for which the online news is made
15:56from the major Outlets from events still
15:59essentially the same as it is now and
16:02you think about how many different
16:03directions that can go it go a lot of
16:06different directions but it's still
16:07essentially the same so you're would you
16:09say that you're more like a Pioneer uh I
16:11mean you know you don't want to be that
16:14but uh in the I mean in the sense of
16:16like the internet if I were to go to uh
16:18you know if I were to go to a job
16:20interview and they ask me you know what
16:21are
16:22I sort of you know why why should we
16:24hired you what are your major kindell
16:27points that would be
16:29uh you know that would be at the top I
16:31would say you know I helped um sort of
16:35establish this thing that wasn't wasn't
16:37there yet you know so um you know
16:39Pioneer is one of the things subjective
16:41term to I think essentially belongs to
16:44whoever person but um you know I do
16:47think that was a new technique
16:49and it still resonates today when did
16:52you happen to notice that uh the Youtube
16:55or that uh the internet was really
16:57sensational started follow along Arles
17:01well I remember in 2007 which is when I
17:04started transitioning a little bit from
17:06magazine people.com I saw a new story at
17:08the time and it said that uh 30% it it
17:12was going to be in from 2007 to 2012 the
17:15next five years there was projected to
17:17be there was uh at in ' 07 print Outlets
17:21were getting 70% of their revenue print
17:24online advertising sorry I'm sorry print
17:27advertising % of the revenue from online
17:30in 2012 it was projected to completely
17:33switch to 70% online Revenue to 30% crit
17:37Reven now of course in 2016 we know that
17:40that you know it's well passed out right
17:43yes but you know in 2007 we didn't
17:46exactly know that in terms of it's not
17:48like it's Science Fiction it's just more
17:50like you don't know if uh people are
17:53going to pay you money to do it you know
17:56people people who are writing the checks
17:58have believe that they can recruit their
17:59invest and when you're dealing with you
18:02know big Pockets uh that can be a
18:05challenge
18:07yeah um
18:09so basically so of all of the red
18:14carpets and I know this is kind of broad
18:17of all the red carpets or all the prar
18:19that you've been to and I know you
18:20talked to a lot of celebrities can you
18:23give us a couple of um good interviews
18:26that you've had and then maybe some that
18:29with let's see a couple good interviews
18:31uh well one of my uh sort of interviews
18:34that kind of help put me on the map
18:35people.com was something that uh was
18:39slightly a little uh unexpected and
18:42those are good interviews that's a good
18:44lesson for a student journalist that you
18:46want to
18:47um uh try to Enterprise new stories
18:51Beyond what's kind of PR so what it was
18:53was uh it was a premere of zodiac which
18:56came out in 2007 that's the movie
19:00Mar and it was a Paramount movie so Su
19:03Redstone was
19:08there and uh he had just had some kind
19:10of public Tom which is you know
19:14sensationalistic you know triy whatever
19:16you can say but it's uh it was sort of
19:20catnip in the area of you know online
19:23news wasn't completely established by
19:24that point but politically it's a little
19:28Ed to put in the print magazine because
19:31politics dictates a
19:32lot so he ended up giving a really
19:35interesting answer about Tom Cruz and it
19:37was picked up uh by a lot of you know
19:40really legitimate crosswest Washington
19:43Post I new times I about it and you know
19:47the editors were just really happy about
19:48it because it was you know for people
19:51for the celebrity Outlets if they even
19:53the really big ones if they can get
19:55picked up by you know pris Hilton and
19:58post that's great but to get picked up
20:00by the pr of the crop in terms of you
20:03know the natural presence that you know
20:05that was uh it was a little unusual you
20:07know so it was just a really positive
20:09experience for me and I was able to kind
20:11of uh you know use that confidence to
20:14serve pal and it was a thing where you
20:17know uh a lot of people for People
20:20magazine might not even interview some
20:23he's not really you know he's not a
20:25celebrity yeah exactly I mean so you
20:27know you're kind of think you know
20:29you're thinking on your feet you know um
20:33another really uh exciting interview
20:36interviewing C for the first time was
20:39such a huge man growing up Love
20:41Basketball
20:44Diaries and
20:47uh you know I haven't really interviewed
20:51big star something that really admired
20:54and I was just
20:56almost publicist yeah to get a quote you
20:59know almost just for my personal story
21:01book and uh got a nice interview with
21:05them he's real polite you know very
21:08friendly and uh he's walking away The
21:12Basketball Diaries appreciated that it's
21:14by the way it's a good idea if you do
21:16give compliment to not for interviews
21:19kind of
21:21manipa um uh but I hadal I've talked
21:25with him a couple times since Senator
21:26events and he could fairly difficult to
21:29uh get your hands on in terms of just
21:31the people around him so um it was one
21:34of those things that again just great
21:37your confidence and it uh you know such
21:40a it's a positive War you build off it
21:45uh right after that actually The Aviator
21:46Premiere which was the m in 2004 I got a
21:49quote from about uh it just turned 30 or
21:52something and uh they used that in the
21:55People magazine cover story but
21:59which is know yeah it's not too shabby
22:02so yeah um you were saying that it it
22:06takes it takes a confidence that it
22:08builds your your sense of like story
22:10Diary or your your own personal story
22:12your narrative uh does does that
22:15narrative um push you to to like finish
22:18what you started if you're doing an
22:20interview and you get nervous does is is
22:22it that personal narrative that you have
22:24to keep going wellist uh you know one
22:27thing somebody told me on earlier in my
22:29career that uh I didn't quite think of
22:31you know look at interviews that way and
22:33it continues to resonate with me now and
22:37goes directly to what you're saying is
22:39that when you're when interviewing
22:41somebody you want to get control of this
22:42of your subjects and you can't uh you
22:46know especially if you're L politicians
22:49like press they're really really good at
22:52taking the question wherever they want
22:54to take it and C you know all
22:56celebrities have some degree of media
22:58training before they're put in front of
23:01reporters so as a reporter you know uh
23:05if you're not in control of that even
23:07though they've been schooled in your way
23:09of doing things uh it's going to look
23:11apparent and you're not going to be
23:13taking serious so you want to make sure
23:16that you uh know stuff enough really
23:20stuff to where you feel like you can
23:22have control of the subject you know one
23:26kind of TR quote that I
23:32remembered no no but believe it or not
23:35and that and that's not cheesy because
23:37that is even today that is one of the
23:39most read books but it's still one of
23:43the
23:43most RS true I've gotten referred to
23:46that book several times they say uh the
23:48quote in there that I Wasing refering to
23:51is if you know your adversary if you
23:55know
23:56yourself better than your if you know
23:59yourself better than your adversary
24:01knows you and you know your adversary
24:03better than your adversary knows himself
24:05you will always win if your adversary
24:08knows himself better than you know him
24:11and you know yourself better than him
24:13it's a TI but if your adversary knows
24:16himself better and you better than you
24:18know yourself he will always win so uh
24:22IDE you want to shoot for knowing your
24:24mission and what they're about better
24:27than I know right yeah um I actually
24:32likeed not to cut you off I actually
24:34like the quote you had on your Facebook
24:36confront boldness with still more
24:39boldness and and I think that Rings true
24:42especially when you're in the heat of
24:43battle in red carpet situations which is
24:46completely exactly because you're trying
24:49to get this person and they may not want
24:52to speak to you and it's like okay I'm
24:55just going to go for it and try and I
24:58mean personally speaking and I think
25:00this is my Shining Moment is when I got
25:02Donald Su I mean he was at the end of
25:04the rope and his public said no more
25:06questions and I just basically stuck a
25:08microphone in his face you know I got I
25:11got the answer it was a one word answer
25:13but you know what I got the answer and
25:15still like you know what his question
25:17was what was it like to live your son
25:19exactly and so you just said
25:22good but that was it you know so I mean
25:26but you know he' gone through the cycle
25:27and I understand it so um
25:31basically let so let's now transition I
25:34know you just we were discussing
25:36something on the way in here I know you
25:37just said you went to a Premiere last
25:39night so tell everybody about the
25:40premere you went to last night sure by
25:43the way
25:45confirm by the way that's a Napoleon
25:48Napoleon B so but anyways nichas tell us
25:53everybody about the uh went last night
25:56uh so was for new movie called Maggie
25:57plan uh which is a sort of a smaller
26:01romantic comedy of sorts Stars credit
26:04Gerwig uh who's really good and kind of
26:06quirky
26:07independent romantic roles she's in a
26:10love triangle with e Hawk and juli and
26:13more um you know and I the plot details
26:18I'll spare you it's a good movie you
26:20know not great like a lot of those sort
26:22of independent Ms are and uh there was
26:25Q&A afterwards with g
26:28director and Travis Fel who plays SPM
26:32donor in the movie Travis Fel I knew the
26:35name I didn't know too much about him he
26:37is one of the guys from the TV show
26:39Vikings on History Channel with the
26:41theater the nor spiking here and he's
26:45also in a movie called Warcraft and
26:48coming out a few mons and actually
26:49that's a perfect transition because now
26:52I want to talk to you about Blockbusters
26:54so every single year we have these
26:57Blockbuster questions that just ring
27:00through and I was making mention uh
27:03earlier Civil War and Civil War is going
27:05to be kicking them off in a couple weeks
27:08what are there any red carpets as far as
27:11Blockbusters that you're looking forward
27:13to or just in general are there any
27:15movies like that you say I want to see
27:18this movie when it comes out well I
27:19would like one for
27:21Alice you knowne fun time they always do
27:25great experience with their years and
27:27then just F to cover as a journalist um
27:30in terms of uh you know as a journalist
27:33I have to say you know when everybody's
27:35got their own approach I kind of take
27:37things month by month and to be honest
27:39with you I couldn't even really tell you
27:41a lot of the big summer Blockbusters I
27:43sort of
27:44just you know them but you don't you
27:46can't say this is when it's going to be
27:49so on and I sort of do that
27:50intentionally in the sense that uh you
27:53know I don't like to have a lot of uh
27:56advanced ations and a lot of you
28:00know Advanced thought about it is it
28:03because you want to also be a Critic as
28:05well uh you just I you know what I think
28:07uh critic in a sense uh as a journalist
28:10ideally you want to just kind of reflect
28:12their reality and
28:15uh you know good way to do that is just
28:18kind of be present in the so like I
28:20don't say oh I got a cover uh know this
28:23Premier or that Premier you like for
28:24example Star Wars when I was Star Wars
28:26Premier a few months ago there was just
28:28ton of journalists you
28:31know it's great to be a part of a
28:34fantastic prier but you know as a
28:35working journalist uh there was there
28:38was two other PR that so there's a lot
28:41of things to do so you have to be able
28:43to a Juggle but let me ask you a
28:45question do you get to choose which ones
28:47so if you have three let's say you have
28:49Star Wars and then you have two others I
28:51mean obviously Star Wars is going to
28:53take the lead but if you have three
28:55premieres that let's say are equally uh
28:58important do you have the choice of
29:00saying okay I want to go to that one and
29:01then somebody else will take that one uh
29:03it depends on the outlet that you work
29:05for generally when we work for the
29:06bigger Outlets uh they it's very
29:11regimented does well and when you're a
29:13freelancer you know a lot of times as
29:15you would imagine it's kind of a
29:16peripheral type thing so um your say so
29:21in terms of saying that you know I want
29:23to this huge premere
29:25are you know at best craft okay however
29:29uh they're pretty good if you have a
29:32natural interest in something for
29:34example I you know I love rap music so
29:37like I was I was like gotta cover
29:39straight out of comp gotta cover the
29:41chunk at miror yeah and they go so uh
29:45there is a certain amount of you know
29:46leverage there uh you know when I work
29:48for smaller Outlets um you can do
29:51whatever you want go go the thing is is
29:53that it can be tough to get cren
29:55sometimes for I work for a couple months
29:58for now called celeb buzz in 2012 which
30:02Spin
30:03Media but it's not a news out and I
30:06couldn't get credential these premieres
30:08and some of these big
30:10premieres so again it's not quite as
30:12easy as it you know on the on the
30:15surface um so let me ask
30:18you do you have what kind what genre of
30:22movie so what kind of genre of movie if
30:25you're just sitting down on your couch
30:26on a
30:28what would you say what would you pop in
30:33VC what would you pop in well I really
30:35like watching I'm a I'm a I'm kind of
30:38more attou to movies about sort of the
30:40the era that they came out in um and
30:43almost always it's I like to know I like
30:46to watch everything as recent as
30:48possible that sort of in my my wheelous
30:52like I'd say you know of the top 200
30:55grossing movies for 2013 or 2014 let's
30:59say 2013 I've seen easily over half of
31:03so uh really my attack for movies is
31:08sort of as a barometer of a gay arcade
31:10just kind of what's going on out
31:13there okay um in terms of what movies I
31:17like I love comies those are kind of my
31:19favorite you know my favorite movies
31:24off clust I was we we were just as a
31:28matter of fact that well two weeks ago
31:31we did um whole podcast dedicated to 80s
31:34movies oh yeah and so um you know he
31:38selected Weird Science what was one good
31:41Back to the Future and I did um standby
31:45G and some others but you know we also
31:47have blade run but I mean you have a
31:49multitude of them you know those cop as
31:52you may mention um 16 Candles so but the
31:55point is we did that so we're right I
31:57completely understand what you made
31:59about 80s movies and
32:03exactly movies too I don't know as much
32:05about but what a ER for film you know
32:08real quick about we science I was
32:11Captain America Premier I was just
32:13coincidentally behind Anthony Michael
32:15Hall going in L the premere and uh when
32:18I got home I was doing my file and I saw
32:21on Wikipedia page or page that Anthony
32:24Michael Hall is the God's father to
32:36robery
32:38yeah yes no y it really is um so what
32:46um so I guess um so what other questions
32:50do you have I was uh wondering maybe uh
32:52in recording is there anything in
32:54particular that you realized you know
32:56what this is
32:58there's no
32:59audience um uh you know in journalism
33:03school they taught you that um you know
33:06you want to serve your audience most so
33:10in other words you're not writing for
33:12yourself so much if you if you think if
33:14you're writing for yourself and you're
33:15writing for the wrong person so always
33:18you want to think about do people care
33:21about this and if they don't uh you know
33:26it just reflects
33:27joural
33:30Jud so I guess that kind of goes around
33:33something
33:34else with your people that you current
33:37following or you have to F now that has
33:40really fluctuated the way that you think
33:44about uh calling like your people write
33:50oh yeah oh I see saying um you know uh I
33:54mean ever since you know I'd say when I
33:57first started working for usek in 2003
33:59as a freelancer I had a meeting editor
34:02there and the LA editor and he's not
34:05there anymore but he's actually he ISS
34:08uh but he told me you know he just
34:11really cut down what people want very
34:14basic and he was you know he walked me
34:16through the magazine celebrities piing
34:19up go this is what they want you know no
34:24words pictures and uh you know really
34:28kind of boiled it down for me in terms
34:31of uh the audience for that particular
34:33Outlet so it's going to be different for
34:36real let I know that uh what you kind of
34:38Chang
34:40after uh you know um the stuff celebrity
34:43news KS do really really well you know
34:46when I I did TV guide.com also for a
34:48couple months and I looked at the
34:49traffic numbers and I think one of my
34:52second or so bad but it is what it is my
34:55second or third biggest story traffic
34:57wise was
34:59SEL no but you know 30,000 but see that
35:04leads to what kind of thing that people
35:07want I mean unfort that that's a sad
35:09state of embarassing today sex but no
35:13and you're right it does you know um but
35:16that's that's what it comes down to
35:17because they don't really care about I
35:21don't know I can't think of anything
35:22about but they don't care about the not
35:24the serious story but they want
35:26something more juy lack of a better word
35:32think and that and that's something that
35:34you know is it easy to look at a picture
35:36yeah absolutely one one quick principle
35:39that been cus at graduate school to
35:41build it a lot of people I don't think
35:42keep in mind it's a little bit wonky and
35:45scientific is that the human eye
35:47responds differently and tolerates
35:50differ computer screen images versus
35:52Imes on so that has profound impact for
35:57the type of content that people are
35:59going to respond to
36:01on so you know if we look at oh it's you
36:05know crappy that you know we respon to
36:07to face you know visual things on the
36:10internet well that's just what the ey is
36:12comfortable with you know whereas if you
36:14read a book uh it's more soothing on
36:18your eye and uh substance is more
36:21directly TI that well I wonder what the
36:24difference would be for
36:27laptop right exactly that's good point
36:29yeah that's good point so
36:33um let me ask you what so if anybody
36:36what kind of advice would you have for
36:38anybody listen right now they want to
36:40get it they want to essentially do your
36:42job they want to get in the industry and
36:44they want to get what kind of advice
36:45would you give well I think uh uh having
36:49a foot the door with contact makes a
36:51world of difference um you know I
36:54couldn't get anybody to arest me until I
36:58got you know in
37:00at and once you get that first big name
37:04you know start to take a little bit more
37:06seriously so uh part of that was finding
37:09the right school you know even
37:11University of Missouri which is an
37:13excellent prr I couldn't get the right
37:16Contex uh contexts are so you know it's
37:21almost depressing important they are
37:25like so uh you know when you're starting
37:29out that can be really confusing and I
37:31didn't quite know which way to go uh
37:33with that but try to develop
37:36high-profile mentors as best possible
37:39for example before I entered
37:40Northwestern I emailed the head of the
37:43magazine department and I researched his
37:45background and I knew what he interested
37:48in and I started working for grad system
37:52so and he worked at
37:54all so you know kind of nuzzle up with
37:58uh high-profile people in what you want
38:01to do
38:03that will
38:04make you would you say that there are as
38:10joural
38:12and consistently keep doing this and
38:15just realiz I'm doing
38:17something yeah uh you
38:20know you get an any job to stting SES it
38:23becomes kind of a grind I mean I
38:24remember B recently uh she talking
38:31about prob you
38:34know fair amount of money and you know
38:3720 million people see her a week and
38:40she's
38:41bored so it's like uh you know there's
38:45going to be stuff you don't want to do
38:47sometimes you know believe me there's
38:49questions I don't want to ask sometimes
38:51I remember reading interview one time
38:53with
38:55intern at the New York Times and she
38:58said that they looked for candidates who
39:00had a few doors already slammed in their
39:02face by the time they get to them so
39:05it's kind of the essence of Journalism
39:07that you know to toughen up and to work
39:09for the biggest
39:14spokes you were actually mentioning
39:16something about answer asking
39:20questions yeah I mean um it's uh you
39:24know at a certain point you have to
39:26trust your own personal you know if your
39:28boss you go jump off the bridge you're
39:30do it probably not so uh yeah so you
39:35know you want to keep you want to have
39:37your job at the end of the day you want
39:38to keep working but uh there have been
39:42examples I've seen over my career of
39:44people where uh you know they the
39:48Freelancers sort of strung out a little
39:50bit to dry in terms of their own
39:52judgment they're following orders in
39:54terms of uh being aggressive
39:57and if something goes wrong it falls in
39:59Freelancers lab because you know that's
40:02where the Judgment sort of
40:04liability and you want to stay out of
40:06the
40:07situations just looks bad and you know I
40:11I to reference another thing from
40:13journalism school they they told you
40:15know just imagine any time you're
40:17writing something down are you
40:20comfortable standing in a court of law
40:22talking about
40:24theable so uh you know you probably
40:28never will
40:29meiz but that's that's a good standard
40:32to have you know good
40:35stand that's that's just just you saying
40:39that just wow that's just profound to
40:43you're right you probably never will be
40:44in a court of law but at the same time
40:46like w need to make exactly be first be
40:51first get into the the news but don't
40:53put yourself in a compromising position
40:55okay can see you can sleep at night you
40:57know I remember there was a guy from uh
41:00when I first started he was a freelancer
41:02People magazine and he didn't
41:05have they had him go I knew about this
41:08because there about new he was sent to
41:13R's house or some celebrity house to go
41:16scope around and police got called up
41:19and uh he came and they found you know
41:23they cordial they uh sign
41:26are map print out and an email from the
41:30editor to people saying this is what you
41:32need to do and uh you know theend of day
41:36one
41:38and yeah so they probably have some
41:42issues uh it's
41:45issues I just you know if I were the
41:47freelancer and I was taask that
41:48assignment I would go I don't know I
41:52have to this an internal diog but I
41:54don't know if I'm completely
41:57comfortable uh defending my news
42:00Gathering technique
42:01at so you wanna you know keep that in
42:05mind when you're taking assignments and
42:08the editors are really good s know that
42:10and they
42:12don't okay so um I do wrap up today I'm
42:16gonna ask you actually I stole this from
42:21but I think be I think yeah so I think
42:25but I I fascinating and I have never I
42:28haven't done this personally favorite
42:29word yeah you know exactly what we're
42:32gonna ask so first question what is your
42:34favorite word my favorite word uh well
42:38let me I like AR
42:40di yeah think it's something to
42:46for
42:50words okay what is your least favorite
42:52word favorite word how about uh I like
42:57goat hey goat I mean it's a good animal
43:00but better exactly um what turns you on
43:04emotionally creatively with spiritually
43:07what turns me on uh uh having my
43:11creativity released in other words uh
43:15you know it's been trapped for a while
43:17and I'm able to get it out there and
43:19people respond to it
43:22that's what turn you off he's in the
43:25right position yeah
43:27absolutely uh what turns you off what
43:29turn me uh selfishness
43:33um
43:35themselves yeah it just goes back to
43:38that principle of you know you're
43:40serving an audience you know socially in
43:43what is your favorite CS
43:48oh have you ever heard the
43:50keeper version of
43:55this and I and I will as soon as we're
43:58done here I will go look it up play his
44:01his favorite word is graits okay and
44:04play that over and over and his least
44:12favorite
44:14R oh wow
44:17so so what is your favorite c
44:21word okay no what sound or noise do you
44:25love
44:26uh let's see laughter what sound and
44:31noise
44:37um people sort
44:40of know
44:42SM
44:47judment uh what profession other than
44:49your own would you like to pretend uh
44:53artists what profession would you know
44:55not
45:00like
45:01and and If Heaven existed what would you
45:04like to hear
45:07God
45:10uh
45:15I no I don't and and you're right that
45:19fantastic question that's it time
45:24up
45:27good job Ser serve serve everybody Fant
45:31okay um so that's it um I want to
45:37appreciate I want to thank you for
45:39coming on this has been an absolute
45:43GL this is just I I he can tell you I've
45:47been looking forward this for months
45:50journalist and you gave some really cool
45:52advice to Young journalists out there
45:54and so that was very very nice you so um
45:58that's my that's really nice and say by
45:59the
46:00way a lot about see
46:03that so Okie doie um for Aon
46:10L Nicholas white I'm David Kad and
46:14you've been listening to another C
46:16podcast catch you later bye guys catch
46:18you later bye guys catch you later bye
46:20guys catch you later bye guys catch you
46:23later bye guys catch

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of A Sit Down Interview with Nicholas White by Cougar News Entertainment, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 7,355 words across 1,022 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.