NPR's Tonya Mosley on the art of the interview

Award-winning journalist Tonya Mosley joins Storyboard contributor Christina M. Tapper for a discussion about interviewing, live coverage, and how to tell complex family stories. 

Mosley is the co-host of NPR’s “Fresh Air,” where she has in-depth conversations with newsmakers like politician and author Stacy Abrams, actor George Clooney, and artist Mickalene Thomas. It’s not just Mosley’s ability to have conversations with a wide range of people that make her one of the most notable interviewers in journalism and media. It’s also her research. 

“I have a wonderful team at ‘Fresh Air’ who puts together a research document and it's all the things that they can find out about the person, and they break it up: here's television work, here's audio work, here's what's been written about them. I read all of that,” she says. “But then the fun thing to do after that is to find the things that weren't in the document. So then I go digging myself.” 

In her own research, Mosley scours non-mainstream platforms, including Black media. It’s Mosley’s way of covering all of her bases and honoring the guest’s time.

Read the full show notes: https://niemanstoryboard.org/2026/01/08/nprs-tonya-mosley-on-the-art-of-the-interview/

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Show Credits

Hosted and produced by Mark Armstrong

Episode producer and interview by Christina M. Tapper

Episode editor: Kelly Araja

Audience editor: Adriana Lacy

Promotional support: Ellen Tuttle

Operational support: Paul Plutnicki, Peter Canova

Nieman Foundation interim curator: Henry Chu

Music: “Golden Grass,” by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

Cover design by Adriana Lacy

Nieman Storyboard is presented by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.

Chapters

• 0:00 Storyboard: Tonya Mosley