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From Staubach-Wannabe To Texas Monthly Editor: Brian Sweany On His Career So Far

Texas Monthly

Two decades ago, a North Texas kid named Brian Sweany walked into the offices of Texas Monthly magazine as an intern. In the August issue that’s just hit newsstands, that kid is listed for the first time as editor-in-chief. Sweany chats with KERA’s vice president of news, Rick Holter, for this week’s Friday Conversation.

  Interview Highlights: Brian Sweany…

…On his path to becoming a magazine editor:

“I wanted to play football for the Plano Senior High Wildcats, and then the SMU Mustangs, and then of course the Dallas Cowboys. When I was in high school, I read ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac, after having read that book, I wanted to be the next great American writer." 

…On being the fifth editor of Texas Monthly:

“ You don’t work [at Texas Monthly] if you don’t love Texas. What’s fun about this job has always been discovering things about Texas that you didn’t know, and I’ve been here all my life. I’m a native Texan, I was born on Texas Independence Day, but every day, I end up finding something out about this state or its people that I didn’t know before.”

…On the person he would most like to interview (living or dead):

“Everybody who knows me would say that I would sit down for a long barbecue dinner with Lyndon Johnson and I would pepper him with questions until he either shooed me away or threw a shoe at me.” 

Former KERA staffer Krystina Martinez was an assistant producer. She produced local content for Morning Edition and KERANews.org. She also produced The Friday Conversation, a weekly series of conversations with North Texas newsmakers. Krystina was also the backup newscaster for the Texas Standard.
Rick Holter was KERA's vice president of news. He oversaw news coverage on all of KERA's platforms – radio, digital and television. Under his leadership, KERA News earned more than 200 local, regional and national awards, including the station's first two national Edward R. Murrow Awards. He and the KERA News staff were also part of NPR's Ebola-coverage team that won a George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's highest honor.
Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.