David Boeri
The veteran journalist joins WBUR to host the station’s newest program. Listen to this interview
Eskimos. Botany. A civil war. What do they have in common? They’ve all been instrumental in shaping David Boeri’s eclectic and successful career. Now the veteran television reporter turns his attention to his new WBUR program arriving this fall, Radio Boston.
FOR DAVID BOERI, who arrived at WBUR after a celebrated career as a television reporter for Boston’s WCVB Channel 5, the switch to radio was a welcome one. Boeri has always been interested in telling complete stories; something that, until recently, he felt was missing in his life.
“I was in television news for years. As time went on, there were fewer opportunities for longer-form storytelling, so I felt I needed to get back into deeper water,” says Boeri. “With Radio Boston, I want to immerse myself in the issues and challenges that shape the landscape of Boston. I want to do it by digging, by listening and engaging, and by telling stories.”
Boeri’s passion for storytelling developed over time in some of the most exotic places on Earth-from living with Eskimo whale hunters in Alaska to studying Alpine plants on Mt. Rainier, and even reporting from a war zone in El Salvador.
“I flew to an island remnant of the Bering Land Bridge locked in a sea of ice 200 miles west of Nome,” Boeri recalls. “The sun was setting over the mountains of Siberia thirty miles away. It was phenomenal. I lived there with native villagers for three years. In walrus skin boats, we hunted amid ice flows for bowhead whales. I hunted for good stories. I was a young writer fascinated with their culture. By the end of my stay I felt that it was my purpose to tell their stories and stories of other cultures.”
“If you’re a good reporter, I think you sometimes see too much; but if you’re a good reporter, you want to see much more.”
“But you don’t have to travel overseas or far from home to make new discoveries,” says Boeri. “I’m looking forward to immersing myself even more in Boston-the city that I grew up in. It’s going to be a great voyage of exploration.”
With Radio Boston, Boeri hopes to make new discoveries and provide WBUR listeners with engaged reporting, lively conversation, and insight into Boston and beyond. In upcoming programs, Boeri will explore the shockingly high rate of murders that go unsolved in Boston, the struggles of our newest national park, human trafficking in Massachusetts, and how Massachusetts farmers are trying to survive suburban sprawl, real estate boosts, and agribusiness dominating the market.
“What I love about Boston and doing a show here is that you’re never very far from history. Not just the buildings, but what happens here. Everything that goes on in this city is linked to the past,” says Boeri.
“For example, one of the topics we’re covering is the story of the Charles Street jail, which was built in 1851. Today, it’s being converted into a four-star hotel, but when you visit you see the old Quincy granite walls and realize that this is a place that held Malcolm X, the Boston Strangler, a German WWII captured submarine crew and many more. Even to see it being turned into this jail-chic luxury hotel, you can’t escape the fact that history plays into the lives of people.”
“And it’s also going to play largely into the stories we tell on Radio Boston.”
Radio Boston is coming to WBUR on Friday afternoon this September. Visit the show’s blog here.