- Let me get my first guest on the line.
He's a man on a mission to make sure we all stay informed
during this tough time.
He's the anchor of NBC Nightly News and Dateline.
And recently, he added one more,
NBC Nightly News Kids Edition.
All right, well Lester are you there?
- I am, hey.
- Hey, how are you?
Where are you zooming from? - I'm doing okay.
I mean, I'm trying to abide by the rules
and you know, I stand on my head
if they told me it would flatten the curve.
So, you know, other than walking the dog,
a couple of times a day and make an occasional field runs,
I'm at home.
- But where you are at right now,
is it your home?
It's beautiful.
- Yeah, this is my home in lower Manhattan
and fortunately we'd done some work
and we got in just in time when all this hit.
And you just can't complain in times like this
because a lot of folks can't, like us
who work at home.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So, you know, we're doing what we gotta do.
- Yeah, no.
Amen.
And what's funny about your statement
is we have been living in temporary housing,
and let me know (both laughing)
it is not fun.
- Yeah.
- But we have a bit of an end of the school year show
going on right now.
What would you have said?
Or what would you have been sad about I guess,
to miss at the end of your high school experience?
- So much happens in that last month.
I think, one of the cool things,
I don't know if they do this anymore,
but growing up in California,
Disneyland used to have grad nights.
And they would close the park from midnight to 5:00 a.m.
And high school graduates from all over the West would come
and just have a fun night.
And I remember I really looked forward to that
and I would hate to miss that
because it was like a celebration,
not only with your classmates,
but other 18 year olds who were heading out into the world
in college.
- So fun. (laughing)
I love Disney.
All right,
well you're doing the virtual commencement speech this year
for Rutgers.
- Yeah, Rutgers, they asked me to be a commencement speaker
and you know, like a lot of schools,
they're not gonna have a traditional commencement.
So I'll be doing it in front of a camera.
- I've often thought about this
cause you see a lot of people in the limelight
giving commencement speeches and I'm like,
"gosh, that's gotta be nerve-wracking!"
Right, like what are you gonna say?
- Yeah I've done commencement speeches before.
It's always awkward for me cause I didn't finish college.
So I always have to like do that as my announcement,
that, "Hey, you know, I never stood
"where you guys are right now."
But it's a different message this year
because they're going out into a job market,
that's essentially zilch right now,
in terms of opportunities.
I think my message to them it's gonna be,
"this is your story to tell.
"You are the generation that is coming out of this thing.
"You're gonna know how it ends
"because we'll be playing out this through years."
And I want them to think about that.
Think about, you know, what are we learning right now
that we can apply?
I'm dying to know how this all ends
and how it changes in a world where start looking at issues
like climate change differently now
because now we're seeing
the bad things can really be possible.
Some of those things that people may have warned us about
but we never heard.
Now we're hearing it
and now we get it that
all these people that toil away in labs
and academic settings, going over statistics
and possibilities, that stuff can really happen.
- But unless you're dealing with the virus
it's hard enough for grownups.
Tell me about the newscast you're doing just for kids.
Like how's that going?
- Yeah, one of our senior producers say,
"this is also scary.
"Why don't we do a show aimed at kids?"
And immediately we're like,
"yeah, that makes so sense."
I have to tell you,
there were some nights I'd be anchoring the news
and I'd be listening to the words coming out of my mouth.
I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness!
"There are families watching,
"there are children watching right now."
And there's no way to really tell these stories
in a way that we can comfort their particular needs.
So this was a great opportunity.
So, we don't shy away from the bad news.
We acknowledge this is scary,
but we try and put it in some perspective
about ways that people are helping,
ways people are inspiring each other.
Questions that kids may have about,
you know, can my pet get the disease, those sorts of things.
And so we allow the kids to send in their video questions
and we try and deal with it with our experts
and then have some fun moments.
But, it's got over really well, we're really proud of it.
- Thank you so much for keeping us all informed
for one thing.
But is this the hardest thing you've ever had to report on?
Cause I know you have so many jobs,
you've reported a lot,
but is this kind of really hard and devastating?
- No,
I mean it's certainly the biggest story I've ever covered.
I've covered up a lot of horrible stories
involving a lot of suffering.
The horrible earthquake several years ago in Haiti
that had a staggering death toll.
And I covered a famine in Somalia.
So I've seen a lot of suffering.
But this story has so many moving parts.
I mean obviously it is health calamity,
but it's also this huge economic disaster
we're watching unfold.
And you know, these are things that both of those prongs
are not gonna be easy to fix in a short term.
And yes, we may get a vaccine,
we may get better treatments, you know, in the medical side,
but still there's a lot of people on this planet
who need those medicines and things.
And in the same thing on the economic side,
I mean the damage is mounting everyday.
- Yes, yes.
True.
Was there one particular image or moment
when the seriousness of it all really hit you?
Because I feel like it's been a different moments
for everyone.
- Yeah, I mean obviously I deal in moments.
But I think it was one day,
toward the last few days that I was broadcasting
from a studio versus my home,
I was kind of holed up in my office.
And I opened the door one day, and I couldn't see anybody
and it was weird.
I'm at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Nightly News Newsroom
and we had so quickly move people to work off-site.
And it just hit me that one day
when I realized there's just not a lot of people around here
right now.
And I think that's when-- - Who's that?
- This is weird.
- Who's that?
- Oh, this is Lucy.
- Hi, Lucy.
Oh my gosh!
What kind of dog?
I have Henry and Henry looks similar.
- Oh, Lucy is a four-year-old Australian Labradoodle.
- Okay, I have a Goldendoodle.
I was gonna say that.
- She works with an Australian accent.
It's very strange.
I've always loved dogs.
But during this period,
do you not find you're hugging your dog more
than petting your dog more?
- My dog is in heaven because I worked so much.
And you need too.
Cause I listed off all of your jobs.
But like I'm around him so much now
and he can come with me,
cause I'm on the ranch
and he kind of comes and goes in the all the time now.
And he's gonna go into a depression
once we all go back to work. (laughing)
- Yeah, will.
- And dogs are so healing.
I don't know what it is about their little spirits,
but like even just laying with them,
I've been in a bad mood.
Just laying down on the floor with them,
just like cuddling with Henry.
Because he's a big dog, kinda like it looks Lucy,
but he's a bigger dog and it's just so comforting.
Right?
- It is comforting.
I'm feeling, we were talking about this just today that,
"Oh my goodness!
"When I get back to work, she's gonna be in depression."
- She's not gonna get into depression
or they're all gonna throw parties when we're gone.
(laughing) - Yeah, woo woo!
- Yeah, they're like, "get out."
So do you think that there are any advantages
to doing the news from home?
Cause I feel like me doing the voice,
and the talk show and the recording record,
it is hard in this circumstance.
But at the same time,
like right now I'm wearing just like gym pants
and you can't tell.
(laughing)
- Yeah, I mean there is comfort.
I put on a suit and tie and yes I wear pants.
But I felt like I hit rock bottom one day.
I was doing the newscast, middle of Nightly News
and I looked down, I realized,
"Oh my goodness, I'm barefoot."
And it horrified me.
Obviously the audience couldn't see it,
but I'm like, "Oh my goodness, this is where I'm at."
Hey, look at you.
- I'm like, I took my shoes off.
I was like, "well no one can see them."
- I have my shoes on for this interview now.
- But you do feel like you're like, wow,
they're really the bar, there's no bar anymore.
I've just gone so low. (laughing)
There is no bar.
- No, but there's some advantages.
I work alone.
So, I mean I have to learn how to flip some switches
and buttons and turn some lights on.
But I have a great bathroom access,
which, you know, big, long news days is always good.
So you know.
- That's I know, I'm trying to be positive about too.
It is hard though cause I'm not like you,
I'm not a tech person.
So I'm having to learn how to do all this stuff
behind the scenes too.
And you really start to go, "thank you so much to my crew."
I already really appreciate my crew,
but like you really appreciate your crew in this moment
and all that they do,
and the little things that kind of add up.
- Yeah, I was doing a newscast the other night,
and it was like 10 minutes before air,
and no one was talking to me through my earpiece,
but I didn't think anything off it.
Sometimes you're busy.
And then I hear the phone ring,
and then my wife comes running and she goes,
"your IFP, your IFP."
So somehow my communications had cuts in the studio.
And so then it kicked off a whole bunch of things
I had to dial back in.
But, she's my tech manager actually.
- That's what my husband's been doing the same thing
and we have no idea what we're doing.
So (laughing).
Yeah, it's different.
Well, I see that, a bright bass behind you
and I'm just curious.
I mean, can I convince you to play
just a little something maybe or?
- Yes.
Well, you know, I don't know if I have any basses nearby,
but if I did--
(both laughing)
- Really?
- How about blues and A and B flat?
- I love it.
(guitar music)
(footsteps)
Something is moving near.
It's awesome.
- Oh, that was my stepping foot, sorry.
(both laughing)
- You were stepping on the beat like moving, it was on.
Last year at some point in life
where we can be within six feet of each other.
We gotta do something together.
I wanna sing while you play bass.
- That's what I'm talking about, I would love that.
I always play my basses, but I find it's like,
it's become a ritual now.
Before my newscasts,
I put on some music in my little home office.
And then I start jamming
and then it kinda gives me this head space
to do the news every night.
So it's fine, thanks for asking.
- Yeah, no, I love it.
I love (mumbles) like I was telling you before,
my bass player is so amazing.
He'll go like, how you have your upright bass back there.
He'll go, you know, from different kind of basses.
And it's just such a smooth sound.
- Ah, I love it!
- You people know this,
but actually they will think it's the drummer
but it's the bass and the drums.
They really hold down the rhythm and everything of a set.
- Yeah, if you could pull out the bass track, you know,
you would realize how much a part of you.
You don't often hear it consciously, but man, you take it,
you remove it from music and everything changes.
- Yeah, and then it's like, "where's the beat
"and where's everything?"
Yeah, it's such a cool instrument,
it's so cool sounding too.
It's a sexy instrument.
All right y'all, you can catch Nightly News Kids Edition
on NBCNews.com, the NBC News YouTube page,
and also Peacock.
You can also catch Lester
on NBC Nightly News on NBC as well.
He's got a lot of jobs now.