One of Italy’s best-known journalists, Mario Calabresi loves telling stories. Not front-page stories but stories that could go unnoticed but are key for us to understand the world around us. He has created a newsletter to tell his stories, and it is very aptly named “Altre Storie” (Other Stories).
So, what stories will we be telling in 2021? “I hope we will be telling stories about the Olympics, about sports,” he replies, “because if we are telling stories from the Olympics and the Paralympics in Tokyo, it will mean that we can be together again, and we are leaving the pandemic behind us.”
He has plenty of advice for anyone aspiring to be a journalist. First of all, look for stories that are enduring rather than those with a fleeting intensity. Then keep your eyes open and be curious. And then, go outside your door and look for those stories in your neighbourhood about people’s lives, a recommendation also from the great photographer Gianni Berengo Gardin. Then he calls on young people not to be afraid of change and to nurture their dreams.
His recommendations are in this video interview.