Ben Shpigel (02C) is a sports reporter for The New York Times and former Executive Editor at The Emory Wheel. Shpigel, a Richboro, Pa. native, was a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News before joining The Times in 2005. In his interview with the Wheel, Shpigel talked about his career as a journalist, highlighting his favorite memories while also reflecting on his time at Emory and the Wheel.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Ryan Callahan, The Emory Wheel: Did you always know you wanted to be a journalist?
Ben Shpigel: Absolutely. It was something that I wanted to be, probably for as long as I can remember. I went through a weird stage when I was like seven or eight where I wanted to be a combination rabbi and Porsche dealer and I got that out of my system really quickly.
I remember the first time that I knew — really knew — [journalism] is what I wanted to do, I think when I was around eight. I was born three weeks before the Phillies won the World Series in [1980] and my dad would go ahead and tell stories about bouncing me on his leg, watching everything ... And in [1988], I was eight-years-old when the [L.A.] Dodgers beat Oakland in the World Series, the famous Kirk Gibson home run. I remember going to the barbershop with my dad ... [and] they had a copy of Sports Illustrated there, and I remember like for the first time just reading the words about what happened. I didn't stay up to watch Gibson hit the homer, but I saw the highlights afterwards, and I remember hearing about it and then see a week later this great article [about the home run]... It was always, always, what I wanted to do.
TEW: Bringing it back to Emory, what was the best story you covered at the Wheel?
BS: In my senior year, I took a feature writing class, and I was able to do two big stories that semester, [and] both of them ran in the Wheel. One of them was about a really good rower on [the Emory crew club team], but he had graduated. I did a story about him earlier in his career. He was at Georgia [Institute of] Tech[nology], and he's a really, really bright guy [who] wanted to keep rowing but he didn't know if he could because he was so invested in his master's degree at Georgia Tech.
He was doing all these incredible things with fuel cells, and I was sort of able to dig deep into that, and that's a great thing about college. You’re sort of able to really write things in a way that you can experiment and try things out and be like, ‘hey, I'm going to go ahead and try this style or this mode of storytelling and see if it works,’ because there aren’t the repercussions or the limitations and restrictions that you might have if you worked for somebody else where you're getting paid.
But when I think back on my time [at the Wheel], I think back at the good times that I had, and the people that I worked with and the friends that I made and everybody who helped make that experience as great as it was. I majored in English and journalism, but I know that I really majored in The Wheel. That was, I felt, the part of my Emory experience that was most beneficial from a hands-on perspective: gathering clips and talking to people and getting to know people around the athletic department and the university. That was that was my favorite part. I loved it.
TEW: Do you have inside sources like [sports reporter at The Times] Marc Stein, where you can get the scoop before it happens?
BS: We all have people who we talk to. [Stein] is incredible at what he does. It's a matter of cultivating relationships and figuring out the best way to gain trust. ... I think you have to look at it and approach it very earnestly and say that ‘I am very interested in what these people have to say and what they do and why they know things.’
I don't know anything close to what the people who I’m covering do about their sport. So, one of the joys is that you're able to ask them dumb questions. If you're able to show both vulnerability in that you're willing to learn and you don't know what you're talking about, instead of putting on this facade that you do [and do] your homework and [be] prepared for interviews and interactions with people that you're going to speak with, then I think the rest takes care of itself.
TEW: All-time favorite event you have covered in your career?
BS: Not so much the stuff off the beaten trail, but as far as actual events go and not stories, I love covering the Paralympics. I've been fortunate to cover the last three and will be in Tokyo next August for that. It’s such a huge sporting event worldwide, [but] it doesn't get the exposure that it deserves in the United States. I basically have free rein to go ahead, as pretty much as the only American reporter from a major publication, and report what I want and write what I want, as long as it's sort of fits the definition of what my editors are looking for. It's fantastic, and there's so many great stories to go ahead and write about there that I've always found that very, very rewarding.
TEW: Any advice for aspiring sports journalists?
BS: The best thing to do is you read, read, read, read, read and you write, write, write, write, write. And you shouldn’t write for free. Your work and your time is valuable, and there's going to come a point when you're going to have bills to pay, and you need to go ahead and become compensated for all of the time and the work that you put in reporting, writing, etc. Finding out people who you really enjoy reading — why do you enjoy reading them? What is it about their style that you can relate to that you would like to go ahead and emulate yourself? And it's writing, a lot, about all sorts of different things in different styles, different media. That, I believe, wholeheartedly, from a writing perspective.
But I also feel that you need to be as versatile as you can in this day and age. While I hope and believe that there will always be a place for excellent reported stories, we are seeing that the medium has changed with the explosion of podcasts and video. The more you can do, the more valuable you will be to potential employers.
TEW: Any big stories coming up?
BS: I'm in the middle of figuring that out. I just finished a Lamar Jackson story. My editor and I are going to convene this week and sort of figure out what is next. I will be in Miami on [Oct. 13] for that awful [Washington] Redskins-[Miami] Dolphins game, writing about the suck bowl and bad teams in the NFL.
