Public radio host describes her call-in listeners
as 'voices of common goodness'

There are times during her radio show that a few seconds of silence seem to Faith Middleton to be the best response to the stories told by people who call in. There are other times when she cries, though she tries not to. But it is impossible not to be affected by many of the tales she hears, the radio journalist told the audience of nearly
50 people who gathered in the Timothy Dwight College master's house to listen to her talk on Nov. 10.

The award-winning host of "The Faith Middleton Show," a call-in show airing weekdays on Connecticut Public Radio, shared a sampling of some of the poignant stories listeners told her during her talk, which was sponsored by the Yale University Women's Organization as part of its "Lunch and Learn" program.

Middleton told of a Fair Haven man who began fixing up bicycles for neighborhood children whose families couldn't afford to buy them and of a single-mother with cancer whose colleagues pooled their own vacation time and offered it to her so she could afford to stay home from work while undergoing treatment.

She recounted a story shared by a mother whose 12-year-old daughter taught her something about compassion after the mother refused to give money to a beggar, and a heart-wrenching story from another mother whose two children were killed by a drunk driver and who was forced to -- but easily could -- identify them only by looking at their hands.

Much of her show is focused on tales about "people's humanity," said Middleton, whose popular book "The Goodness of Ordinary People," is based on stories she has heard as a radio host.

Middleton said she gets many ideas for her show's topics by listening to other radio stations, often while driving in her car. While tuned in to an "oldies" station, for example, she came up with the program theme of music and memories, in which she played snippets of songs and asked callers to describe their memories associated with them. Other themes have included "What does class mean to you?" "What would your life be like if you were only guaranteed success?" "How is being a minority an asset in your life?" and "What would you like your tombstone epitaph to say?"

A writer responded to the latter with: "A good plot at last," Middleton told her amused audience. "I love my job," she added. "I sit back with the knowledge and appreciation that callers are going to surprise me."

While other people's kindnesses are an important element of her on-air stories, Middleton said she "adores" the callers who are "mischievous, idiosyncratic and eccentric." She described one show, on the topic "What have you gotten away with?" in which her first caller phoned in to say that when he moved, his bank mistakenly credited his new account with $14,131, instead of the $4,131 he had in savings. He chose not to reveal the mistake. Upon sensing her dismay, he told Middleton: "But don't get upset; I only use the interest." When the second call came in, Middleton feared the worst, another revelation of serious wrongdoing. Instead, a woman said matter-of-factly, "My account is short $14,131." "That woman is in my 'Caller Hall of Fame,'" joked Middleton.

Middleton is one of only two dozen interviewers who have received the George Peabody Award -- considered the Pulitzer Prize in the field of broadcast journalism -- a distinction she shares with the late Charles Kuralt as well as with Ted Koppel, Walter Cronkite, Diane Sawyer, Robert McNeil and Jim Lehrer. "Interviewing well is like having good sex," she told her audience. "It's not that you work at it together, it's that you arrive at it together."

Mostly, what a good interviewer does is "let lives and people unfold in front of you," she added. "That's what made Charles Kuralt the genius of interviewing. He sat and had a good time with people."

While radio and television are filled with stories about the bad and evil in the world, Middleton said that the people she has met through her radio show have helped to "restore my faith in who we are."

"The world is filled with people who take care of themselves and others, who live with insight and gratitude, who have fun, who make mistakes and try to right them, who know how to live with dignity, who commit themselves to being part of what is good," she stated. "For these ordinary people, calling in to offer their honesty and tenderness is as natural as breathing. ... These are real people, your neighbors as much as mine, bringing us the hidden, unforgettable voices of common goodness."

-- By Susan Gonzalez