Adam Reilly has worked in Boston media for years and is GBH’s media, culture and politics reporter, hosting GBH’s Talking Politics, a panel-based television series featuring conversations with local political newsmakers, influencers, analysts, and activists. A regular contributor to Boston Public Radio, Reilly’s stories have been picked up by The Takeaway and PBS NewsHour. Born in Minnesota, he is a graduate of Carleton College and Harvard Divinity School. 

What are you reading or listening to now?

I've gotten really bad lately about reading books for pleasure, which I used to do on a regular basis. These days I'm mostly limiting myself to magazines—The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Harper's are my go-tos. I listen to the excellent BBC history podcast “In Our Time” all the time. And I'm eagerly awaiting the next episode of “What Is Owed?” my GBH News colleague Saraya Wintersmith's new podcast on reparations. 

Who is your role model or inspiration?

Honestly, there are too many people across too many different genres and contexts for me to offer one definitive answer. But I've learned a lot from co-workers throughout my time at GBH, including Emily Rooney (who taught me about TV when I knew literally nothing) and Peter Kadzis, who'd edited me at The Boston Phoenix and reprised that role in Brighton until his recent retirement. Both of them imparted a host of lessons that stay with me. 

Why did you become a public media journalist?

Chance played a big role—I'd been a regular panelist on our show Beat the Press when I worked at The Phoenix, and that connection ultimately led to a job offer at Greater Boston. This was at a time when The Phoenix was edging toward extinction. Between that, the chance to learn a whole new set of skills, and the fact that I'd grown up watching GBH-produced content, the move seemed like a no-brainer, and I'm fortunate I made it. 

What is one word to describe your job?

Fascinating. 

Describe an impact that a story that you produced made.

A few years back, videographer Howard Powell and I did a story about a Confederate monument on one of the Boston Harbor islands that almost no one knew existed. The monument, which was very much a product of the push to glorify the Confederacy and reinvent its founding principles years after the war ended, was ultimately removed by the state.

See more of Adam’s work here.