Meet Beth Santos. She’s the founder and CEO of Go Girl Travel Network, a global network for women travelers. In her words, “I’m a spirited entrepreneur, a firm believer in teamwork and a lover of social enterprise. My background is in the international development space and I’ve lived around the USA as well as Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and brief stints in Haiti. I’m currently enrolled in the evening program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, focusing on entrepreneurship + innovation and social enterprise.
Beth also sits on the board of Chicago Adventure Therapy, an amazing non-profit that brings wilderness therapy to disadvantaged youth in urban environments. I asked Beth some questions about how she gets her news. If you’d like to read the others in the series, please click here, and if you want to take part, just let me know.
1. How do you get your news?
Every morning, I walk into my office and turn my radio on. Radio! So old fashioned! It’s always set to NPR, and even though this sounds like a cheesy opportunity to butter you up, it’s actually true. I have it playing all day long and listen while I work. Except over the holidays, when it’s on holiday music all day and I have no idea what is happening in the world.
I also keep up-to-date with things on Twitter and Facebook — it’s more or less my job to be on social media so I often catch current happenings as they come through.
Finally, I’m a diehard Economist subscriber. I read it on the train. Though it’s not as quick as radio or social media, it gives me an in-depth understanding of the world that you just can’t get in a tweet.
**2. Please send me a gif or video that captures your attention span **
**3. How do you take your coffee? **
Extra cream, extra sugar, with a little bit of coffee in it. I pretty much drink my coffee like a five year old would, if five year olds drank coffee.
4. Who’s doing it right in news?
Considering I listen to NPR everyday, I should say that I love them. I also LOVE Al Jazeera. The stories they tell give me an incredibly rounded perspective, and I love how diverse they are and how they cover things that no one else covers. Of course, The Economist is great reading, and often really challenges my perspectives.
5. What’s the first news event that you remember?
I’m sure there are other things I remember, but something that really left an impression was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. So that everyone on the Internet world knows my age, I was 9 at the time, so I think it was one of the first times I really began to understand the media as a preteen. I remember standing in front of the TV and being fascinated by what was going on. I have a very clear image in my head of what the building looked like after the bombing.
6. What was the best thing that happened to you this week?
I wish you had asked me about last week (or that I had answered this sooner)! Last week I was at the White House for their first-ever Travel Blogger Summit on study abroad and global exchange. It was an amazing event and I was so honored to be one of the 100 travel influencers selected to attend. And if that wasn’t enough, we also got a puppy. This week, I think the most exciting thing that happened so far was that my husband brought home cupcakes from work.
7. What do you absolutely hate about the news?
How negative it can be. I once told someone that if I ran the world, I would create a news station that only ran interesting/positive/non-negative news. He told me I’d never make money off of it. But a girl can dream.
8. What’s the best podcast to listen to while doing chores?
Obviously our own “What She Said: Words from Women Travelers“!
9. How do you get your news when you travel around the world?
I love to pick up a local paper wherever I go. I speak a few languages so can often figure things out when I travel. Nothing’s better than sitting in a cafe in a new place and reading the paper with the locals. In the case that I don’t speak the language and can’t puzzle it together, I rely on the Internet for my news, but often I try to keep my hands off the digital and just immerse myself locally as much as I can.