NBC News Reporter Morgan Chesky: When the Story Is Personal

In Episode 3 of NewsBreak’s Behind the Byline podcast, Morgan shares how watching legendary news broadcasters Peter Jennings and Dan Rather with his grandparents sparked a dream that seemed too big to say out loud in small-town Texas. Now an NBC national correspondent based in LA, Morgan has covered everything from solar eclipses at 30,000 feet to the Uvalde school shooting. In this conversation: Learning on the job – and relearning with every move to a new station and marketLeaning into social media – by reusing the skills he acquired as a one-man-band video journalistGiving yourself grace – both when building your skills over time and when recovering from stories that hit too close to homeYou’ll also hear about Morgan’s most challenging assignment. When catastrophic floods struck his hometown of Kerrville in July 2025, he was forced to navigate the impossible balance between professional duty and personal grief. That meant doing right by the community through fair and accurate coverage, but also taking time afterwards to heal with family. If you’re interested in the new media landscape or what it takes to build a platform that connects with audiences over time, listen to Behind the Byline.