Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The day-to-day rush of being in a newsroom

can be exciting. You know, you're scrambling to respond to the news and get a piece written or a show

on the air or whatever. It's a fast-paced environment where a lot of the time, you know, without an

ombudsman or a public editor, you don't really have time

for self-reflection. That's a gift that often can only come with retirement. So today, we've

got two books from veteran journalists looking at the job and what it entails. In a bit,

we'll hear from one of our own, an NPR producer who spent years traveling the world with his microphone.

But first, Martin Barron spent years at the helm of The Washington Post. And at the end of last

year, he spoke with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about his memoir, Collision of Power, and his advice

to journalists working in an election year. That's ahead. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

We journalists lament that we have used the term uncharted waters so often in recent years to

describe the state of American politics that the term has almost ceased to register.

But what else can we call this?

What words feel adequate to the challenge of reporting on what is shaping up to be yet another presidential election year of, yes, uncharted waters,

covering a Republican frontrunner who may well spend more time in court

than on the campaign trail in these coming months. So how do we cover this? What have we learned from

covering the elections of 2016 and 2020? How can we do better? How do we earn back? Public

...