Lilia Luciano may not have grown up knowing that she wanted to be a journalist, but there is no denying that she is a natural and gifted storyteller.

From her early success in Spanish language television to her rise to Today's show correspondent at just 25 years old, in the six years she spent exploring every medium and finding her way back to news, to the job she almost said no to that finally allowed her to weave together all of her unique passions. Now her role as national correspondent and anchor at CBS News and host of the El Flou

podcast.

Lillia's path is a statement to her tenacity and her love of the craft.

We talk about what is in her middle of the night go bag, the importance of emotional boundaries,

and why Lillia prepares for the sake of confidence, not perfection.

Lily Luciana, I have to tell you, I've been pretty stressed about this interview because there's nothing more intimidating than interviewing a journalist.

No, I feel like my headspace is happy hour us chatting.

Okay, good, good.

You come from a very storied family in Puerto Rico, and I wonder what the expectation then was

of you growing up. And was there a sense that you were supposed to carry that legacy forward?

On my mom's side, my great-grandfather was one of the founders of the Ehtalo Libra Social, the status that Puerto Rico

exists in now. He signed the constitution of Puerto Rico when Puerto Rico became the Commonwealth.

So his children, some of them pursued politics. My grandmother, my mom's mom, lived her life,

you know, running political campaigns.

And she also ran like hospitals. She did a lot of things professionally in the 50s and kind of

left my grandfather to do all the things that moms used to do at the time, like cook and

put the kids to bed. She was somebody who was very entrepreneurial and was always telling me as a

kid, you know,

I would make a drawing and she's like, oh, that could be a business.

And my mom too worked really hard.

She dedicated her life to service, as did most of her family.

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