Yo! Welcome into the House of L podcast. I am Lauren Tombs. Thank you so much for hanging out here with me on what is a

celebratory, naval gazing episode of the House of L. Isn't that the whole idea? Like I have a podcast for a reason, so I can tell you stuff that maybe isn't as an appropriate of a venue to do on the radio show or definitely not on television because there isn't time to do it, but there is time to do it inside of the podcast. So I thank you for hanging out with me as we have been for the last couple of months,

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So that's even better. It's the one tree project that they're involved with, one tree planted for every bottle sold. So you get good whiskey and you get to help the environment, which is great for you.

I had an experience this weekend and I'm not sure what to do with it other than kind of talk about it. I just got back from visiting with my parents, because my parents wanted to see the award that I won and I was more than happy to oblige them and show them the award itself.

I'm really honored that I got this because I got I picked up the Peter Lissa Gore award for 2022.

And it was for sports commentary. I had done a segment on Jackie Robinson day and some of the things that I think are important to remember about Jackie Robinson.

He was a whole human being and not just kind of like a cartoon character. And it was great. The segment was produced by Ray Diaz.

So I wanted to make sure that I mentioned his name because my name's on the award, but he's the person who produced the segment. I talked with Ray about what I wanted to do. He found the corresponding sound and made it a really good segment.

I wanted to thank Ryan Porth, who sent the nomination to the the Lissa Gore award board and to Mitch Rosen, who's always incredibly supportive of things that I want to do and allows me and has allowed me space to kind of do my show or the shows that I'm on. However, I want.

You're like, well, wait, who's Peter Lissa Gore? And he's used to be the bureau chief, the Washington bureau chief of the Chicago Daily News. He worked everywhere and you saw him on meet the press face the nation.

And what I love about it is that he actually started his career as a sports writer. And I was in a category with Rick Morrissey and Paul Sullivan, two men that I like quite a bit.

Sully's part of the HF Mafia, but as a radio host to win in a category that's traditionally print, I was very, very happy.

So this was awesome. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. This was this felt good and I felt bad about wanting to win.

And I'm not sure if I should feel bad about that. I'm working through that now, but I really, really wanted to win. I guess I needed the vindication of people recognizing the skills and how much I care about my art and my craft, which is storytelling.

But it first manifests as manifest itself in radio or in spoken word, like we're doing here on the podcast.

I'm really, really, I'm blown away by the fact that I picked up this war.

So let me tell you about the night, like instead of continuing to naval gaze, let me tell you about what I experienced, because I have other awards.

I've picked up other awards before. I don't know why this one, this one felt different and it felt I wouldn't have been crushed if I didn't get it.

But maybe I would have been crushed, you know, I was up for broadcaster of the year, the Illinois Broadcast Association and was a 2016 and I wanted that one bad too.

And I didn't get it, but I was a finalist and it felt good to be a finalist to win this award and have it be the society of professional journal, like I want a journalism award.

Like that is significant to me, considering my journey into going to grad school and studying journalism at a higher level, I try to add a lot of stuff into what it is that I do.

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