🔊👩Q&A with Margaret Katcher, Deep Look’s New Host!🔊

Hi Deep Peeps! We have a new host! We are thrilled to work with audio producer and reporter Margaret Katcher. Margaret is an alum of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she focused on science reporting. Along with hosting Deep Look, Margaret works on audio development for a documentary company and spends lots of time in her garden with her toddler. Her recent podcast productions include a National Geographic show about black markets and an investigative series about a wave of murders in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. Before turning to journalism, she was an elementary school teacher. 

What inspired you to pursue a career in journalism/science ? 

I’ve always been a curious person, wondering how things work and why, but also someone who had a hard time picturing myself as an expert in any one thing. That wandering mind brought me to journalism school, where I focused on health and science reporting. I worked on stories about trauma and its long-term health impacts, psychedelic therapy before it went mainstream, and preterm birth and maternal health. But after graduating I was a true generalist – I reported on gene editing and produced an investigative podcast on three unsolved murders. No matter the subject, I love finding ways to understand complicated material by connecting with a character’s journey, and helping an audience do the same. Now that the characters are tiny critters, I couldn’t be more excited. 

Tell us about voicing your first Deep Look episode about long-jawed orb weaver spiders. What was it like?

It was so many things: illuminating, slightly terrifying and most of all, incredibly fun. It was my first time getting to see how a Deep Look episode gets made, from beginning to end. I witnessed how much the production team learns about each creature, and how rigorous they are in getting the science right, delivering it clearly, and making it come alive for the audience. I have to admit that I was feeling a tiny bit shy in the recording studio, narrating a very intimate moment between two long-jawed orb weavers. I tried to respect the wonder of the scene and also add a bit of levity – I think that’s what Deep Look is all about!

(If you haven’t seen Deep Look’s long-jawed orb weaver episode yet, watch here. )

What excites you most about hosting Deep Look?  

I’m still shocked that I get to host this show. I’m just so excited to learn – alongside the audience – about the tiny wonders and dramas taking place all around us. Curiosity is my road to joy, hope, and connection. Narrating is like telling my toddler a bedtime story – turned up to 100. It’s energizing and entertaining and something I’m so looking forward to improving during my tenure at Deep Look. 

What’s your favorite Deep Look video so far? 

I am absolutely obsessed with Deep Look’s episode on frog saliva. What makes that episode stick (ha-ha) is that it took something I thought I knew about (frogs eating) and blew my mind with new information that I now think about daily. Saliva that changes consistency to ensnare its target? What an actual feat of nature! It had all the things I love about Deep Look videos: awe, surprise and deeper understanding and appreciation for the world around me. 

Photos of Margaret:

1. At the mouth of the Klamath River, working on a documentary about food sovereignty for the Yurok tribe

2. Admiring the tendrils of a passionfruit vine

3. Hiking in the redwoods

4. On a backpacking trip to Yosemite 

5. In one of KQED’s recording studios doing her first voiceover session for Deep Look’s long-jawed orb weaver spider episode