Lisa Peakes

After more than 40 years learning and helping others understand more about so many aspects of our world and living in it, I still love making connections between national news stories and our community. It's exciting when I can find a thread between a national program or greater premise and what is happening at the local or personal level. This has been true whether I’ve spun the novelty tunes of Raymond Scott or Wilmoth Houdini from a tiny outpost in a Vermont field, or shared the voices of incarcerated women about what it’s like to be behind bars on Mother’s Day with the entire state of New Hampshire.

I like to ham it up as much as the next BFA in Acting candidate, but my time with the Oral Interpretation Society at Emerson College reminds me to pay close attention to the tone of the material on the copy stand, and that comes in handy when we’re in emergency coverage or talking about sensitive topics.

Never did get that acting degree, but at least I can play “Two Truths and A Lie” and say I had a speaking role in an Academy-Award-winning film! Still, all that elocutionary training can’t save me from stumbling sometimes when I say “Equilibriumness.”

You may be a lifelong learner like me, but chances are you didn’t attend three colleges and spend eight years dabbling before you finally passed all the classes. Good thing my final in Studio Art was an exhibit. Not a good test-taker. Also, am I the only Quaker to graduate from a military school? Grateful to Vermont College at Norwich University! (Sorry, Framingham State. I thought studying Food Science was a good idea, but those chemistry classes were just too tough.)

Didn’t see this one coming in the earlier years: I like to lift weights. A lot. So much, I turned pro.

Please tell me about YOU and anything cool that’s going on in our area that might be shared on the radio.

You can contact Lisa at 813-974-8656, on Twitter @LPeakes, or by email lpeakes@wusf.org.