(upbeat music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - I am Mike Galligan, with the Law Offices of Galligan and Newman and McMinnville, Tennessee.

I support WCTE, the upper Cumberland zone PBS station because I believe it is important to create entertaining TV programs that also promote lifelong learning and understanding.

When I support WCTE, I know that I am helping our upper Cumberland community for generations to come.

- [Moderator] The Law Offices of Galligan and Newman provide clients with large firm expertise and small firm personalized care and service.

- For me, it was essential that I do the same thing that the men were doing because if you do, kind of pleasant features, and the men are doing historically important stories and you're not, where's your career going?

And I felt that it was very important to be part of the movement to break down those barriers.

You don't go out and risk your life just because there are two factors there.

There's one you're witnessing history, important history.

And the other is that you're making equal opportunity for women a reality.

(upbeat music) - Martha Teichner, this is like a dream come true for me to have you on one-on-one.

And this is actually my first Skype one-on-one and I'm so excited to have you with us.

You are iconic.

You're an American journalist, with so many awards to your name, 12 Emmy Awards.

So many, I believe five James Beard awards with your whole CBS team received a DuPont Columbia award for your coverage of the new town shooting.

And I just think it's such a privilege to have you with us here on WCTE.

- Thank you, it's my pleasure.

- So let's talk a little bit, you grew up in Michigan.

And I think, you know, I feel like kindred spirit with you because we both have talked about rural environments and what it was like to grow up there.

So tell me about those early years in Michigan?

- Well, I was an only child living in the country, which meant that I didn't have any playmates really until I went to school, unless my cousin's came to visit in the summertime.

And so, I was very very attuned to two different things.

To nature, because it was all around me, we lived in the woods, on a gravel road, on a lake.

And then also, I was very attuned to the adult world of my parents and the people around them and any people I could observe.

And I think both of those things made me a more observant person and that whole experience, certainly shaped who I became and possibly interested me in journalism, because I had the ability to use my father's typewriter.

And so from a very young age, about six, I was typing out little newspapers and writing stories about the birds out the window, and so on.

- I love that.

That's pretty amazing, you created your own newspaper.

- The other thing that I would do is that when my parents would go to the polls to vote, I would draw, it was sort of like a combination of the front page of the newspaper with the candidates and articles about the candidates and pictures of the candidates.

And then I'd sort of make up my own ballots.

And these ballots would be a combination of what ballots really looked like, and what newspapers looked like that had the pictures in the headlines.

So that then I would go with my mother or father to the poll, because I wanted to be part of the whole thing.

- You know, that is great.

So you were creative and curious, clearly smart, a great writer, you learn to read and write early and all of those are just really important skill sets.

But you majored actually in economics and then went on at Wellesley College, and then graduated from there, graduated from the University of Chicago in graduate school.

- I did not graduate from the University of Chicago program because I got transferred in the middle.

I was offered my job at CBS, and I was doing the MBA program at night at the University of Chicago while I worked full time at WMAQ-TV in Chicago, and right in the middle of that I was offered my job at CBS.

And it was either MBA, CBS network, MBA, CBS network, what do I do?

And I thought, well, the MBA will always be waiting for me if I wanna finish it, but an offer of a job at a network might not.

So I took the CBS job and got transferred to Atlanta.

And that kind of made it impossible for me to finish the MBA.

- It's interesting to me that you followed that sort of Business Economics path, but here you became this really an amazing journalist, I guess, what were those early years like and then, how did those skill sets kind of blend?

- Well, it wasn't entirely a blend.

In fact, let's back up a little.

When I took my first economics course, I realized that I was taking a course in how to read the newspaper.

The money supply, Keynesian economics was a kind of a template for how stimulus was achieved by politicians in the economic system, and so on.

And I thought, huh, a little light goes on.

And in fact, I believe that anybody who wants to become a journalist, there are some cornerstone areas to study.

I am much more a proponent of a good all around liberal arts education, then specifically an undergraduate degree in journalism, or broadcast or TV and radio, because the cornerstones for being a journalist are economics, history, political science, and English.

And those things give you a background in the big wide world.

And I always like to say to people that you couldn't cover the fall of the Yugoslavia, all the pieces of the Yugoslav government without understanding the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Because that explained everything about why you had almost tribal hatreds and continuing causes of warfare.

How do you cover the big trials without understanding how the court system works?

Those are things you learn in political science or in basic law courses that you might take in the political science department, and so on and so forth.

And all of those things give you a better working knowledge than anything else, to cover everything.

They give you a framework for what questions to ask, where to begin.

You certainly can't know all the answers, but those disciplines give you a way to enter into the process of being a journalist because they give you the tools.

So I'd spent five years in local news before I got a network job.

And I covered everything.

It was a great starting place because we had something like 16 states, all of Latin America, and there were five correspondents in the bureau and we were just on the road all the time.

And I covered in the first few months a huge miners strike, coal miners strike that lasted months in well, I imagine parts of Tennessee were involved in the strike, and certainly Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, southern Ohio and so on.

And it was three months and I covered Latin America.

I covered all kinds of things, racial issues, clan rallies, you name it.

I covered it, and having being dumped into a situation where you can't go back and check on anything where you have to land running, it's great training.

And it really set me up for the rest of my career because you have to solve problems very quickly, and compete with other people and get at the essence of the story and put it on the evening news and the morning news and move on.

And I really ... Having that breadth of experience because of the size of the territory, and the variety of stories that I was thrown into, it was terrific.

- It's amazing to me everything you've done.

And you were one of the first female combat correspondents, is that right?

- I was part of the early broadcast, sort of really the second generation of television correspondents because there were some women correspondents in war zones.

There was certainly others, a few others before me, like Liz Trotta, who was just an amazing war correspondent before me.

I was in the next wave.

And there was a great deal of resistance to me and my colleagues going and doing that, but all the men were assigned to go to wars.

They had to.

It was part of the required coverage that they had to be involved in or they would not have long careers, if they were overseas in particular and the women were denied that responsibility, or that opportunity.

And for me, it was essential that I do the same thing that the men were doing because if you do, kind of pleasant features, and the men are doing historically important stories and you're not, where's your career going?

And I felt that it was very important to be part of the movement to break down those barriers.

And, you don't go out and risk your life, just because, there are two factors.

There's one, you're witnessing history, important history.

And the other is that you're making equal opportunity for women a reality.

- So true, and thank you for that.

You're listed in the Michigan Hall of Fame for women, right?

- There's a Michigan Women's Hall of Fame, it's organized by a very well known women's group in the state.

And this last year, they chose me to be in the Hall of Fame along with several other really, really astonishing women.

I was very honored to do that.

And I actually went to the ceremony, which ended up being very small in social distance, but it was streamed online, and so on.

And so at least I got to meet the other women and I was very pleased to do that.

It's my home state.

So naturally, I was extremely honored.

- Congratulations, we're so proud of you and everything that you've done.

I want to ...

There's a lot that I have to ask you and I want to make sure we cover a lot of the iconic stories that you've really created, your incredible tenure at CBS Sunday morning, which we were privileged to get to work with you on.

But you are an author, and you have a brand new book out, and I am fascinated about this story.

I know you did a feature on CBS Sunday morning, but can you share with our viewers this incredible story about, "When Harry Met Minnie?"

- This is the result of a complete chance encounter.

Every Saturday, I go to the Union Square farmers market, which is the largest farmers market in New York City.

And I buy my fruits and vegetables and it happened on July 23, 2016, I was there with my dog Minnie.

She was still mourning from the loss of another dog that I had, Goose, and I was missing Goose terribly too.

And I had been struggling with trying to find a companion for Minnie and myself and not succeeding at that.

Minnie was an older dog by that time and I was looking for an older male who would more or less fulfill the need that Minnie had after Goose had died.

And we got to the farmers market at our usual time on the Saturday morning.

And there, I saw somebody that I hadn't seen for a year or two, someone that I had known as an acquaintance walking my dogs at Chelsea Piers which is a, there's a big park along the Hudson River.

I used to see this particular person, Stephen Miller Siegel there with his golden retriever.

And if he hadn't been there at exactly that moment, and I hadn't been there at exactly that moment standing where we were, none of it would have happened.

And this chance encounter that was just eerie and it's the fate part of it.

He said to me, "Well, where's Goose?"

And I told him that Goose had died and that Minnie was very lonely and that I was looking for another male to keep her company and so on.

And he said, "Well, remember when I told you about "my friend, Carol, who has a bull terrier?"

And he said, "Well, you know, she's dying of liver cancer, "and she's been told that nobody wants her dog, Harry, "he's 11 and a half, he has some health issues.

"He is really a sweet dog, but nobody wants him.

"And just because she's dying, he will likely have to die."

And so Stephen said to me, "Would you take him?"

And I kind of, well, maybe if they get along.

It's sort of like, boom, like a clap of thunder practically behind me, and that started the whole thing.

And we arranged to have a meet and greet the following Saturday outside my apartment.

And that led to more of those.

And I got to know Carol and Minnie got to know Harry the dog.

And each week, Stephen would bring Harry and Carol over to my apartment and sometimes, Carol would just bring Harry over on her own.

And I would go and visit her at her apartment because she wanted me to see Harry in his natural habitat, and so on and so forth.

And we all became very close friends.

And after about the third or fourth visit, it was pretty clear that Harry and Minnie were getting along.

And I became part of this whole circle of people who were around Carol.

And very quickly, after the very first meeting, it struck me that this was a very special set of experiences.

It was intensified because Carol was dying.

And yet, it was fun.

It was exciting.

There was clearly an opportunity for however shorter time to become close friends.

And I started keeping diaries.

And a couple of months into this, I approached Carol because I realized that this, it seemed to me a good story.

I mean, after this long as a reporter, I think I kind of had a sense of what a good story would be.

And I approached her and I said, how would you feel about me trying to write a book about this?

And she kind of thought about it.

And I said, well, I won't do it unless you agree.

And, I understand that this is your life, your death, your dog, your story.

I'll do it only if you think it's a good idea.

And she thought about it.

And she said, "Well, I would be honored."

And then she said, "Do you think we could have pictures?"

And I said, oh, sure.

Absolutely, I don't see why not.

And of course, I had never published a book before.

And I had no idea whether a publisher would even wanna publish the book.

So here I was saying yes to the pictures and in the end, it got published and there are pictures.

It would provide Carol and Harry and Minnie a legacy.

And one of the things that you find is that dogs don't really get legacies.

You love your animals, and you care what happens to them and when they die, you have all those memories inside you.

But it's sort of like, okay, your dog died, and nobody really on the outside has that sense of loss or that sense of love that you do.

And I've always felt that that wasn't quite right.

And if I could give Carol a legacy, if I could give Harry and Minnie a legacy, then I was doing something that was worthwhile in my opinion.

Plus, I wanted to write the book because I didn't wanna stop living the experiences.

It became very, very important to me and I didn't really want the story to end.

And so writing the book, I could dive back in and play it through my mind again, like a movie or a video.

- Tell me the whole name of the book.

It has a beautiful name and where people can find it.

- Right.

It's "When Harry Met Minnie."

A true story of love and friendship.

And that's Harry and Minnie on the cover, I took the picture and it's available pretty much everywhere.

Amazon, Barnes and Noble, a lot of independent bookstores have it and anywhere you would normally get books, you can get it.

- That's a beautiful story, Martha.

And I think, how much of your life do you think is fate driven?

- I've had other experiences throughout my life like that.

In northern Michigan, I helped to save a piece of land that had at one time been owned by my family, again, by walking into this right place at the right time situation where if I had come half an hour earlier, if I'd come the next day, none of it would have happened.

And beautiful woods and wetlands would have been destroyed, and a speck house put in instead of keeping this land pristine the way it was when I was growing up.

- Something that I find really just fascinating about you is your genuine warmth, and kindness and openness.

You are such an incredible human being.

And I think that resonates in your storytelling.

How do you feel about that?

- Well, thank you if that's true, I'm very, very glad.

I don't think people should get into journalism unless they like people.

And I don't think they should get into journalism unless they're curious about all sorts of things.

And I love going out and adventuring.

I love going out and discovering things, I always have.

And that means that I hope I remain enthusiastic about the places I go and the people I meet, even if it's on Skype, or Zoom or whatever.

I love that contact with the world.

And it always makes me humbled to see what other people do, what other people say, how they live, what they've achieved, where they've gone, in many cases, how they've survived.

I mean, when I think of war zones where I've worked and I see people who their houses have been destroyed or in one case, I think of a woman that there was a car bomb in Beirut, that blew off the entire front of a high rise apartment building.

And all you could see was the little kind of cubicles of apartments that were left.

And people who lived in those apartments, even though the whole front of the building was blown off, they would go up the stairs, they would collect water, they would find food and they would go up the stairs on foot, into their apartments on whatever floor, it could be the 12th floor.

And I went in and interviewed a woman at one point where she was living on one of the high floors.

And of course, if her children got anywhere near the edge, they could have fallen off and been killed.

But she kept this apartment clean.

She lived with dignity.

And it was as if she was living her normal life, except that there was no side of the apartment.

And the ability to maintain her dignity, and raise her children the best way she could and to survive, given that the whole side of the building had been blown off, I have never forgotten.

And it's always astonished me that she had the courage and the patience, and the will to keep on living and keep on doing it as well as she could for herself and for her children.

And experiences like that, when you stop and think about it, it puts your own life in perspective.

And it gives me a sense of the world and of other people that is very valuable and rich.

And I hope I've never forgotten that.

And if I do, I should not be in this business anymore.

- You've had major stories with Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela, the 9/11 terrorist attack.

There's been so many major stories, but it's really also those stories just like you just described, one-on-one with everyday human beings who are hoping that someone sees them and hears them and can share what they're dealing with.

And you do that, Martha.

- Well, thank you.

Well, the thing about writing the book though is that I've covered all kinds of large stories in the world.

But the book is my little story in a great big city, in a great big world when I'm used to witnessing history.

What happened to me in those months of getting to know Carol, who was an extraordinary person, and adopting Harry and being part of the circle around her as she died, and so on.

It was very special to me.

And it's sort of like, okay, I have a little life too.

And I thought it was a worthwhile thing to tell.

- Well, I totally agree.

And we're out of time for this interview.

I hope someday we can have you here in person and have time together.

And look forward to what's next for you.

You just share with me what's next for you and we're gonna talk about it.

- Well, thank you very very much.

It's a pleasure.

And I would very much like to be there in person because I've had a number of encounters with you and your station now without ever having been able to be there in person.

And I'd like to see for myself.

(laughing) - We'd love it.

Martha, you come on down and we'll do it.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - I am Mike Galligan, with the Law Offices of Galligan and Newman and McMinnville, Tennessee.

I support WCTE, the upper Cumberland zone PBS station because I believe it is important to create entertaining TV programs that also promote lifelong learning and understanding.

When I support WCTE, I know that I am helping our upper Cumberland community for generations to come.

- [Moderator] The Law Offices of Galligan and Newman provide clients with large firm expertise and small firm personalized care and service.

(bright upbeat music) - [Narrator] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)