Carey Winfrey, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE editor: Mr. Media Radio Interview (Rewind)

Smithsonian magazine editor Carey Winfrey classes up Mr. Media Radio!

Blender. Newsweek. TV Guide. Forbes. Playboy. MacWorld. Entertainment Weekly. Wizard. Business 2.0. Esquire.

These are the magazines I read as soon as they arrive in the mail each week or each month. They are frothy, entertaining reads, and I look forward to each new issue.

And then there’s Smithsonian magazine. I can’t remember when or why we started subscribing to Smithsonian. It costs more than most of the others, and it demands more of my time and attention than they do. But for several years now, whenever I give it my time, it pays me back several times over in richly detailed stories about worlds and topics I never dreamed I’d be interested in, let alone become fascinated with.

My wife and daughter have followed me into the pages of Smithsonian, and we probably talk about stories we’ve read there more often than anything else in the house. That’s why I jumped at the chance to interview Carey Winfrey, editor of Smithsonianmagazine.

A lieutenant in the U. S. Marine Corps in the 1960s, Winfrey has since collected a series of damned impressive journalism credentials, including writing for Time magazine, winning an Emmy Award at PBS in 1974, reporting for The New York Times, and landing a job as editor-in-chief of Cuisine. He also spent six years as editor-in-chief of American Health and spent several years as an assistant managing editor at People magazine. (Originally broadcast May 31, 2007.)