David Brancaccio

I’ve anchored and reported for Marketplace since 1989 from bases in London, Los Angeles and New York. Multimedia journalism’s my thing — been doing radio since I was a little boy. I write, love cameras and audio/video editing and have anchored television. I grew up in a small town in Maine but have attended schools in Italy, Madagascar and Ghana.

What was your first job?

DJ and newsman on WTVL AM/FM, Waterville, Maine.

What do you think is the hardest part of your job that no one knows?

Making each and every one fit. “Marketplace Morning Report” has to end at 58 minutes and 58 seconds past each hour; no more, no less.

What advice do you wish someone had given you before you started this career?

Find your own voice in your on-air style and in your writing.

In your next life, what would your career be?

Astronaut. They say a key qualification for the Mars mission are folks who can fix things on the fly. I'm good at MacGyvering.

Fill in the blank: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you ______.

A McIntosh audiophile-grade stereo amplifier. No, not spelled the same as the computer. They always were too expensive for me, and now they're even more expensive.

What is something that everyone should own, no matter how much it costs?

For those who shave, a shaving brush.  And kitchen scissors. Really. It'll change your life.

What’s something that you thought you knew but later found out you were wrong about?

I thought people work in their own best interests. They don't. They use up resources until they hurt themselves. "Tragedy of the commons," economists call it.

What’s your most memorable Marketplace moment?

Live on the air, I slipped and swapped an "f" for a "p" in some copy and looked up to see an empty control room. They were all on the floor laughing at my expense.

What’s the favorite item in your workspace and why?

Besides the photo of my family, there is a 4" diameter, 4-foot-tall model rocket in the Marketplace Morning Report colors I built. It's flown to 4,000 feet.