InFormation is hosted by Carolyn Noll Sorg, President-Elect of John Carroll University. This is Episode 4

Pete Williams is a retired NBC News correspondent and journalist-in-residence at John Carroll University. Over a career spanning decades, he covered breaking news, national policy, and landmark Supreme Court decisions — learning along the way that the facts of a story are never enough on their own. What matters is knowing which facts to choose, how to arrange them, and why your audience should care.

In this conversation, he reflects on what it takes to tell a story well: from his early days following President Clinton on Martha's Vineyard to a prime-time documentary connecting World War II saboteurs to Guantanamo Bay. He also talks honestly about the moments he got it wrong — and what he learned from them.

• Why facts alone don't make a story — and what does
• The process of selection: what to include, what to cut, and why it matters
• Leading with meaning vs. leading with information
• How deadlines sharpen your thinking (and when they don't)
• What breaking news taught him about transparency and trust
• The difference between listening and waiting to talk
• How to tell your own story

Inspired by this episode, take a moment to reflect:

• What story am I telling, and do I know why it matters to the person hearing it?
• Where am I piling on facts when I should be building meaning?
• What's one moment from my own life I could tell as a story, not just a list of things that happened?

Pete Williams reminds us that the best storytellers aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who know what to leave out — and how to make you care about what's left.

Hosted by Carolyn Noll Sorg
Directed by Carmen Ferrante
Produced by Aaron Bennett
Associate Producer Joe Bilas
Creative by Danielle Dunne
Web & Distribution by Kara Kraus
Special thanks to Dan Slentz, Jasen Sokol, Blue Streak Media, and WJCU 88.7 FM.