Who would’ve guessed that eating at a Thai restaurant in New Hampshire would lead Penn State alum Ted Anthony nationwide?

Anthony is the Director of New Storytelling and Newsroom Innovation at the Associated Press. He’s an innovative storyteller committed to reaching a wider audience with unique perspectives. From a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author to winning the National Headliner Award for feature writing in 2001, his journalism career has been nothing short of uneventful.

Having worked for the Associated Press for over 33 years, his experience includes covering the Columbine shooting, reporting in Afghanistan after 9/11, serving as the AP news editor in China, and traveling to North Korea six times. In his current position, Anthony pushes new forms of storytelling however, he continues to prioritize writing at least once a month for the AP.

“First of all, it’s very much who I am. But also, I think that as we start modeling the kinds of journalism we want to be doing and the kinds of crossover topics that appeal to a lot of different digital audiences that we want to do, it’s useful for me to know what I’m asking for, so I try to do that as much as possible,” Anthony said.

He typically gravitates towards writing about everyday topics, which people usually don’t realize makes a larger impact.

“I gravitate toward that notion of knowing your world slightly better after you’ve read one of my pieces,” Anthony said.

Anthony feels that the most important principle of journalism is accuracy, but he also understands that compassion is vital. Working for the AP, he has gained an understanding that selling news is essential; however, there comes a responsibility as his work is accessible worldwide.

“I think that if we are accurate, we eventually will gain credibility, and if we are compassionate, we will eventually gain loyalty. And those are the things that, to me, are the most important. I don’t think you can have one without the other,” Anthony said.

In modern journalism, he emphasized the importance of responsible storytelling and integrity.

“We at the AP, we have a saying, an old saying: get it first, but first get it right,” Anthony said.

Anthony has gained extensive international reporting experience, having reported in over 30 different countries, his writing giving him a unique global perspective. He reported in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in 2002 and served as the AP news editor in China from 2002 to 2004.

“Getting news and information in China is like squeezing a washcloth. You want to get every last drop of it out because so little information is often available. But in Afghanistan, it was the opposite. It was just this wealth of information and interviews and stuff, and you had to winnow it down instead of build it up as much,” Anthony said.

He would also travel to North Korea six times as a senior executive to meet with officials to advocate for more media access. He visited the capital city of Pyongyang, where only select individuals are chosen to live. Anthony recalls sitting outside, hearing beautiful music, and looking at the vast display of pastel-colored houses.

“It was dystopian, but also, in a way, very, very, very beautiful,” Anthony said. “It was a reminder to me that we were not all that different all the time.”

Beyond his impressive work in journalism, Anthony published his book, “Chasing the Rising Sun: The Journey of an American Song.” His search for the song’s origins began after hearing it in a Thai restaurant in New Hampshire, eventually sending him from New Orleans to North Carolina, all the way to the Appalachians.

“Like I said, I like to understand what makes things tick, and that is kind of the hugest example of it in my life, and I heard this song and I said, ‘What the hell did this song have to do to get into this environment?’ and then it was basically working backward, reverse engineering, where it came from,” Anthony said.

His curiosity led him to question the song’s origins, ultimately allowing him to immerse himself in different cultures.

“The story I wanted to tell was more about the people who had carried the song around, you know, wherever it originated,” Anthony said.

At Penn State, Anthony was a history major and wrote for the Daily Collegian. His career in journalism was sparked when he reported on an escaped murderer who was a Penn State alum and had been caught and returned to State College. He put together stories surrounding the case’s history and even found the murderer’s photo in a yearbook in the library.

Walking into the Willard Building the next morning, he was surprised to discover that his class of about 150 people were all holding up the newspaper and talking about it.

“I realized the power that good storytelling could have and getting people to talk about the world around and so that was, if I have to say, a moment I became a journalist, that was it,” Anthony said.

From his time in conflict zones to local crime reporting in Harrisburg during his early career, Anthony was taught the lesson of compassion and the impact that investigative reporting can have on a journalist’s mental health. This past February, he was diagnosed with complex PTSD. He emphasized the importance of awareness for journalists struggling with their mental health.

“But even going back to working as a police reporter at the Harrisburg paper, and I covered a lot of things with, you know, involving children, a lot of things, involving a lot of violence and fires and gunshots and things like that, and it builds up,” Anthony said.

While at Penn State, Anthony expressed that he immersed himself in the communities and culture beyond State College. As a student journalist, he spoke with people from all different backgrounds and ways of life. He advises Penn State students to explore the many communities beyond State College.

“I’m working on a piece for my personal sub stack now on how going to Penn State taught me to be an American, not because of Penn State itself, but because of going through all of the different communities and interviewing people in different places and things, and how it got me to respect all kinds of different ways of doing things,” Anthony said.

When asked for advice for Penn State students pursuing a journalism degree, he noted that despite the industry’s challenges, this is precisely the time for storytelling.

“There’s no better time to be a journalist. There may have been better times to be in the news industry. The news industry is struggling, but we are in one of the most amazing and interesting moments of my lifetime, and probably of many lifetimes. I think to be a journalist in this time and to try to figure out what the hell is happening with our world, it’s a challenge and it’s exhilarating to me,” Anthony said.