In 2019, the one who had been the presenter of Espana Directo or the Newscasts signed for Carlos Herrera’s team for the morning Herrera on COPE . Pilar Garcia Muniz (Madrid, 1974) has joined the later Mediodia COPE this season .

–How do you rate this new stage of your professional life
-In an interview, Luis Rojas Marcos, the renowned psychiatrist, was asked what words he had in his medicine cabinet and he said that his most important word on a personal and professional level was ‘tell me’. In my case, if I had to assess this new professional stage at Mediodia COPE, it would be closely linked to that word that Dr. Rojas Marcos alluded to because wherever I am, on television or on the radio, my work and effort are focused on telling . Tell stories, tell current events and do it in an interesting and useful way for the listener.
“More than that they see me, what has always worried me is that they believe me”

–It was Carlos Herrera who ‘shot’ you. Tell us how Carlos is.
–I would need whole hours to talk about Carlos because he is an enormous professional with many virtues. Carlos is a generous person from whom you learn something new every minute. He has a great capacity for analysis, for reading where others don’t read, for improvisation and a unique mastery to go from the serious to the informal. All this makes him the quintessential communicator on Spanish radio. His credibility and his versatility have made him a benchmark, capable of interviewing Pope Francis, for example, and also capable of entertaining the audience in the most amusing way.

–You are already more than installed again on the radio, do you miss being seen
-More that they see me, what has always worried me is that they believe me. Tell things well, rigorously. I believe that the debate should not be between image or audio, television or radio. Each language has its strength and its weakness. But in both media, credibility must be pursued, it is fundamental, especially in this context in which the citizen receives so many inputs.

-Have you changed schedules in the new season
-Yes, each program requires a schedule and Herrera’s at COPE is very different from Noon. That forces you to modify the hours of entry to the radio and also to change your daily organization and your sleep. In Herrera he slept during the day and worked at dawn. It’s a tough schedule that forces you to be very disciplined and maintain certain routines because you don’t sleep or rest the same during the day as at night.

-The radio is artisanal but its informative content covers many stations and colleagues. How is the coordination of this work
-If something has shown us everything that is happening with the volcano in La Palma, it is the strength of the regional or local media. In the case of COPE, three minutes after the start of the eruption, our colleagues from the Canary Islands were already launching a special program. Three minutes later! On a day-to-day basis, stations are fundamental. There is great talent in them and everyone assumes the writing as a unique project that offers value to the listener.
“I am more in favor of another type of journalism. A rigorous journalism that bets more on the why. In the day to day there is a lot of ‘what’ and little ‘why’

– Has our agenda accelerated in these viral times
The pandemic has accelerated everything. Many companies have done in four months what they planned in five years. The clearest example is found in the Covid vaccine. But precisely because of this speed that overwhelms us, I think more and more that we have to stop at things and in the digital context in which we live, the crux will no longer be in having access to connection but to disconnection. Not having access to music or conversation but to silence at certain times, not to immediate information but to reflection.

–How can we better digest so much news
–Perhaps the problem is that more and more is spoken in capital letters. We need to change the conversation. In Spain there was a time when headlines lasted a day. Now we are immediately looking for reactions to everything. It’s all so fast-paced that some need to exaggerate it to get attention. I am more in favor of another type of journalism. A rigorous journalism that bets more on why. In everyday life there is a lot of “what” and little “because”. And the citizen needs context, that we explain to him why what happens happens and how it affects him.

–Can you escape from the ‘obligatory’ topics on the front page

–Yes, in fact, at Mediodia COPE we do it every day. We tell the listener what is interesting and what is important. It is not incompatible.
“The pandemic has taught us many things. Among others, it has put us in front of the mirror and has sent us a clear message: human beings are fragile”

–What topics would you like to address in more depth

–It’s not about me, it’s about of the listener. And if something is clear to me and COPE, it is the strategy: listener-centrism. The person who listens to us is always in the center with his concerns, with his questions… Every time we prepare a program, we think of him. If what we offer is useful to you, you will use it. If what he hears is predictable, he’ll do without us. And there we play the trust, the bridge that we build every day with the audience.

–How do you think you will remember those difficult months of the pandemic over the years
-With emotion. The pandemic has taught us many things. Among others, he has put us in front of the mirror and has sent us a clear message: human beings are fragile and, furthermore, they must know how to live with uncertainty. Physicist and popularizer Jorge Wagensberg said that progress is nothing more than an advance towards complexity. Society, companies… we all move towards complex situations. And as people and as a society I think that the pandemic has taught us to install ourselves in this task of rethinking and rethinking ourselves.

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