Meet Your News Friend, the New Host of The Morning

World|Meet Your News Friend, the New Host of The Morning

Today, Sam Sifton took over as host of The Morning, The Times’s flagship newsletter, which more than five million people read each day. He’ll guide us through what’s happening in the world. He’ll be a companion through troubling stories, piercing criticism, poignant profiles, great listens and every other bit of wonder this news organization produces.

I’ve discovered, working with Sam this fall, that he’s a delightfully idiosyncratic dude. You should know about him! Since he came to The Times in 2002, he’s had seven extremely varied jobs. Among them:

• He was the restaurant critic, from 2009-2011. (Ask him about his workout regimen to keep fit between all those meals.)

• He was National editor, overseeing one of our largest news desks, through the Boston Marathon bombing and other big stories.

• He basically invented NYT Cooking, a site so many of us have come to rely on. It’s the first place I turn when I panic: What do I do with these parsnips I found at the market? (Answer: Sam’s riff on seafood chowder.)

• For the last five years, he has overseen all our culture and lifestyle coverage. So you’ll want to pay special attention to his recommendations in that department.

I sat him down for this inquisition on Friday.

Adam: OK, you’re hosting a morning newsletter. Are you a morning person?

Sam: I am. The hours between 5 and 9 pulse with creativity. And I love to greet a dawn. But I also know there are going to be some late nights on this show. Late nights, early mornings. I quit coffee during the pandemic. Let’s see if that holds!

I’m caffeine-free as well. What’s the go-to breakfast?

Breakfasts are routines. You perform yours until you start performing another one for reasons of whim or happenstance: granola and yogurt; French toast; a single fried egg with toast and marmalade; cut fruit. The past couple of days, I’ve been big into a toasted bagel with a lot of butter and a single slice each of deli ham and Swiss cheese.

Last year, the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale gave you an honorary doctorate and described your last newsletter, What to Cook, as a “secular sermon.” What were you trying to do there and how does it apply to your new role with The Morning?

I just wanted to let readers know: Everything’s going to be all right. Even if it’s awful right now, even if you’ve never made mayonnaise, even if you’re scared. We’ll figure it out. We’ll get to the truth. We’ll make something sustaining no matter what’s happening in the world. Most of all, I think I wanted to leave people with this thought: You’re not alone. And that’s my goal with The Morning, too.