Life & Work with Sonia Azad

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonia Azad.

Hi Sonia, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a little girl, I came home from ballet one night to so much commotion. Tears flowing from my mother’s eyes. My ballet teacher, Miss Maggie, had a private conversation with her in the car before we left to make the short drive home. When we arrived, the TV was on in the living room. I remember hearing the word war. Probably for the first time in my life. I was nine. The Persian Gulf War captivated my attention like nothing else had. I sat with my parents, watching a rotation of television news anchors and reporters sharing images of what was happening on the ground. I was always pretty good at geography. Iraq was right next to Iran, I remember thinking. That’s near my family. That’s why my parents were sad and scared. Would my family be in danger? Harmed? Killed? I didn’t ask any questions. I just listened. I remember looking from the TV reporters – to my parents – then back to the TV reporters. Mommy, if they weren’t there to show us what was happening, how would we know the truth? That was it. I wanted to be a war correspondent. That was the beginning of my journey to broadcast journalism. You see, for me this career (I don’t call it a ‘job’) didn’t start out as some egomaniacal endeavor to parade myself up the ladder of a network, posing and flashing fashion trends along the way. Journalism, to me, has always been a responsibility. A fact-finding, truth telling mission. Years went by, and I stuck to my mission.

Graduating from high school in the top 10 percent of my class, then studying Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin. Education has been and always will be a true joy for me. I love learning. It’s my way of stretching and growing and then stretching and growing some more. I did an internship at Cox Broadcasting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and then came home to start working right away. I got a job as a writer at my local community newspaper while I sent out resumé tapes waiting for a TV station to bite. When the job in Bryan/College Station came along, I laughed (A Longhorn in Aggieland…) but snagged it. I knew it would be tough, but the right first move. I wrote, shot my own video, edited, interviewed, drove myself to my stories, set up the camera, fed in stories to the editors… it was no easy task. Every day was long and challenging, but luckily I was young and eager. I covered everything from politics to courts, crime, fires, floods, you name it. It broadened my sense of the world. After almost two years of that, my news director, Dennis Kinney, promoted me to anchor/producer of our evening newscast and asked me to do some health reporting for the 5pm show. Sure. So I moved to Waco and spent nearly two years there.

I move up and out from all the places of un-growth. I was beginning to feel tired. Stuck. I knew what I needed, and that was a new challenge. So I went back to school. But there was only one program I applied to: Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. They had a dual-degree program with the law school and I decided that I wanted to cover courts thanks to watching the trials of Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson… huge news unfolding in real time. It was gripping! Court TV was still a thing. So I moved from Waco to Chicago. Wow… what a change of scenery. I sat through 1L year next to people who had come from Harvard, Stanford, Yale… and would go on to clerk for Supreme Court Justices and shape law for generations. That proximity to brilliance made me step up my game.

Part of my reporting rotation through graduate school took me back to D.C. to learn how to properly cover the military, to Paris’ esteemed Sciences Po – the city’s institute of political studies, and to The Hague, where I covered The International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for an NGO called The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). It was incredible. I had a roommate – a woman from Uganda – who would share stories of growing up during times of civil strife. She would have friends come over and they would cook dinner and we would feast on flavors from all over the world. (Pancakes from Sierra Leone= highly recommend!) The time eventually came for me to decide whether to stay in Europe and continue to work or to take a higher paying job back in the states and get back on TV. So I chose to come home. Again, I began shopping myself around to TV stations across the country, this time armed with additional degrees and an even more expansive set of experiences. I landed at a TV station in San Diego. Actually, it’s a funny story… I got that job while on vacation. By this time, resumé “tapes* were no longer a thing, so I sent links of my work to news directors and one of them (Sean Kennedy) gave me a chance! My first day on the job in SD was to go out and cover a triple murder. There was so much to love about working in SoCal. The weather, the chill vibe, vegan Mexican food, the beach, the hiking.

One day I just decided I would train for a marathon. So I joined Team in Training through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and met some of my dearest friends through those long runs up and down the pacific coast. Nearly a year into that job, I was laid off. It was 2009. As angry as I wanted to be, I just allowed myself to start casually looking for work again. This time, I had my eye on Houston. I’d been gone from Texas for so long at this point. I missed my family and my friends. I interviewed at three TV stations there, and Don Kobos gave me a chance. I remember during my interview, he asked me a question I’ll never forget: “Why do you move around so much? Have you stayed anywhere for more than two years?” My response made him slide back in his seat a little bit. “I haven’t needed to.” I stayed at that TV job in Houston for six years. My longest relationship, personally or professionally, to date.

In between, covering some of the most difficult, gut wrenching, sickening, maddening stories you could imagine. I worked every shift… early mornings, mid-afternoon and late nights. I traveled to cover tropical storms along the gulf coast and the Aurora Mass Theatre shooting in Colorado. I covered local elections, and even broke news of former Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s same-sex marriage to her partner from Palm Springs, California. It was a big deal at the time. I remember sweating outside of her private wedding ceremony while sending that first tweet. She and her now wife were gracious and kind, even allowing me and my dear cameraman Willie Dixon, to follow them into their first day of marriage as they explored the mountains of Palm Desert together. Between work shifts, I would work out– I kept up with my long-distance running, a routine yoga practice, cycling – anything to burn off steam or boost my energy. The joke amongst my colleagues was that I would schedule interviews around my exercise schedule. I also continued my love affair with the world – by traveling for fun when I could to some of the most incredible and far-away places: China, Brazil, and one of my favorites – India for a 6-week fellowship with Rotary International. Through management turnovers and a lot of change at that Houston TV station, my contract wasn’t renewed. Again, as angry and defensive as I wanted to be – I had confidence in the fact that I was set on a path to do… something else. About a month after my last day at work at the Houston TV station, I completed my 200-hour yoga teaching certification. So, my plan was to recharge, sleep, relax and teach yoga… which I did. It was a glorious few months! I helped my sister raise my new niece.

I traveled to Lyon, France for a couple of weeks for a video project for a nonprofit. I took time to reconnect with friends and with myself. But then I got a phone call from Carolyn Mungo. She had heard about me through a former colleague in Houston. Carolyn was the News Director at WFAA at the time and she said, “I hear you teach yoga and run marathons… would a medical reporter job interest you?” I didn’t know this at the time but WFAA’s longtime medical reporter Janet St. James, who I had watched and respected since my days as a health reporter in Waco, had left her post. They were looking for someone to fill that position. My last day at the Houston TV station was March 17, 2015 – the same day Janet left WFAA. I felt a serendipitous calling to Dallas. Despite being born and raised in Houston, I’d only visited North Texas maybe five times in my life. By October of that year, I started my current job as Health & Wellness reporter at WFAA. No longer planning interviews around workouts, I can now build workouts into the stories that I share with audiences. The learning and growing hasn’t stopped…

In March 2020, I earned my 200-hour Meditation Teaching certification at Breathe in Dallas, which has helped me to share more with my followers, students and audiences about the science-based benefits of relaxation, and quieting your mind as a way to heal your body. I feel so aligned with the stories I have been able to share with North Texas: stories about hope, resilience, effort, ease and grace. My range of topics includes: fitness, nutrition, the intersection of medicine and technology and of course infectious disease. The 30-year path from a curious nine year old to now has been anything but narrow, but each time the Universe has gifted me with a soft landing. It just required a little bit of patience, time and trust. Now I have the enormous responsibility of sharing evidence-based health news, which is fast-moving and always exciting. Paired with my offerings of guiding yoga and meditation classes at local studios and online, I feel I am exactly where I am meant to be. Oh, and I never stopped dancing. I continued to study and perform with the dance department at UT Austin, and even joined a dance company during my time in college. I performed with a modern dance company in D.C. And I taught tap and hip hop classes at local dance studios in Bryan and Waco (I believe we call that a #SideHustle these days). In Chicago, my yoga practice took the place of dance thanks to one of my dear teachers Christine DeLizer. And in Dallas, from time to time (when I had time) I would still dip into a hip hop class at Contemporary Ballet Dallas… although at this point, it’s been a while (Sorry, Steve!)

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’m not sure that most people know this: TV reporters don’t start out making much money. In fact, one of my old college professors, Don Heider, really prepared me for that. He would say, “Don’t get into this career expecting to make a lot of money. Especially not at the beginning! If you want to make a lot of money, if that’s your goal, do something else!” And he was right. My salary for that first job in Bryan was $18,500. That’s with a college degree. And it was a grind. Three of the reporters were on an on-call rotation on weekends. I remember getting calls from our scanner-hound at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning, “Major 10-50 on Highway… “(somewhere out in the middle of nowhere). What is a Major 10-50? Police code for accident. That first job was definitely the most grueling. I was 23 – trying to shoot, write, interview and edit all at the same time. I remember driving myself to the scene of a house fire overnight in some of the most remote parts of rural counties we covered. So remote that I would lose cell service! And I was my own cameraperson.

Back then, the cameras were big, clunky and weighed about as much as me! I heavily relied on police officers, firefighters and other on-scene officials to help keep me safe while I was trying to do my job. And to their credit, those men and women always had my back. There was one guy from that first job who I will never forget. He changed the course of my life. He was an assistant D.A. in Brazos County at the time, and he didn’t like the way I told a story. He called me, called my boss, threatened to sue me. I was so scared of being fired from my first job. He scared the living crap out of me with intimidation tactics. In the end, I had to trust my reporting. I trusted my interviewing skills, my writing and attribution, and I trusted that I did the story justice. My news director Dennis Kinney backed me and I never lost that job or heard from that D.A. again. But I do have him to thank. Because of him and that experience, I applied to law school. He doesn’t know this – but I remember thinking, I never want someone to intimidate or bully me like that again. I will go to one of the country’s top law schools and make sure I have the credentials to stand up to any lawyer inside or outside any courtroom.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Aside from the work I do as a health journalist, which can be found on WFAA’s morning show (News 8 Daybreak) and on my YouTube Channel (Sonia’s Inner Circle) – I’ve also enjoyed connecting with the local yoga and fitness community in North Texas. I teach one in-studio yoga class per week in Dallas’ Design District (Balancing Energy Health & Yoga Center) and one in-studio meditation class per week at Breathe Meditation and Wellness in Dallas. I also have a Facebook group called 2021: Fitter Together, where about 5,000 people have joined to keep each other motivated, accountable and privy to fitness offerings across our area. It’s become like a little family. People post workout selfies, questions, recipes, and it’s just a place to share everything from struggle to success. I’ve enjoyed watching the growth and strength of so many men and women in that group… people who have become my friends.

During the pandemic, I decided to extend my yoga, stretching and meditation class offerings online. My monthly membership is $20 – and gives you unlimited access to my library of classes. Alternatively, you can pay a discounted rate of $200 for the whole year. This project is not a way for me to get rich… I hired a local videographer to shoot and edit the videos, and a young woman to do the website and software. I also pay to rent The Indie Space, which was a local yoga studio that collapsed during lockdown. So your fees are going right back into the community, to support local people and their small businesses.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Stay curious. No matter where your starting point – what type of education (formal or not) – continue to dive deeper into yourself and into your passion. Ask plenty of questions. Scout out a mentor. Remain flexible as the path will shift and you will transform. And surround yourself with people who believe in you and bring out the best in you. We all have “haters” – there will always be the voices who want to scare you, intimidate you, the voices who make you want to grow that turtle shell and close yourself off… to hide under your covers and not wake up, open your eyes and keep growing. But those aren’t your people. Each time I felt myself starting to shrink through life – I would find a new challenge: running the marathon, applying for graduate school, studying abroad. I moved cities 10 times in 17 years. Allow yourself to be led by curiosity. There is so much beauty in the world left to discover. You will serve no one – not one single life – by hiding inside your bubble. There is more to this life than what you have been choosing. Go forth.

Pricing:

• $20/Month for Unlimited Monthly Membership- Online Library of Yoga, Stretch & Meditation Classes
• $200/Year for Unlimited Annual Membership- Online Library of Yoga, Stretch & Meditation Classes

Contact Info:

• Email: sazad@wfaa.com
• Website: www.sonia-azad.com
• Instagram: SoniaAzadTV
• Facebook: Sonia Azad- Health & Wellness
• Twitter: SoniaAzadTV
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRkWUCzRWmnvwVzZSXkRZtg

Image Credits:
Ben Sassani
Danny Bollinger
Peter K. Hull