Frannie Carr-Troth

By Liam Shea

For Frannie Carr-Toth, her passion for storytelling turned into a career as editor of WBUR's opinion page, Cognoscenti. She has worked at WBUR since 2012, publishing stories that highlight the lives of people from all walks of life.

“I have always been obsessed with other people's life stories and how we tell the stories of our time. What better way to make sense of the world than through sharing individual life stories,” Carr-Troth said.

Carr-Troth was a part of the founding team when Cognoscenti started. The goal was to go beyond the standard idea of reporting to offer unique perspectives on the news through personal essays, mini-documentaries and radio segments. 

Before becoming the editor of Cognoscenti, she worked in news radio as a writer and producer for WGBH on the Emily Rooney Show and with other NPR affiliates.

Her journalism career began in the Journalism Department at UMass Amherst, where she was introduced to student media. She became a member of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian and then became the News Director at WMUA, producing daily radio newscasts and managing a team of reporters and anchors. 

“The training was incredible, and we won regional awards for our reporting and our newscasts. It was a huge confidence-booster to go out into the real world knowing you have experience,” Carr-Troth said.

Along with hands-on experience, hard work is how Carr-Toth made her name in journalism. “Intern your butt off, you know, make yourself indispensable. From what I’ve seen, that's how every intern or entry-level person gets hired. They make themselves completely indispensable,” Carr-Troth said.

During an internship at WFCR, Carr-Troth assisted in producing a documentary on Cambodian immigrants, and that experience sold her on working in radio. 

“Radio is such an intimate medium. I would hear these stories, and they would worm their way into my consciousness. I couldn’t think about anything else," Carr-Troth said. “It felt like the universe was telling me that this is what I was meant to do. A lot of people don't get that sort of luxury with their work, but I felt so inspired and excited to dive deeper into that part of journalism.”

This profile was written as a part of the 2021 Alumni Spotlight Series by students in the Writing for Public Relations course.