Where I’m Coming From
Compiled by Forrest Preece
Judy Maggio, Journalist
- What’s something about you that not many people know?
I don’t like to cook. I’d rather do a live shot in a hurricane than prepare a formal dinner.
- What was your first job?
The summer before college, I worked as a phone solicitor selling storm windows in Houston. My fake name, when I’d make those loathsome cold calls, was Sandy Rivers.
- If you could have dinner with three people – dead or alive, at any time in history—who would they be?
Jane Goodall; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Stephen Colbert
- If you had to pick three musicians for a playlist, who would they be?
Brandi Carlisle, Patty Griffin, and Jon Batiste
- Favorite book and TV show?
Favorite (recent) book is The Correspondent. Favorite TV show is Veep (it always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I watch it)
- Most powerful movie you have seen?
“Schindler’s List”
- Favorite place in Austin?
Swimming in Barton Springs
- Favorite restaurant and watering hole
Veracruz Fonda (in Mueller), The Saxon Pub
- What did you want to be when you were growing up?
An actress and a singer
- Which living person do you most admire?
Michelle Obama
- What makes you happy?
Singing!!!! I’m a volunteer in a choir called Love Notes. It’s for people with memory loss and their caregivers. A third of us are volunteer singers. We rehearse every Monday and have two concerts a year. The whole experience touches my heart and makes me happy. I lost my mom to Alzheimer's, but she never lost the ability to sing and remember the lyrics to her favorite songs.
- Best advice you ever received?
Never forget the microphone is always on.

