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Liz Walker preaches healthier lifestyle with ‘Better Living’

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January 12, 2012|By Johnny Diaz

Liz Walkers new project is a series of programs that focus on depression,… (BILL GREENE/GLOBE STAFF )

Most Bostonians know Liz Walker from her two decades as a broadcast journalist anchoring the evening news on WBZ-TV (Channel 4). Now an ordained minister, she hosts “Better Living With Liz Walker,’’ a series of programs that focus on ways to address depression, obesity, and violence prevention. Her program - a partnership with Partners HealthCare - airs tonight at 7:30 on Channel 5.

Q. Why do you focus on three areas: violence prevention, obesity, and depression?

A. From the pulpit, I noticed that those were the areas that really affected the community I serve most directly, which is the urban area. Depression is an epidemic. People are feeling powerless and feeling very low. Certainly there is just a general kind of depression in this country. That problem leads to other problems such as obesity. We are eating ourselves to death, we are eating the wrong foods. Certainly in the urban community, violence is another way this depression manifests itself. I wanted to do something about it, something that would go along with preaching in the pulpit.

Q. Who is your target audience?

A. My initial community, the urban community, marginalized people. We are running the show during the “Chronicle’’ time slot so you have a pretty big audience. It will be the same people who watch the news and that’s everybody.

Q. How does “Better Living’’ relate to your duties as a minister?

A. I am going on television to talk about some of the problems we have as a community and in the world. Partners was very receptive to the idea of telling stories about people who are modeling better living. It was the same thing I was doing at the church.

Q. What is the key difference between your former work at WBZ and “Better Living’’?

A. I have always been more of an advocacy reporter. I was always trying to do those kinds of stories that served the community. This is taking it to a very specific level because we are talking about health, which is one of the key issues in this country right now and in the world.

Q. Do you miss the grind of TV news?

A. No. I don’t miss that at all. That was the part that made you crazy, the grind of it and the competitiveness of it. There was a selfishness that kind of prevailed. You were only as good as your best story. Sometimes, the greater good got lost because you were trying to survive.

Q. Do you still watch local news?

A. I watch a little bit, but not as much. I get most of my news online.