David Folkenflik is media correspondent for National Public Radio and a regular media analyst on television, and has been featured on CNN, ABC, MSNBC, and Fox News. Prior to joining NPR, Folkenflik spent over a decade at the Baltimore Sun covering higher education, Congress and the media. Read more about the Laguna Beach-born Folkenflik below.

Q. What do you wake up to?
A. I usually wake up to NPR — WNYC, the member station in New York, 93.9 if I’m not mistaken — and listen to familiar voices tell me about what’s happened in the previous 12 to 24 hours. I don’t drive anymore now that I live in New York and I miss it, I miss listening to the radio.

Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. I might have listened to a little Feist.

Q. What’s your favorite word?
A. Acuity.

Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. The ocean breeze, the view of water, the sunlight shimmering off it.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Quirky, persistent, sarcastic, generally not tan enough.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. An outfielder for the Angels and a United States Senator.

Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Gin and tonic.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Shoes that are actually comfortable.

Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Back home to Laguna.

Q. What is your favorite holiday and why?
A. I like the secular Christmas I share with friends and family.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to have a beer with?
A. The civil war figure Dan Sickles is supposed to be quite a rascal. Quite a drinker too so he’d be a good person to join.

To read more about Folkenflik’s panel on the future of newspapers, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.