How Tom Brokaw Stays in the Know

At 71, NBC’s Tom Brokaw relies on his teenaged granddaughters to keep him au courant.

“They’re so bright, so hip. I’m so taken with them,” he says of the girls, 13 and 15. (His other grandkids, also girls, are 3 and 5.) “There’s such a difference between grandparents now and my grandparents, who I adored. We didn’t have the same interests.”

For example? Brokaw and the girls “dress the same way. If they like one of my jackets, they’ll just put it on and wear it.” In return, the duo has turned on grandpa to TV shows like ‘Burn Notice’ and ‘Monk,’ he says.

The girls are very sophisticated about movies, Brokaw says, and “have not read any Harry Potter books. They think there’s something wrong with me.”

Over the past year, Brokaw, as usual, has been mountain climbing, bicycling and fishing all over the world. He’s written a new book, ‘The Time of Our Lives,’ and appears on ‘Today’ and MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’

When there’s a big breaking story, Brokaw misses the action, but as a rule, “I don’t get up in the morning, put on makeup and hairspray and say, ‘How can I get on TV today?’”

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