Everyone’s favorite weatherman is just as nice as he seems—and he has a few ideas on how to make the world a better place, one act of kindness at a time
Today’s Al Roker Shares the Importance of Kindness and Community
Updated Sep. 25, 2024
Imagine this: You’re home sick, and Al Roker—yes, the NBC weathercaster and host of Today—shows up at your door. He comes bearing a dish of freshly made mac and cheese, the world’s best chocolate chip cookies and skillet cornbread, his three favorite dishes to cook for people who aren’t feeling well. On a scale of 1 to the sky parting and heavenly angels singing, how much better would you feel? (Heck, we feel better just imagining it!)
“Comfort foods are one of my favorite little ways to show kindness to others,” says Roker, who recently wrote the cookbook Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By: Easy, Memory-Making Family Dishes for Every Occasion. Hey, they don’t call them comfort foods for nothing!
Roker, a man known for being kind, learned early in life that a small act of kindness can change a life—sometimes a whole lot of lives. This is also the premise for Reader’s Digest’s yearly Nicest Places in America contest; we want to find all those kind people, clustered together in their communities, who are making the world a happier place. So who better to help us pick our winners than Roker, one of the nicest guys in the country?
“There are a lot of kind people out there, but it’s often the unkind folks who get the attention. So we need to make the effort to look for kindness, and the fact that Reader’s Digest is doing this is terrific,” he says. “We need to shine a light on those examples so that people can be inspired and think, If this person is doing this, maybe I can too.“
Ready to get inspired and learn a few new things about everyone’s favorite weatherman? Read on to find out Roker’s top picks for Reader’s Digest’s Nicest Places in America, how he thinks everyone can incorporate more kindness in their everyday lives and how the best recipes can encourage even more memory-making acts of kindness.
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Reader’s Digest: What’s a nice act you’ve done or witnessed recently?
Al Roker: Just now, and it was a simple thing when I held the door for someone. Holding the door is a nice act on its own, but then the person said “thank you,” and I loved that! Just that simple acknowledgment of a kindness with another kindness. It may sound like a little thing, but it’s these little moments of civility that add up. Another thing I like to do: When I walk in Central Park and make eye contact with people, I will mouth a hello or just give a head nod. It really throws people sometimes! But these simple gestures over time really add up.
Reader’s Digest: What was your process for choosing your top three Nicest Places in America out of all the options we sent you?
Al Roker: I read through their bios, and I realized they were all great places. Any one of them could be a top three. So then what I was looking for was a sense of surprise, something you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
Reader’s Digest: What stood out to you about your top choice—Fort Greene, Brooklyn?
Al Roker: I’m from New York City, and I love it. New York City is really a collection of small towns, not really much different than your small town in any other state. Fort Greene is one of those “small towns” in the big city. It has been its own unique community since the 1800s, and it’s seen a lot of ups and downs. You may hear “Brooklyn” and think hipsters now, but Brooklyn had a reputation, and yes, there are parts of Brooklyn that still aren’t great. That could cause clashes, but there’s a group of people in Fort Greene who are saying, “Let’s not just give in to that. Let’s try to de-escalate things and bring down the temperature.”
One of these people is Carlos Jones. He built up this conversation, with all this volume, and got all of these volunteers to work together to make the city nicer for people who had lived there a long time and folks just moving in. It just goes to show that one person has to start it, and then other people are willing to join in.
Reader’s Digest: What about Provo, Utah, caught your eye? Provo ended up earning the No. 1 spot on our Nicest Places list.
Al Roker: You don’t really think of Utah as a place that has to deal with the kinds of problems you see in more urban settings, especially with young people. But the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] found there’s a “suicide belt” in the western United States, including Utah.
Look, mental health is a huge issue in this country, and I think there’s still a stigma about it. So in Provo, parents, teachers, social workers, faith leaders and folks got together to try and intercede. They trained peer groups to help. A lot of kids are not going to talk to their parents. They may not even talk to a counselor. But if there are other kids like them who have some expertise to at least see the signs and maybe intervene and get them on that path to seeking professional help, that makes all the difference.
I think the ultimate act of kindness is to reach out and try to help somebody who is suffering in silence because they’re so afraid to speak out. It is the ultimate act of kindness to save a life.
Reader’s Digest: Silver Spring, Maryland, was another one of your favorites. Why?
Al Roker: Immigration is such a big issue in this country that sometimes we lose these small stories. Like, here’s a guy, Manuel Vera, who decided to start repairing bikes and give them away for free. He doesn’t have any background in this; he’s just one person. But he starts upcycling bikes—important in this time of conspicuous consumption—fixing them and passing them on to folks who need them.
You’ve got all these refugees coming in, and how do they get around? They don’t have driver’s licenses. But they can ride a bike. And transportation is a powerful way of being kind to people, of being able to help your neighbor, who you may not know. But yet you give them the gift of mobility and transport, and that can change lives.
Reader’s Digest: What is your advice for people who want to do something kind but aren’t sure where to start?
Al Roker: It starts by looking around you and asking questions. Maybe you do a little investigation, talk to folks, find out what they need. There are so many people who want to help but maybe don’t have that spark to get it going. So if you do, all you need to do is light that spark, and you can help lead a movement and help your neighbors. Giving of yourself, no matter how you do it, is the ultimate gift.
My father, Al Roker, was a great example of this. As a kid, I thought he was “just a bus driver”—he was a manager for the Metropolitan Transit Authority—but it wasn’t until my dad passed and there was a memorial service for him that I realized the scope of what he’d really done. One by one, people came up to talk about what my dad meant to them, things that he did for them, things he said to them. I remember a number of young African American managers in the Transit Authority who said, “There’s a whole group of us who wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for Al Roker.”
Up to that point, I had no idea that he touched all these lives just by being him. It wasn’t like he said, “I’m going to go out and do this grand thing.” He just did it. And that’s my message to people: You don’t have to make a big statement. Start with: “I’m going to do that.” Then do it!
Reader’s Digest: What would you say to people who have that impulse to do something kind but talk themselves out of it because perhaps they don’t know what to do or worry that it will be the wrong thing?
Al Roker: Look, the bottom line is: Reach out, and if people don’t reach back, well, you know, at least you gave it a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. But the potential upside can be life-changing. And life-changing doesn’t have to be this whole “the sky parts and a chorus of angels sing.” Life-changing can be something as simple as a used bicycle.
Reader’s Digest: Can you point to any acts of kindness, big or small, that changed your life?
Al Roker: My life was changed by [famed NBC weathercaster] Willard Scott. He helped me when I was first starting my career, which is rare. Most people in this business are a little hesitant to lend a hand to somebody they see as a competitor. But not him—he was always so kind to me, to everyone.
Reader’s Digest: You recently wrote a cookbook, Al Roker’s Recipes to Live By, and as you’ve said, food can be “memory-making.” How can cooking together make the world a nicer place?
Al Roker: No matter what kind of childhood you had growing up or where you’re from, there were certain foods, comfort foods, and those evoke happy memories even today. Making these comfort foods is a way to show kindness to others.
Reader’s Digest: We love that! Is there a particular recipe that has a beautiful memory attached to it for you personally?
Al Roker: First of all, making this cookbook is a beautiful memory—I did this with my daughter Courtney, who is a professional chef. She was pregnant at the time, so the idea of family really started to resonate with her, and she wanted to do a family cookbook. She really did all the work, talking to all our friends and family, researching recipes and putting it all together. This was her creation of love, and I got to be a part of it. And I must say, it is beautiful!
As for a recipe that always makes me smile thinking about it, one of my favorites is my wife Deborah’s mom’s potato salad. We have it every time we get together, and it’s become something that we all share. I have a lot of great memories of our family meals all together with that potato salad.
Reader’s Digest: What makes her potato salad so good? Is there a special ingredient?
Al Roker: It’s just the right balance of everything. It’s not too creamy. It’s got a little spice to it. It’s the Goldilocks of potato salads.
Reader’s Digest: What about being kind to the cook?
Al Roker: Yes, that’s a thing! Be nice to the chef! I try not to be judgy, but, you know, Judgy McJudgeface over here—I think one of the cardinal cooking sins is when you take the time and effort to prepare a good piece of steak and somebody wants to put sauce on it. It drives me absolutely bananas. Don’t ask me for steak sauce! Stop!
Al Roker’s new cookbook, Recipes to Live By: Easy, Memory-Making Family Dishes for Every Occasion, is available for preorder now. And you can watch Al every weekday morning on Today, on NBC.
Why trust us
For more than 100 years, Reader’s Digest has been known for its heartwarming true stories and focus on community. In 2016, we launched the Nicest Places in America, an annual contest that honors kind, inspiring people making a difference in their hometowns. Readers send in nominations, and Reader’s Digest’s editorial team vets the entries and whittles them down with the help of a panel of judges. This year, the judges included Today’s Al Roker, Tuesdays with Morrie author Mitch Albom, author and podcast host Mónica Guzmán, award-winning journalist and author Steve Petrow, Reader’s Digest CEO Bonnie Kintzer, and Craig Elston, a barber who helped Buffalo, New York, earn the title of Nicest Place in America in 2023. We are committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Originally Published: September 25, 2024
