David & Nicki Pogue
PHOTOGRAPHY: EMILY FISHER
David Pogue is the kind of famous where just about everyone recognizes him as a somebody, while it might take a minute to realize that he’s the seven-time Emmy winning correspondent on CBS Sunday Morning who — in 35 stories each year — explains anything and everything that’s complicated. He’s like Mr. Rogers, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Al Gore, and even a little Martha Stewart — all wrapped into one!
David and Nicki moved to Bedford in 2023, and are already a fixture on the local ‘A’ list! Introduced to the area by Bedford’s pied pipers Murray and Emily Fisher — who were featured in the March/April 2024 issue of B&NC MAG — David is on the Board of Bedford 2030, and the Pogues are active in just about every other local charitable organization, and are good sports about donating VIP access at CBS and other desirable Pogue-related items to raise money at charitable functions; when a bidding war for ‘David Pogue Performing A Magic Show’ took the price into the thousands at a recent Rippowam Cisqua benefit, David agreed to perform twice so Ripp could satisfy both high bidders. David is writing for the local newspaper, and David and Nicki are ‘Out & About’ at just about every event at Caramoor, the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Ridgefield Playhouse, ACT in Ridgefield, the Bedford Playhouse, and every other concert, movie opening, gallery show, and other cultural event on the B&NC MAG Calendar.
Though David and Nicki met in 2010 and were married in 2013, they had never really lived together or made a home of their own until their move to Bedford. “It’s complicated,” Nicki laughs, referencing the popular movie, “but maybe I’ll explain this one.” The couple are a bit more lovey-dovey and smiley than most mature couples, seem like they’re sharing a secret, and work in concert — as David demurs ‘explaining this one’...even though he’d be happy to do so. “I was born in Vienna and lived in Germany before we moved to Kinnelon, New Jersey, when I was five. I went to Franklin & Marshall, and then started out working in publishing with a travel magazine in New York City. I moved to Oahu and then San Francisco, and in 2010 I was a divorced mom raising my kids and working in public relations — first at Yahoo - for about ten years, and then with a firm that, as luck would have it, was working on publicizing a solid-oxide fuel cell…that David was doing a segment on for NOVA! I met David at the Oakland Airport to shoot the segment…and I was smitten. We had a real connection, but I have two kids and David has three and each of our youngest kids were 4 years old at the time, and my life was going on in San Francisco and David’s was in Westport. David sent me a picture of the two of us that had been taken at the NOVA shoot, and for months our relationship was solely in writing.”
David interjects, “Like something out of olden times, we really fell in love through written communication! It got to the point where I couldn’t really remember what she looked like, or how tall she was standing next to me, and by the time we got together we really knew each other’s intellects, and had even volunteered our own faults to the other. It was kind of a take-it-or-leave-it proposition.”
And Nicki resumes, “For the next thirteen years, I commuted cross-country every other week to be with David in Westport, and David came to San Francisco whenever his work would allow. I think David once calculated that we spent 68% of all days together. Then, finally, in September 2023, when each of our youngest kids were off to freshman year at college, I was finally free to move East — and move in for the first time with my husband, David. …Searching for our new home, I remembered that Martha moved here after living in Westport and, on a much smaller scale, we also wanted to have a bit more land and a chicken coop and some bees. We drove around Bedford and were blown away by the natural beauty. Then we went to the Farmers Market at the John Jay Homestead…established an immediate rapport with a couple of the vendors…a fan recognized David and they had a pleasant exchange…and we were sold!”
In addition to reporting and writing his stories for CBS Sunday Morning, David is a New York Times bestselling author and a former New York Times technology columnist, has hosted 20 NOVA science specials on PBS, has done five TED Talks, and has won two Webby Awards, and the distinguished Loeb Award for Journalism. But being the busiest man in TV journalism is just the tip of the iceberg for David! He’s an all-around renaissance man and…in the modern-day all-positive meaning of the word, he’s a real nerd!
If the name Pogue seems familiar beyond David’s prominence, it’s because David’s family is the Pogue in the law firm once known as Jones Day Reavis & Pogue, which is now one of the largest law firms in the world. In fact, David is the first in five generations of Pogues not to be a lawyer! Growing up in a prominent family in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, David’s first loves were music and musical theater. “I was the youngest of three kids and always looking for attention,” David reveals, “so I was the class clown and a real showoff. I became a magician, and had performed at least 400 magic shows by the time I graduated high school.”
“At Yale, I majored in Music,” David recaps. …When I graduated, I called my dad and told him I wanted to go to Broadway…after he got over the shock that I didn’t mean just taking in a couple of shows and returning home to Shaker Heights to begin preparing for law school or some other acceptable career…he begrudgingly allowed me a two-year period to sow my wild oats. He was not pleased. …In the 23rd month, I landed a job as the musical director for a Cy Coleman musical…and spent the next ten years arranging and conducting Broadway musicals.”
“I was an early adopter of technology, but couldn’t afford software, so I began calling software developers like Adobe and Microsoft telling them I would review their product if they would send me a sample. I wrote reviews for something called the Mac Street Journal, which was the 8-page Xeroxed newsletter of New York’s Mac user group. ...Eventually, I began writing a humor column for Macworld magazine. And, oh yeah, I also developed a business doing tech support for a star-spangled client list including Carly Simon, Mia Farrow, and Steven Sondheim, among others. …And I was still doing all the music stuff, too!” David says, recalling his ingenious self-start.
In 1992 David wrote Macs For Dummies, the second book in the For Dummies series, and he eventually penned seven of those, including Magic, Opera, and Classical Music. Then he founded the Missing Manual series…and there have been dozens. He’s written two novels, a series of life-hack books called Pogue’s Basics, and a 600-pager called How to Prepare for Climate Change. In all, he’s written more than 120 books!
Yet, even with that overflowing curriculum vitae, music and musical theater remain David’s real passion. “Don’t get me wrong,” David declares, “I’ve got the greatest job in television! I get to cover everything from Ukraine to NASA and bitcoin and campus unrest. I get to travel all over the world, putting together a new story about every other week, for over six million viewers! I often think, ‘How is this even a job’?!”
“But I still keep my toe in music - it’s my first love,”
David concludes. “I wrote my vows as a song, and sang them to Nicki at our wedding. I give a lot of talks, and usually end the evening with a couple of song parodies at the piano about the tech industry. I wrote a mashup of Christmas carols that I got to perform, as guest conductor, with the Cape Cod Symphony and the Cleveland Pops. At home, we listen to music almost all the time, although for some reason, I can’t write when there are songs with lyrics playing.”
And while the couple manage somehow to spend a lot of time together, Nicki’s list of activities and achievements is as exhausting to think about as David’s!
Nicki is an accomplished endurance athlete who has completed five half-Ironman triathlons, 22 marathons, including each of the Big 6 — Boston, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York — and, locally, the grueling Leatherman’s Loop and Raven Rocks overland races.
Her speaker and media-training business, called Good Talkers, doing media training for an impressive clientele of C-level executives and clients such as OpenAI, DARPA, Airbnb, Etsy, GoFundMe, and Sephora, takes her on the road almost as much as David “It’s all about how you show up!” Nicki explains. “I can help with a client’s stage presence and how effectively they deliver their messages to media.”
And Nicki has a long history doing volunteer work with animals. While living in San Francisco, Nicki volunteered with Guide Dogs for the Blind, working in the breeding department. Here in Bedford, she works with future service dogs through the Puppies Behind Bars program at the Bedford Correctional Facility, and conducts equine therapy for special-needs children at Endeavor Therapeutic Horsemanship.
“It’s a lot,” Nicki admits. “But we get to be together in Bedford, and for us, after thirteen years in a long-distance relationship, this still feels like a honeymoon. We like cooking together, and we go for a lot of long walks on the BRLA trails, in the Mianus River Gorge, and just around the neighborhood. We’re amazed by all the cultural activities and great restaurants right in the area, and we’re really enjoying getting involved as members of the Bedford community.”
