He served as president of the Scripps Networks from 2005 to 2013,[2][3] the chief of U.S. Agency for Global Media from 2015 to 2019, and the CEO of NPR from 2019 to February 2024.

[4] He began work in radio and TV in 1975, at age 17, two days after his high school graduation, when he was hired as a technician and camera operator for WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky.

While working in Louisville, Lansing attended night classes at Bellarmine University; he left the school two semesters before graduating after being hired at WWMT-TV in Grand Rapids.

During coverage of the 1991 Halloween blizzard, Lansing set up phone interviews with police and with reporters who were unable to come to the station.

[9][12] During his tenure at NPR, Lansing focused on "the need to diversify the staff, its programming, its story selection and its audiences to better reflect American life".