If you’re reading this newsletter, it’s because of TTBOOK’s Mark Riechers, who created it, along with our entire current digital presence, which includes innovative show art and photography, experiments on YouTube, and original online articles. Our online footprint, especially for a show with a small staff of seven people, is unusual and groundbreaking in the worlds of public radio and podcasting because of Mark’s talent and energy.
So it is with a tear and a bit of fear we say not goodbye but see you around the corner to Mark this week. He’s moving to become the Online Content Editor at PBS Wisconsin, which like WPR is part of Wisconsin Public Media, all under the roof of University of Wisconsin-Madison. I can list all of Mark’s great accomplishments, but I wanted to also say what a great teammate he was, whether it was talking us through the recovery of three days of work that had disappeared suddenly, exploring new ways and technologies to get our staff organized or brainstorming show ideas on most every imaginable subject.
Now’s a great time to listen (or re-listen) to some of Mark’s greatest TTBOOK hits over the years he worked on the program. Mark braved recording live bees for “Loving Bees,” walked with a woman in search of rocks and mental health care in “Learning to Cope When Mental Health Care Seems Out of Touch,” and went mushing with dogs and dog racers in “Adventure, Trail Snacks and Goofiness: Stories from the Dog-Musher’s Journal.”
On the beer beat, Mark produced “Does Selling Out Make A Difference You Can Taste? and "Fire, Hops and Beer Wagons: The Beer History of Milwaukee." And Mark took us inside a video game world he created himself in “There’s No Pandemic in Animal Crossing.”
Thank you Mark for sharing your worlds with us, and with TTBOOK listeners and readers. We’ll miss you.
– Shannon