Thirty years ago, To the Best of Our Knowledge aired its very first show on Wisconsin Public Radio. We weren’t a national show yet — that came two years later. WPR’s former general manager Jack Mitchell originally dreamed up the idea for TTBOOK. He had in mind a concept he called “academic journalism,” though no one really knew what that meant, and we quickly modified the idea. But this core concept — that we weren’t going to be afraid to do a brainy and quirky radio show — is still an elemental part of our DNA. We’ve experimented with a lot of production techniques over the years, and I’m proud to say that the creativity of our staff has always been the engine that drives TTBOOK. One of our proudest moments was winning a Peabody Award in 2005.
Anne and Steve in studio
Anne Strainchamps and I produced that first show thirty years ago. To be honest, it wasn’t that good. Thankfully, we’ve worked with a lot of truly wonderful producers, interviewers, editors and engineers over the years who keep making the show better. Charles Monroe-Kane, Joe Hardtke, Mark Riechers, Shannon Henry Kleiber and Angelo Bautista round out our current staff.
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TTBOOK staff, 1996
TTBOOK staff, 2012
TTBOOK staff, 2020.
We’ve never been a current events show — there are plenty of other great public radio shows that cover this territory - but we like to probe the deeper issues and ideas that shape today’s news. More recently, we’ve also felt a certain amount of news fatigue, so we’ve focused on shows with a sense of wonder and what we call “intelligent optimism.”
Thirty years is a long time, but we keep experimenting and evolving. We’re so glad you’ve stayed with us over the years — or perhaps you’ve recently discovered us.
Thank you for joining us on this ride!
—Steve
Anne and Steve working remotely in Vermont, 2020.