Hello again,

I’m delighted to start this newsletter with the news that On Point’s series Smarter Health: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of American Health Care has won first place in the American Health Care Journalists Association’s 2022 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, specifically in the audio reporting (large division) category. As you know, On Point covers a diverse array of topics, so to have the nation’s most knowledgeable healthcare journalists — experts in their field — single out On Point feels especially rewarding. It’s also quite flattering to be in some pretty esteemed company as ProPublica, The New Yorker, the San Francisco Chronicle, and yes public radio stations WWNO and WRKF, who jointly won in the small division. Congrats to you!

This is the fifth journalism award that On Point has received since adopting its one-hour format two years ago. And I think that speaks volumes about the editorial ambition of On Point and the value we bring to our listeners’ understanding of the complex world we live in.

To bring the series to fruition, the entire On Point team stepped up so that senior editor Dorey Scheimer could be relieved of her day-to-day, and week-to-week duties. She spent three months researching and building contacts, persuading reluctant contributors the value of telling their important story. Working closely with our host Meghna Chakrabarti and sound designer Tim Skoog, Dorey put together this remarkable four-part series into how artificial intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing the healthcare industry. And as is our signature, the voices of those with lived experience, and you the patient, were placed front and center.

One of the things that always strikes people who know anything about how daily shows like On Point are put together, is that each of our producers has a week, more-or-less, to produce each show. This means they get the opportunity to approach their show topic like a reporter, to do original reporting, and engage deeply with their subject. That is true not just for On Point’s series but for every episode.

Looking ahead, the On Point team is already hard at work on our next ambitious series which will explore what some regard as the defining political current in the world today: populism. Over the course of a week, our journey will take us from Oshkosh to Amazonia, from the turn-of-the 20th century’s William Jennings Bryan, to Donald Trump in the 21st century. You can be assured of some highly relevant, nuanced conversations as we explore populism’s global reach, its authoritarian risk, and its democratic promise. Look out for it starting Monday April 10.

Let’s keep making sense of the world …. Together.

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point