Greetings,

“I will not tell you what’s going to happen next. No one can tell you what’s going to happen next. If they do tell you, they’re lying to you.” Those were the words of Evan McMorris-Santoro on On Point on August 23rd, less than 24 hours after Kamala Harris’ speech wrapping up the Democratic National Convention. McMorris-Santoro is a veteran politics reporter, but it doesn’t take a journalist with McMorris-Santoro’s pedigree to come up with that observation. Yet somehow, after July 2024, those words stood out to me in bold as rarely having been more salient.

I’m sure we can all recall where we were on the evening of July 13 when shots rang out at a Donald Trump campaign in Butler, Pennsylvania, and we heard that a gunman had attempted to assassinate the former president. My reason for noting that is that I’m pretty certain you were not at work – at least I hope you weren’t – but work is what many of us got right down to. I had just gotten home from a blissfully unplugged day trip to Rhode Island when my phone pinged with a group text from Meghna to me, our senior editor, Dorey Scheimer, and the producer for Monday’s show, Claire Donnelly, “Hi all. I think we need to reconsider Monday’s show.” Didn’t we just!

We decided to group on Zoom early the next morning. I have written in these missives before about how On Point prioritizes relevancy over reaction in our approach to the conventional news cycle and breaking news. So those twelve or so hours would give us time to take in all the coverage we could and think of how we could add value for our listeners to their understanding of this dramatic story.

We had previously been talking about developing an episode of On Point looking into the normalization of violent political rhetoric in the US over the past decade, and here we had what appeared to be an actual act of political violence. When we met from our respective homes the next morning, we were all thinking along the same lines. We needed to try to know as much as we could about what had happened in that field in Pennsylvania, but we also wanted to try to understand how violent political speech had grown and how that connected with actual acts of violence. Minutes later, Dorey had booked Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI. Meghna and Claire divied up the remaining guests we were aiming for, while I went about letting our Syndication team know that our plans were changing and promos should be pulled, re-written and Content Depot updated.

We regrouped later that afternoon to solve what I call, ‘the good problem’ — too many guests. As we reviewed what each guest would cover we whittled it down to a strong four. In addition to Figliuzzi, who didn’t pull his punches about what he regarded as Secret Service failure, we added on the ground reporting from Ryan Deto of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Anita Kumar of Politico who was at the Republican National Convention just getting underway in Milwaukee, and Robert Pape at the University of Chicago, a long-time researcher into American attitudes towards politically violent rhetoric and political violence.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s important to us that On Point is a show that adds value and this is especially true when one story is dominating everything we are reading, seeing and hearing. And I’d like to think that when it comes to our show that Monday this listener who emailed us speaks for many: “I am in the car having a driveway moment with this episode. I have listened to so many interviews and segments on the attempted assassination this weekend…this is by far the best. You really hold everyone accountable and the reporter and other guests were fantastic.”

So as we look at the remaining days between now and November – and the days after – we are planning for the known. As I write, one of our producers is taking a close look at one of the counties in Pennsylvania that might determine the outcome of this election, another is looking for swing voters, a third has her sights set on Wisconsin where we are taking the show on the road in mid-October.

But with those words of Evan McMorris-Santoro in mind, and those two weekends in July when someone tried to assassinate a presumptive nominee and another dropped out of the race, we are also very aware that while there’ve been some big surprises in this campaign to date, others will surely come. Here’s looking at you October!

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point

Greetings,

My (not exactly) quarterly newsletter from the On Point EP’s desk is dropping into your inbox a little later than intended because I have been waiting for the ink to dry on a really exciting new editorial partnership that I want to share with you. More on that in a moment.

Before that, more exciting news to share with you. First we were delighted to learn that in the latest Nielson audience survey (Fall 2023), On Point’s total national audience (cume) went up by a whopping 49% to more than 2.1 million weekly listeners. That audience growth is primarily driven by carriage, meaning that more stations are choosing to add On Point to their schedules. On Point is now on more stations than ever in the show’s history and that involves choices you have made. We know such decisions are not taken lightly — Meghna, me and all of us at On Point are hugely grateful for the trust you have taken in On Point to deliver compelling stories and conversations for your audience.

And so it’s doubly gratifying that the kind of editorial choices we make at On Point, the kind that we think make us distinct, have again been recognised by the RTDNA. If you haven’t heard already, On Point is the 2024 recipient of a Regional Murrow award for best news documentary. In the winning episode of On Point, “The border crisis arrives in Chicago,” we brought national attention to how the border crisis has been impacting historically blue Chicago, as the city planned to house and care for migrants being bused from the border in historically Black neighborhoods. The episode demonstrated, with passionate but informed voices, how the so-called crisis at the southern border is impacting communities far away and pitting neighbor against neighbor.

It is the fourth straight year that On Point has won a Murrow award in the best news documentary category. That would be a huge achievement for any show, let alone one that goes to air five days a week as a daily, live show. I think it speaks to the value of On Point, with its premium on depth and understanding of complex stories, especially when they involve a breakdown in public trust.

And maybe that is something the folks at the investigative journalism website ProPublica recognized when they reached out to us to ask if we would consider producing some episodes of On Point shaped by their original journalism. We were intrigued by the shared idea of crafting jointly produced editions of On Point that could go beyond just interviewing their reporters. After a little deliberation about what that might look like and what it would take, of course we said yes. This is the editorial partnership — which will run until the end of the year — that I have been itching to tell you about. We have hired a full-time dedicated producer, Katelyn Harrop, who will work to craft these new special episodes of On Point. Katelyn started just this week and I think it’s fair to say that she, On Point and ProPublica are enthusiastic for the potential of this partnership to deliver truly outstanding journalism for your listeners

One other thing I should mention before I sign off – and with summer vacations right around the corner! We heard from many enthusiastic listeners last year about how much they enjoyed and appreciated our Week of Wonder in which we let awe inspire us. It was the perfect summer break listening people were hungry for…so we’re doing it again. We’re working now to bring you a week of shows dedicated to exploring what captivates our mind, illuminates our humanity and both delights and confounds us. It might just be the break we all need, whether or not we are actually on vacation. Listen out for that starting July 22.

And I hope that’s not the only break you get this summer.

Best wishes from all of us at On Point,Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point

Greetings,
At On Point we relish digging deeper into stories. It’s an opportunity that our format of one topic per hour uniquely offers in weekday programming. And that’s why I’m excited to start this newsletter with details about an upcoming series that is about digging deeper both figuratively and literally.

It’s inspired by the Biden administration’s push to tackle climate change by speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy technologies. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law 18 months ago, boosted investment in the production of electric vehicles across the US. The Administration is also spending billions of dollars to boost domestic production of materials like lithium and nickel, essential components in the batteries that will power those EVs.

We are going to spend a week’s worth of shows telling the story of some of the minerals and elements essential to the production of those batteries and the motors that will power the clean energy future – where they come from, how we get them, how we use them, and of course the environmental and humanitarian challenges that come along with them.

Part One will tell the story of lithium. We’ll learn why the US has a quarter of the world’s lithium deposits but produces just 3% of the world’s supply, how all that could be about to change, and what that could mean for the community of Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Part Two takes us to a copper mine in South Africa where we find out about the environmental devastation that mining has caused and what can be done to make mining less destructive.

In Part Three, we turn our attention to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has more cobalt deposits than the rest of the word combined. Hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, work in these mines in what is effectively modern day slavery. We will hear first-hand from a mine-worker leading a grassroots movement to reform conditions.

Part Four takes us to Indonesia which now produces more than half of the world’s nickel and hopes to be the Saudi Arabia of the electric age, raising the living standards of tens of millions of its citizens. But can it escape China’s clutches?

The week wraps up by returning to the US to look at the challenges the US faces in boosting domestic mineral production and what it can do to break China’s dominance in the production of these battery-grade minerals.

We’re calling the series Elements of Energy: Mining for a Green Future. It will run the week of March 11, Monday through Friday. As you know these special series are a signature element of On Point’s programming and a demonstration of the editorial ambition we deliver for you and, most importantly, your listeners.

Before I sign off, as excited as I am to share our upcoming series plans with you, I can’t ignore the fact that this is 2024 and later this year there will be a hugely consequential election — one that may determine the future path of American democracy. Please know that we at On Point will waste no time horse-race tracking of who’s up or down each day. In our signature deep dive full-hour conversations On Point will explore the fragility of our democracy, the seen and unseen forces shaping that, and what is really at stake in this election. Expect to hear complexity and nuance.

More on that in my next newsletter. Thanks for reading this far!

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point

Greetings,

As we approach Thanksgiving it seems like an appropriate time to give my thanks to you for giving On Point a home on your schedule — and a special thanks to the more than 60 stations who have picked up On Point this year. And of course, thanks to all your listeners who are turning to On Point and making us part of their listening day. We were delighted to see that according to Nielsen, even accounting for carriage changes, our national audience has continued to grow.

That alone should be cause for celebration but I’m finding it hard to be in a celebratory mood. And I know I’m not alone. The terrible events in Israel and Gaza that have echoed around the world on and since October 7th have left many of us feeling a little emotionally fragile, even though most of us sit in relative safety thousands of miles away.

I know from long experience working on daily news shows that even producing interviews on topics like the war between Israel and Hamas can take its mental toll. There’s also the stress and challenge of covering a story about which many of our listeners are deeply polarized and asking tough questions is all too easily seen as taking a side or ignoring someone’s truth. Our team has had long, deep conversations — some in person, others over Slack — to talk about the people who we should be hearing from, the stories we need to hear and the questions we should be asking, that will reveal the depth, nuance, and complexity of the human experience that is all too often seen in binary terms.

We see those binary perspectives reflected in emails we receive from listeners. I have no doubt you are seeing this too. The On Point team has been struck by how our efforts to go deep, taking the opportunity we have with an hour to explore one topic, has resonated with many listeners.

For example, after our October 19 episode featuring a cross-spectrum panel of Jewish Americans, one listener wrote to us to express how, as a Jewish American, their feelings were equally “as complex and even conflicted” as our guests. They “appreciated feeling less alone in what (they’re) personally experiencing. As well as learning about other viewpoints.” And, they added, they were looking forward to the upcoming panel of Palestinian Americans.

After that one, another listener wrote to tell us how she had heard something she “thought was impossible in the United States – “Palestinian Americans speaking as Palestinians” She went on to write “I had to pull into the breakdown lane and cry…. there is simply no way for the American public to understand the depth of this conflict and the possibilities for its resolution without hearing both people’s voices, understanding their national narratives, and feeling their collective pain.”

And after our episode exploring the language and labels that has so often been uttered in such conflicts – genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity – one listener wrote to say that they “believe that many intelligent listeners (whether given to sympathy for Hamas or Israel) will likely come away with feeling that the “guilty” case of the “other” party has been forwarded — combined with a lingering sense that perhaps their own “side” has not quite been pronounced “innocent” either. This outcome is probably the best evidence of outstanding journalism in addressing this very serious, fraught, complex challenge confronting nations — and individuals.”

I’m grateful for the compliment and I truly believe that even in our polarized world ‘outstanding journalism’, or even just ‘journalism,’ has the power to broaden all our perspectives and even change minds. I know we’re all in that together.
Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point

Greetings,

I hope you have been having a fine summer and have been able to take some time off to get away from this relentless news cycle, to a lake or the ocean or your favorite place to decompress. At On Point, we’ll take a week off from our live show production next week and what we have planned for that week we hope will be a much needed treat for your listeners. More on that later.

But first I want to share the news that On Point is now heard on more public radio stations than ever before. APM tells me that as of June 30th On Point was carried on 342 public radio stations. The last two digits seemed familiar. A quick check confirmed that since being recast as a single topic conversation, guided by Meghna Chakrabarti, over the course of one hour, back in October 2020, On Point has picked up an even 100 stations! We could not be more delighted nor honored. But that nice round number hasn’t lasted long, because by the time you read this, it will be 101 thanks to WUWM. After trying out various shows and soliciting feedback from its listeners, we’re honored that Milwaukee selected On Point for its weekday schedule. The depth we bring to each show was a signature element from the start — and as On Point has evolved from one driven by the daily news agenda, we have also worked to ensure a breadth of topics across the week. I was speaking recently with the editor in chief of a national publication who told me how much he loved the range of topics we cover. As he put it, “Things that interest you which are consequential.” And that pretty much sums it up. With just five topics or stories each week, we get to be choosy. It does have to interest us. It does have to be consequential. It does have to be something that we can advance over the course of an hour that other shows with different formats and cadences could not.

And that means we give a lot of thought to how On Point connects to the news cycle. Many stations don’t broadcast us live at 10 a.m. Eastern. It’s important that we are just as relevant to people who hear us at 2 p.m. or 7 p.m. as we are to those who listen at 10 a.m. Our mantra is that On Point prioritizes being news relevant, over news reactive. Whether listeners have heard All Things Considered followed by Morning Edition, or Morning Edition followed by All Things Considered it’s important that we are distinctive and additive in our listeners’ lives, not repetitive. I’m looking forward to diving into this topic further at the upcoming Public Radio Content Conference in Philadelphia where I’ll be moderating a panel on how local talk shows define their editorial identity and relationship with the daily news cycle. Joining me on the panel will be WUNC Program Director, Terry Gildea, and Catie Talarski, Senior Director of Storytelling and Radio Programming at Connecticut Public. If the prep call we had last week is anything to go by, it’ll be a fascinating conversation! And if you’re attending the Content Conference in person, I really hope you will also be able to join us at the On Point breakfast earlier the same day. Look out for an invite to that from APM. I hope to see you there!

And before I sign off, that much needed treat for your listeners when On Point takes a week off from live production next week is something we are calling On Point’s Week of Wonder. It’s a curation of five shows from the past year exploring and reveling in the wonder of the world we live in. From the transformational power of awe to the healing power of music. It might just be the audio tonic for our times.

Hope to see you in Philly!

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point

Hello again,

In late April, an episode of On Point focused on an effort underway in Texas to strike down the 

preventive care provision in the Affordable Care Act. Since the act was signed into law in 2010, 

many preventive care screenings have been free of charge. But in April a federal judge in Texas 

ruled that the preventive care provision of the ACA is unlawful for those with private insurance. 
 

We spent that episode exploring the people and the motivations behind that effort — one that 

could impact 150 million Americans. If you didn’t hear it, you might not have even heard of the 

case; it hasn’t received prominent media attention. On Point Host Meghna Chakrabarti asked 

University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley, an expert on health law, what he thinks is 

behind that. “First of all, it’s complicated,” he replied. And that, at On Point, is our sweet spot. 
 

When there’s a topic that, in the words of Professor Bagley, is a “big deal” and we should “be 

taking this litigation seriously,” but isn’t getting the attention it deserves because of its complexity 

— and it can’t be encapsulated in a four and a half minute piece, a brief interview or a snappy 

sound bite — that’s where On Point can deliver. We offer something unique to public radio 

listeners who are hungry for rich, meaningful conversations and deep dives on a single topic 

each weekday. 
 

Listeners tell us that the inclination to lean into complexity and help guide the listener to 

understanding, is something they value. I also think it’s a big reason why On Point has earned 

seven journalism awards in the past two years alone. 
 

Our most recent honors are two Gracies from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation. The 

On Point episode, An Invisible Epidemic: Survivors of domestic violence on living with traumatic 

brain injury, was honored in the Investigative Feature Category and Behind the decades-long 

fight to close the ‘boyfriend loophole’ won in the Public Affairs category for nationally syndicated 

non-commercial radio. Not surprisingly, we are proud that our efforts to push the boundaries of 

how a show like On Point can make an impact are being recognized by our professional peers. 

But, frankly, we are even more gratified by the recognition that we get from listeners. 

Immediately following the traumatic brain injury show we received multiple messages from 

women, survivors of domestic violence, who told us that they had heard their own story being 

told. One wrote, “This show helped me to finally end the ongoing questions of self-doubt and 

blame that have haunted me for 65 years.” 
 

And it’s not just awards that On Point has been picking up recently — we’ve also been picking 

up new stations, so if you’re receiving this newsletter for the first time because you have 

recently added On Point to your schedule, we send our profound thanks. I know that with The 

Takeaway ending its run, consequent schedule changes are not taken lightly. We are truly 

energized by the opportunity to share our work with your listeners. 
 

Jonathan Dyer

Executive Producer, On Point

Congratulations to On Point! We’re thrilled to share On Point’s latest honors: two wins at the Gracies.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation has announced that On Point is being honored with Gracie Awards this year in two different categories.

On Point episodes An Invisible Epidemic: Survivors of domestic violence on living with traumatic brain injury is honored in the Investigative Feature Category and Behind the decades-long fight to close the ‘boyfriend loophole’ won in the Public Affairs category for nationally syndicated non-commercial radio.

Both episodes shine a light on under-reported stories that we at On Point believe are essential to tell. It’s gratifying to be recognized by our peers in journalism and, we think, speaks to the value that On Point brings our listeners.

It’s the second year in a row that On Point has appeared on the Gracie’s list of winners and brings the show’s awards tally to seven (five national, two regional) in just the first two years of its new one-hour-one-topic format, a rare and remarkable achievement.

Since 1951 the Gracies have been recognizing individual achievement and exemplary programming created by, for and about women in news and entertainment.

Congratulations again!

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

Hello again,

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, let me start by thanking you for bringing On Point to your listeners. Thanks also to all of you who attended the On Point breakfast that Meghna and I hosted at this year’s Public Radio Content Conference in New Orleans. It was great to meet so many of you in person and hear how On Point is connecting with your audiences. The audience is at the heart of everything we do — and Meghna and I spoke about how we place a premium on reflecting the lived experiences of our listeners and the role of authentic audience engagement in our journalism.

Six months into the pandemic, in October 2020, we did an episode about how the pandemic-induced recession was particularly affecting women. At the time it had been dubbed a she-cession. Experts were saying that a decade’s worth of economic advancement for women in the workforce had been lost. We asked listeners to call into our voicemail line with their stories of how the she-cession had affected them, and they responded in abundance. Now, a recent study by Harvard labor economist Claudia Goldin reveals that the economic impact of the recession on women was not as clear-cut as the buzzword made it out to be. We have been able to go back to those listeners who shared their she-cession experiences with us to, effectively, report the story for 2022. Just before I sat down to write this letter, On Point’s Senior Editor, Dorey Scheimer, was sharing some of their stories with me, including a heartwarming tale from a woman who was really struggling last time we spoke with her. I know this show will be compelling because our listeners helped make it that way.

We love hearing from the audience, but asked ourselves if phone calls and voicemails felt a bit too old school, especially for millennial and Gen Z listeners? So we worked with the folks at VoxPop to develop a custom On Point app that alerts listeners when we need their help. After many tweaks and tests the likes of which would make Boeing proud, I’m delighted to say the On Point app is finally ready and fans are downloading it from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app makes it easy for people to record with just the click of a button and then share their story with us. I’m excited to see how it engages audiences beyond the daily show in a way that contributes to it.

We’re going to be using the app to invite listeners to share their stories for our upcoming series. It’s on the topic of trust and is a five-parter rolling out Monday through Friday next week (Nov. 28 – Dec. 2). Trust is a bond that holds everything from families to entire nations together but it seems like mistrust is everywhere from social media to politics to familial relationships.

Essential Trust: What Trust Is, Why We Need It, and What Happens When It’s Lost will explore how trust is created in the neural networks of an individual human brain, and then scaled up to the trust we have in people, institutions and societies at large. We’ll investigate what makes our capacity to trust uniquely precious, uniquely human, and worthy of our protection. We’ll also make the series available as a stand-alone offering in the new year. I think you’ll find it true to our mission to make sense of the world – together.

Jonathan Dyer
Executive Producer, On Point