Kennedy : You know it’s part of that goal that, as we're researching stories and looking at what we want to do on the show, we ask, “How many different opinions are there?” There are more than two to most stories. How many different spaces are people caring about this issue, talking about this issue? And then we figure out who we think is the best, most respectful person to provide that conversation for us, live on TV. Then we hand the live conversation over to our longtime hosts and trusted journalists, Eric Eskola and Cathy Wurzer, who are experts at getting people to share their perspectives with each other and the audience. “Almanac” has had some memorable interviews and segments over the years. Are there any that stand out to you personally or that you feel captured the spirit of the show? Kennedy : Oh, there are so many to choose from. How about a few favorite guests or topics over the years? Honestly, one of my all-time favorite guests on the show is Kate DiCamillo. She's a children's author. She has been a delightful regular guest on our show for more than half of its run. There was this author who happened to live in Minnesota, who won a Newberry Award more than 20 years ago, and we invited her on and she was the most delightful guest. I'm also really proud of all the debates we've done over the years. We have hosted more live debates than anybody else in broadcast in our state – and I'm proud of those because they're hard to pull off. It's hard to get candidates to say yes increasingly, but it's also just hard to figure out that dance of doing it. A memorable debate moment that many people think of when they think of “Almanac” debates happened decades ago, when Rudy Boschwitz and Paul Wellstone were running against each other, and they literally ended up pointing at each other over Eric. That was a feisty moment, but an interesting one, too. How has the audience responded to “Almanac's” commitment to showcasing diverse perspectives? Do you think this approach has impacted public dialogue in Minnesota?
positive, like they tell us “I learned something about either my own community that I didn't know about, or community in a different part of the state and it helped me understand something that isn't my life experience.” Overall, I think it's been really great. It's been wonderful to be able to do more reporting from Greater Minnesota in the last 6 to 7 years with the addition of Kaomi Lee to our staff and that has also been a nice way to connect our viewers around each corner of the state. Mary Lahammer has also had the ability to increase her political reporting over time. She's been with us for more than 25 years of the show, and early on, it wasn't as possible to do that. The other thing that's really nice for us is, you know, politics really still is our bread and butter, and increasingly our state legislature reflects the diversity in our state more than it ever has. And that has given us a world of possibilities because part of what we do is to reflect on who is making decisions that affect everybody's lives. As you celebrate this milestone, what are your hopes for the future of “Almanac,” and how do you envision the show continuing to serve Minnesota in the years ahead? In some ways, the answer is almost too simple: I want us just to keep doing what we're doing, but part of that is because we've worked so hard at evolving. I think if you look at a show from the first season and a show from last week, there are a lot of similarities, but we've also evolved as our state has evolved and as technology has evolved as our staff has evolved. But one of the things that I always hope we can do more of is provide more stories from around the state to all of our viewers. So that's one of the things I hope to do. I hope we can continue to elevate stories. It's my hope that we can continue to reflect a changing, growing, thoughtful community that we serve, and remain a trusted source of information for them. That’s why we work so hard at providing as much balanced and unbiased information as we can, because our viewers trust us and they keep coming back because of it.
Kennedy : We do a yearly survey and ask our viewers about that and, increasingly, the answers are really
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