In May, Scott Finn joined VPR as President & CEO after Robin Turnau stepped down from the role after a 29-year career at VPR, including the last nine years as president & CEO.

You listen to us, so we should make a special effort to listen to you. That was the idea behind VPR’s Tell Me More Tour, to travel the state with no agenda — just a determination to listen to whatever you have to say. Over four months in 2018, we met more than 700 people at events in every county of the state. Nearly the entire VPR staff attended at least one event, where we asked three questions: What’s special about where you live? What issues are important to you? And how can VPR can serve you better? While every event was unique, as we reported out on what we learned we were surprised at how many themes resonated across the state. The tour is helping us shape our work into 2019 and beyond, and we’re working to continue the listening beyond the tour, and make it something we incorporate into our daily lives.

In May, trumpeter, percussionist, composer, arranger and educator Ray Vega joined VPR as the new host of Friday Night Jazz. He’s a senior lecturer at The University of Vermont and currently performs with The Ray Vega Latin Jazz Sextet, The Ray Vega Quartet and The New York Latin Jazz All-Stars. In September, VPR hosted a raucous Friday Night Jazz Pledge Party. Ray performed live at VPR with his Latin Jazz Sextet, with host Jane Lindholm and a live audience. The special broadcast was part of our September membership drive.

Timeline: Elements is an educational series of podcasts based on the four elements of antiquity – fire, water, earth and air. VPR Classical Host and Timeline Producer James Stewart dove into music, history, art, science and philosophy, drawing connections from different disciplines and time periods.

VPR collaborated with the Vermont Foodbank again in 2018 on Giving Tuesday. The one-day campaign helped raise important funds for public media in Vermont while also helping to serve the mission of the Vermont Foodbank. Overall, VPR heard from 1,867 contributors, which provided 22,404 meals to Vermont families who need a leg up.

“We love VPR and the food shelf. Food insecurity could happen to anyone – friends, neighbors, even our family. We are thankful there are organizations and Vermonters that can help and proud to be part of that community!” – Jen and Barry, Hinesburg

Drivers in Vermont paid over $4 million in traffic fines in 2017. In the spring, investigative reporter Emily Corwin looked into where police issue the most speeding tickets in Vermont. She gathered data statewide and then visited the three towns of Mount Tabor, Plymouth and Bridgewater. The series explored how speeding tickets are issued and processed in Vermont and where the money goes. The data analysis and on-air reports created greater awareness among Vermonters as to variations in enforcement from town to town: the week the series was published, VPR’s website received 32 percent more traffic than it received the same week the prior year.

As part of its Campaign 2018 coverage, VPR produced interviews with all candidates for statewide office during Morning Edition, Vermont Edition and All Things Considered.

One of the key takeaways from the VPR – Vermont PBS Poll was that about a fifth of respondents said they were unsure of who they’d vote for in a variety of the statewide races. Knowing not everyone has the time and resources to follow along for months, VPR’s last-minute Time To Vote guide provided a quick look at some of VPR’s Campaign 2018 coverage, repackaged for last-minute reading before Election Day.

“I absolutely LOVED the “Vermonters: Are You Ready to Vote?” guide. Thank you so much! It was so well done and incredibly helpful to me to find this “quick look” at VPR’s campaign 2018 coverage all in one place. I also listened to some of the interviews and think the interviewers did an excellent and impartial job of interviewing the candidates. I feel fortunate that VPR exists. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.” – Lucy

VPR began a new partnership with Vermont PBS that involved a variety of projects developed to provide increased and improved public service to a larger audience.

The first of those projects was the production of the VPR News Minute. The News Minute is weekly, 60-second look at top stories in the news on Thursdays just before the PBS NewsHour. The News Minute is also published on social media. The newscast is taped in VPR’s newsroom each week by Vermont PBS and is hosted by All Things Considered Host Henry Epp.

VPR and Vermont PBS also joined forces to commission two polls that measured Vermonters’ opinions of the candidates and issues in advance of the 2018 election. Coverage included analysis of top issues for Vermonters and name recognition of primary election candidates. The poll was discussed in an episode of Vermont Edition and was the focus of Vermont This Week on Vermont PBS. The joint collaboration brought increased public awareness to a larger audience about the issues of most importance to Vermonters.

In addition to extensive news coverage, the full results were released online, which allowed anyone to explore the polling data and other media organizations to parse and report on it, inspiring even more conversations around the state.

Finally, VPR and Vermont PBS collaborated to broadcast a series of four live candidate debates leading up to the General Election in November. The series was broadcast live on VPR and Vermont PBS, providing a larger statewide audience the opportunity to draw clear distinctions between candidates and help become well informed about their choices.

They Are Us is a seven-part special series about mental health in Vermont. Each episode highlighted first person stories from inside the state’s mental health care system, prompting significant feedback from our audience who told us the series hit home.

“I would like to congratulate Erica Heilman on a fantastic job putting together the 7-part series, “They Are Us” about mental illness in Vermont. I found each segment to be compelling and powerful in its message. It’s about time that mental illness is being pulled out of the shadows of stigma, and the deficits of the mental health system in Vermont exposed, so that more can be done to help the Vermonters among us who struggle every day with their illnesses.”

– Robin, Hanover NH

VPR continued to experiment with new ways to engage listeners through our Brave Little State journalism project. Brave Little State works to empower our audience by exploring questions about Vermont submitted and voted on by listeners, making our journalism more inclusive, more transparent and more fun. In 2018, listeners pushed us to answer difficult questions, such as “Why are there so many African-Americans incarcerated in Vermont?” The show also explored what happened with a Utah developer’s plan to build an eco-utopia for 20,000 people on 5,000 acres in four towns, the history of French-Canadian immigration in Vermont, what it’s like to work three jobs and answered an often-asked question about whether Vermont is really losing young people.

“I truly love the podcast Brave Little State! I am an educator that values incorporating place based content into my lessons, but I am new to Vermont. But the the questions covered let me learn about this great state, answering questions I have also wondered about myself!”

– Julie, Worcester

Brave Little State also won a national Edward R. Murrow award for Best News Documentary for its 2017 episode about the history of Vermont’s whiteness and stories from people of color about what it’s like to live here.

Why is fire orange? How was the universe created? Why do people get cancer? That’s just a handful of questions tackled in 2018 by But Why, VPR’s podcast for curious kids. For the bi-weekly podcast, kids are invited to record and send their questions, and Host Jane Lindholm and Producer Melody Bodette seek out the answers. To date, But Why has received questions from kids in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and 50 countries. But Why episodes have been used as educational tools in New York City public schools. Downloads of the show grew 82% in less than a year, ending the year averaging 200,000 downloads per month.

In 2018, But Why was part of the first “Mega Awesome Super Huge Wicked Fun Podcast Playdate”, a children’s podcast festival produced by Boston’s WBUR. But Why appeared before an audience of several hundred people and explored the world of owls and other birds. VPR is bringing the live show around Vermont in 2019.

“Our whole family LOVES the But Why podcast. We all learn new things from it and it’s so great to have a podcast with real kids voices and the content shaped by real kids questions rather than by adult ideas of what kids want.”