MARGE OSTROUSHKO has worked with notable producers, producing organizations, and programs for the past 25 years, earning the high praise of being described as “the producer’s producer.” She was associate producer for A Prairie Home Companion, worked five years as an independent consultant for This American Life, and served as the managing producer for Speaking of Faith; she also worked at PRI, overseeing new program development, including The Miles Davis Radio Project, Rabbit Ears Radio, Radio Kronos, The Writer’s Almanac, and Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth. As an independent consultant, marketing specialist, and producer, Ostroushko has forged close working relationships with many stations and program directors around the country as well as all of the national distribution/marketing organizations. In 2000, Minnesota Public Radio hired Ostroushko to develop an innovative program idea with a compelling new host. The result was Speaking of Faith, now a highly regarded weekly program, which has won numerous national awards. Ostroushko herself has won many honors, including two Peabody Awards (for Mississippi: River of Song and A Prairie Home Companion).

MARY BETH KIRCHNER is an independent radio producer and national programming consultant in Los Angeles, with an impressive history of developing new projects and series and working with an extensive list of talent. Kirchner started her own production company in 1993 after having served as national programming director for radio at WETA, Washington, D.C. Prior to that, she was executive producer for radio at the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Telecommunications. Kirchner was the decade-long executive producer of American Routes, a weekly two-hour music series based in New Orleans. She has also collaborated with the legendary radio dramatist Norman Corwin for the last decade. During her 25 years in public radio, she has worked with National Public Radio, Public Radio International, the Smithsonian Institution, the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, the BBC, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Asia Society, NHK in Japan, and ABC News Nightline, among many others. She has been honored with more than 50 national and international awards, including a Peabody Award, International Radio Festival Gold Medals, Columbia duPont Silver Baton, and the James Beard Award. She lives with her husband and young son in a close-knit neighborhood adjacent to Hollywood — where they have old-style summer block parties and go Christmas caroling.

EMILY BOTEIN is an independent radio producer based in New York. She helped launch PRI’s The Next Big Thing in 1999 and served as its senior producer. Since 2005, she has worked with a range of shows and institutions, including American Routes, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the Metropolitan Opera, National Public Radio, Nextbook.org, Studio 360, and Weekend America. Before radio, Botein worked for seven years on local and national folklore programming initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution, the Brooklyn Arts Council, and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance.

BEN SHAPIRO has been producing and editing programs and series for public radio for more than 20 years. His projects and collaborations are heard regularly on NPR and PRI stations and have received the Peabody, Dupont, Third Coast, and Foreign Press awards. He is also an Emmy Award-winning documentary television producer. Shapiro's neighborhood, New York's Lower East Side, was a destination for millions who came to America seeking a Promised Land. With the right resources and a commitment to make the neighborhood more livable for all its residents, it might actually live up to long-held expectations.

JAMES CHASE spent a decade working in New York City's cable television and advertising world. He had to evacuate in the wake of September 11, 2001, and committed to doing something with his life that would lead to a better society. Chase started volunteering part time as communications director for Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx). He began working full time to apply effective messaging to Majora Carter's groundbreaking work in the field of green-collar job training, development, and policy. Chase works with the Majora Carter Group and continues to manage Majora's expanding radio and TV presence. James lives in the South Bronx. He has also lived on a 43-foot sailboat during a six-month crossing of the Pacific.

EMILY TORGRIMSON first fell for radio while filling the 2–4 a.m. shift on her college radio station. She survived that dark and groggy period, and has since worked on environmental stories with PRI's Living on Earth and national documentaries with American RadioWorks. Torgrimson has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Boston University. She lives in Minneapolis, where you can find her paddling her beater canoe on the Mississippi River and cooking monthly benefit dinners with friends.

SCOTT LIEBERS has a bachelor of science degree in music business from the University of Nebraska. He worked for 10 years as broadcast and recording engineer for Minnesota Public Radio, doing live broadcasts, music recording, and post production. Currently, he is an independent audio engineer for music recording and post production for long- and short-form documentary and other broadcast material. He enjoys living in an almost remote area away from the bustle and congestion of the city. Liebers grew up in the farmland of Nebraska, and naturally he feels more at home in a rural setting. He and his neighbors have children about the same age and often have neighborhood gatherings, including picnics or getting together to watch football games.

POSEY GRUENER went to the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies to study writing — and fell in love with radio, instead. In the time since, she has worked for StoryCorps, The Moth, and Atlantic Public Media. Originally a Seattleite, Posey now lives in Brooklyn. She’s still trying to figure out which is better: driving over the Aurora Bridge and watching the sun set behind the Olympic Mountains, or riding the B train over the Manhattan Bridge and watching the tugboats chug up and down the East River.