Donning the Public Media Lab Coat

Last week I met up with Trent, my former colleague and now senior editor at On Being (née Speaking of Faith). It was good to catch up, and in the process I learned that they’d hired a new associate producer — none other than my former MPR bus buddy Susan Leem (at one point we shared two bus lines). Looks like she’s wasted no time getting going:

Who isn’t testing a theory, a joke, or a product on the reactions of the people they meet, read about, or hear on the radio? Finding public radio in my small town in the deep South was like finding a secret hidden laboratory. And I still feel like I’m slipping on that imaginary white lab coat when I tune in.

A great first post, read the rest on the Being blog.

So, as some of you already read when I accidentally leaked my own blog post, my last day at Speaking of Faith was last week. Here’s an excerpt from the completed post on SOF’s blog:

But, the question remains how to say goodbye? Sometimes the best thing to do is look to those you admire. Included above is the last panel from the last comic strip of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes. It doesn’t exactly say goodbye, which is perhaps part of why I love it.

Apparently leaving your to job to pursue other adventures is the thing to do these days (go Colin!), and I’m not about to miss out in the fun — or the uncertainty and anxiety that comes with it. So what now?

Well after finishing up work last week in D.C. I bussed it up to New York City for a few days, which is where I’ll be moving at the end of this Summer. Some friends and I will then begin work on the yet-to-be-pinned-down thing we’re calling The Notion Collective, and my lovely partner Ariel is also coming — to head to graduate school. All very exciting news, of course!

But in the meantime, I’ll be in the Twin Cities doing what I’ve been doing so far. MNKINO is still up an running (in fact our next screening is next week), and we have a few exciting things planned for the WBSC this summer.

And, of course, I’ll also be enjoying spring/summer in the Twin Cities. So who wants to go to the beach?

Note: Crap, this is what happens when you attempt to draft blog posts on vacation — forgetting to hit “draft.” Stay tuned.

Update: You can now read the completed post on Speaking of Faith’s blog.

Being Serbian, I never learned to hate the Croats, as many did. I rather felt sympathy as a Croatian town waved goodbye to us in flames. In 1995, Croatia successfully executed their plans. Ethnic cleansing. We left our homeland, my heaven on earth.

We’ve been more actively seeking submissions for the Speaking of Faith blog, and so far the results have been wonderful. Check out this stunning photo essay “Attachment and Destruction” by Goran Vrcel.