Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Bill Nigut loves talking with people about politics.

The outreach began serendipitously this spring, inspired by a coffee-drinking cartoon cat named Hugo.

Meet a group of loyal NPR listeners who don't get talked about often.

A session at the Public Radio Program Directors conference guided stations on finding their “podcast superpower.”

“Most of what we are going to end up improving will be our local coverage or our regional coverage, which then will hopefully roll up to the really brilliant, insightful, informed national coverage,” Oreskes said.

CPB is backing development of the new “Urban Alternative” format and looking for three stations to start airing it this year.

An attendee at the Public Radio Program Directors Conference asked whether public media should build its own music-streaming platform similar to Spotify and Pandora.

New interviews with playwrights, authors and poets will be paired with previously unreleased conversations from the series’ 30-year archives.

“It’s not that they devalue national or international news from NPR or PRI, but the difference-maker for them is local,” said a researcher.

A public radio story about migration helped Nandini Sen feel connected to the U.S. and led to her career in public media.

As more consumers buy smart speakers, stations are beginning to explore how they might reach new audiences with the technology.

“There’s this connection between the family images that we choose to keep and the feeling attached to them."