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Here in Cleveland, I host a daily call-in show, and the topics really run the gamut. One day we’re discussing statewide education policy, and the next we’re talking about why our local football team is so miserable. This week, we spent the hour on Wednesday without a topic—instead, we invited listeners to call in or email to tell us what they think we should be covering on the show and in our local news coverage. What we heard was thrilling and inspiring.

People told us they’d like to hear more about scientific research coming out of our region, more analysis of how politicians use events to sell otherwise unpopular policies and wars, more coverage of economic development (this one came up several times Wednesday, and it tends to come up very often in Rust Belt cities like Cleveland), public education and higher education, the local Iraqi immigrant community, changes to voting procedures, life in the vast and important religious middle, civil rights for gays, and… I could go on. The remarkable and wonderful thing about the show was this: Every single one of the suggestions was extremely worthwhile. My editor and I were talking afterwards and thinking how great it would be if we had twenty or thirty reporters on staff to assign to each of these stories and topics.

Obviously and somewhat shamelessly, it was a very WHYS sort of show. This kind of community dialogue—here in Cleveland or around the world—are a real honor to moderate. I’m looking forward to speaking with you all on Friday.

Dan