Twelfth national season of “Story in the Public Square” to premiere Jan. 2024
“Story in the Public Square,” the six-time Telly Award-winning series from the Pell Center at Salve Regina, will premiere its 12th national season on public television on Jan. 1, 2024, via the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).
The new season will feature 24 new, 30-minute episodes and a diverse array of guests who either study or tell stories that shape the public’s understanding of issues that matter in public life today.
The show continues to benefit from the longstanding creative collaboration between hosts Jim Ludes, executive director of the Pell Center, and G. Wayne Miller, director of the Pell Center’s Ocean State Stories initiative.
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to share these stories and storytellers with our audience,” said Ludes. “We sit down with real greats and recognize the incredible privilege of being invited into people’s homes each week for conversations that both inspire and inform.”
“Story in the Public Square” delivers new perspectives from distinguished, diverse guests who offer audiences opportunities to connect with inspiring stories.
Journalists, filmmakers, editorial cartoonists, scientists, musicians, advocates, bestselling fiction and non-fiction authors, poets, academics, still photographers, physicians, public health experts, actors and Pulitzer-Prize winners make the big issues of the day accessible with each weekly episode.
The show has continued to diversify its pool of guests since the pandemic thanks to technology to host them either virtually or in-studio at Rhode Island PBS.
Jim Ludes (right) and G. Wayne Miller (left)
“As always, we express our gratitude to our great audience, guests and crew at our flagship station, Rhode Island PBS, and at the Pell Center,” said Miller. “I am thrilled to begin our 12th national season.”
The series has been in production at Rhode Island PBS since January 2017 and is currently seen in more than 86 percent of the nation’s television markets with nearly 500 weekly broadcasts nationally. It has won Telly Awards for excellence in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018. The show is produced by the Pell Center at Salve Regina and presented by Rhode Island PBS via NETA.
The Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy is a think tank on Salve Regina’s campus in historic Newport, Rhode Island. Its programs on domestic and international issues are designed to generate new ideas, to expand public understanding of important issues and to help the public and its leaders make better decisions. Dedicated to honoring Sen. Claiborne Pell’s legacy, the center promotes American engagement in the world, effective government at home and civic participation by all Americans.
The National Educational Telecommunications Association is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Since 1967, NETA’s reason for existing has been to connect public television people and ideas by providing quality programming, educational resources, professional development, management support and national representation.
