Wyoming Information from Wyoming Personalities
Wyoming Chronicle
The Wyoming Chronicle is an innovative weekly program of interviews with newsmakers, artists, innovative thinkers, and unique Wyoming personalities. The centerpiece of the show is quick-moving conversations between articulate guests and a rotating team of skilled interviewers, led by Executive Producer Geoff O’Gara. Guests will range from well-known figures like Sen. Al Simpson to a storytelling wrangler who gentles wild horses captured in the Red Desert. The interviews will be wrapped round with an introduction and close that puts the topic and guest in context for viewers, and relates the interview, when appropriate, to current events. Our aim is to make the Wyoming Chronicle a weekly ‘habit’ for Wyoming PBS viewers, and a ‘family’ enterprise to which the audience will contribute ideas and comments through the Wyoming PBS website. One week we’ll be talking to a world leader; the following week, your next-door neighbor. Expect lively, informative conversation, with unexpected turns, moments of humor, outbursts of music, and tough questions about tough issues.
John Simms - November 20, 2009
John Simms is a world-class fisherman and former ski patroller who invented and marketed life-saving avalanche poles and equipment and top-line fishing gear. Simms sits down with John Kerr to examine his remarkable life, including his current passion for sculpting large metal works of art.
Mary Gibson Scott - November 27, 2009
Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott recently won a national resource management award. Dina Mishev talks to her about park management in the modern era, and the particular problems of Grand Teton National Park in the ever-changing Teton Valley. For more information about this program please click here.
Rob Wallace on Energy & Politics - December 4, 2009
Rob Wallace was a political wunderkind in 1970s Wyoming, and now he’s vicepresident for government relations with General Electric, one of the largest corporations in the world. Wallace talks to Geoff O’Gara about clean coal today, the energy future, and political campaigns past.
Mick and Susie McMurry - December 11, 2009
The McMurry family developed a natural gas bonanza in Wyoming’s giant Jonah Field. Now, in conversation with Margaret Benson, Mick and Susie McMurry discuss how they have applied their financial success to charitable philanthropy with a strong focus on Wyoming.
The Sibleys - December 18, 2009
They grew up singing classical and show tunes, but now the duo of Pete and Anne Sibley of Jackson have hit the big time with blue grass and folk music. With banjo and guitar in hand, the Sibleys sing and talk to Dina Mishev about their breakthrough victory in "The Great American Duet Sing-off" on Garrison Keillor’s "Prairie Home Companion."
Bert Raynes - December 25, 2009
Engineer, author, and newspaper columnist Bert Raynes talks to John Kerr about his life’s journey from New Jersey to western Wyoming. The self-styled curmudgeon has become a renowned voice for conservation, wildlife protection, and birding in Jackson Hole.
Casper Reentry Center- January 8, 2010
Craig Draper was abusing drugs and in trouble with the law from the age of 9, but he turned his life around at the Casper Re-entry Center. Draper talks to host Laurie Farkas about how he pulled himself out of suicidal despair – and points the way for others.
Carbon Sequestration - January 15, 2010
Coal is the lifeblood of Wyoming’s energy economy – but scientists say the carbon released by coal-burning plants is a major culprit in global warming. Can that carbon be captured and stored safely underground? Sally Benson of Stanford University talks to Geoff O’Gara about carbon sequestration – and the future of Wyoming coal.
Encore Presentation of Swine Flu and You - January 22, 2010
Last fall Wyoming Chief Health Officer Brent Sharrard sat down with producer Laurie Farkas to discuss the dangers of swine flu, and how to stay healthy. With flu season well underway, its time to review Sharrard’s advice, and understand the risks and prevention of a potentially deadly disease.
Jillian Melchior on Community Colleges - January 29, 2009
In a troubled economy, community colleges are bursting at the seams with students of all ages preparing for new careers. Producer Dina Mishev found a heartening and instructive success story in Jillian Melchior, a graduate of Laramie County Community College who has hit the big time as a journalist in New York City.
Geoff O'Gara - Lander
Geoff O’Gara is a Senior Producer at
Wyoming PBS, and an author, based in Lander, Wyoming. His books include A Long Road Home
From world leaders to your next door neighbor, Wyoming Chronicle provides the stories you want to hear (Houghton-Mifflin); What You See in Clear Water (Knopf); and a number of travel guides for National Geographic Books, Fodors, and other publishers. He has been a newspaper columnist, an editor of High Country News, a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler, and a freelance writer for publications ranging from the New York Times to Travel & Leisure. He received a Kellogg Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan and the Neltje Blanchan Award for writing about the natural world. At Wyoming PBS, he produces and hosts public affairs programming like Capitol Outlook, and writes and produces documentaries such as "Washakie" and upcoming programs on "Migrations" and Alan Simpson.
Laurie Farkas - Cheyenne
Laurie Farkas has a great deal of media experience with fifteen years of previous producing experience, field reporting and anchor work at KGWN News, Channel Five in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She has served as a main news anchor, in addition to holding several managerial positions. While at KGWN, Laurie also pioneered and secured sponsorships for several extremely popular health franchises in Cheyenne including: "Your Health with Laurie Farkas", "Buddy Check Five" and "The United Medical Minute." Laurie brings vision, experience and unique ideas to the table for Wyoming Chronicle.
John Kerr - Yellowstone National Park
John Kerr brings on-air and production experience as a principal public spokesman, on-air interviewer, host, marketer and fundraiser from one of the largest PBS affiliates in the system, WGBH in Boston, MA. During his tenure at WGBH, John appeared on-air more than any other TV personality in the Boston market. He wrote, scripted, anchored and presented hundreds of highly successful live and taped solicitations on
radio, television and in person. He also found, developed, and coached new on-air talent. Known as "Mr. WGBH" in Boston, John was a frequent community speaker and public representative of WGBH and PBS in the greater Boston area. Currently, John is living his retirement dream as a
seasonal wildlife Ranger in the remote
Lamar district of Yellowstone National Park.
Dina Mishev - Jackson Hole
A graduate of Northwestern University with degrees in Math and Economics, Dina Mishev moved to Wyoming for a year
immediately following college. Dina’s
writing career started shortly after her
arrival in Wyoming when the Jackson Hole News hired her to write a bi-weekly column about 20-something life in the valley. Five years later Dina was interning and writing for Outside magazine. Today she writes about travel, sports, adventure, gear, art, people, and lifestyle topics for Outside, Outside Online, National Geographic
Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, Big Sky Journal, Western Art &
Architecture, Sunset, Cooking Light, United Hemispheres, Wyoming Tourism, Arizona Tourism, and Mobil Travel Guide.
Assignments have taken her from spas in Africa to granite cliffs in Tasmania.
Margaret Benson - Casper
Margaret Benson is the owner of the Wyoming Communication Group. For the past twenty-one years, she has provided her clients consulting services in the areas of strategic planning; vision and mission development; customer relations; presentation and public speaking skills; conflict management; meeting design and facilitation; individual communication skills and leadership development. Margaret’s professional experiences include Producer and Host for New Mexico Public Television; Executive Director and lobbyist for the Wyoming In Stream Flows Committee; Television and Media Specialist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department; Wyoming Press Secretary for U. S. Senator Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyoming); Public Relations Director for First Interstate Bank of Casper and Producer and Host for Wyoming PBS. Currently she is an ongoing consultant on the staff of the Leadership Wyoming program.