Written By: Megan Holmes, Author for St. Pete Catalyst
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – On Monday, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg hosted a live recording of one of the most popular shows circulated by NPR, WAMU’s 1A, whose name pays homage to the First Amendment.
The live-recorded show drew hundreds to the USFSP’s University Student Center, thanks to a collective effort of the Open Partnership Education Network (OPEN), WUSF and the Poynter Institute. But the story of the morning was less the show itself and more the impressive showcase of guests, a veritable parade of talent and expertise local to St. Pete, who shared their perspectives on some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Hosted by Joshua Johnson, a native of West Palm Beach, Fla., 1A comes out of Washington DC and is the legacy of the Diane Rehm show, an NPR staple call-in program that ran from 1979 to 2016. According to Johnson, “1A is a national program that for 10 hours a week tries to create a space for Americans to have the kinds of conversations that are really tough to have.”