October 9th, 2020

I wanted to share with you that I’ll be leaving Here & Now.

This month marks ten years since I started hosting a daily national program and what a decade it has been.

When I joined the Here & Now team in 2013, I did so with one goal in mind: to grow the show into the Morning Edition or All Things Considered of the midday.

Since then, we have tripled our audience to more than 5 million listeners and we are broadcasting to almost every radio market in this country. I’m so proud of all that we have achieved together.

As the youngest person ever to host one of the major public radio shows, as well as the first openly gay host of a WBUR program, the team and I worked to ensure that Here & Now brought in new voices, younger voices, more diverse voices.

We also wanted to make sure that we were a truly national show, covering the whole country and indeed the world. Well, any regular listener to Here & Now can attest that we are. We have broadcast the show from Concord, New Hampshire and Orlando, Florida, from Portland, Oregon and Nashville, Tennessee, from San Antonio, Texas and Yellowstone National Park, right in front of Old Faithful. Twice from London to cover Brexit with the help of our brilliant partners at the BBC — and once from Mexico City after President Trump was elected. On those trips, I’ve gotten to work with a number of terrific Here & Now producers who have bright futures ahead of them.

Throughout my career, which started in public radio when I was 9 years old, working on a show for kids called Treehouse Radio in my hometown of Urbana, Illinois, I have learned from some of the best people in the business. And most importantly, I’ve gotten to meet and interact with public radio’s amazing listeners. Smart, engaged citizens who want to pay attention to what’s going on around them. And who are willing to support independent journalism that they can trust. Something that is more important now than ever.

So back to me leaving the show. Since COVID-19, I, like many in our business, have been broadcasting from home. Or, you might say, living at work. It’s given me a different perspective and after 21 years in the daily news business, I’m ready to take a little break from the Here and Now, if you will, and prepare for my next challenge.

It’s going to be sad for me to leave my incredible co-workers, who work so hard every day to bring important conversations to you.

But I believe that public radio will continue to be a place where journalists will humbly seek the truth. It’s what I’ve always tried to do, with you, the listener, in mind.

Thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, for letting me join you each day. You can find me on twitter, @jeremyhobson, and I promise I’ll let you know about my next project just as soon as I can.

Jeremy Hobson