Sandy Tolan's Bio

Scholar. Teacher. Author. Independent Radio Producer!

Sandy Tolan has been a Neiman Fellow at Harvard. This year he's again teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Me and Hank, a book about Henry Aaron that explores heroes and race.

And -- Sandy is one of radio's leading independent producers.

For the past twenty years, from Latin America, the Balkans, India, the Philippines, the Middle East, and numerous places in between, Sandy Tolan has produced hundreds of reports and documentaries that have helped define the medium.

Sandy's stories for PRI and NPR programs such as This American Life, Morning Edition, and Marketplace have been honored with awards from duPont-Columbia, the International Radio Festivals, NFCB, and the Overseas Press Club.

Sandy is a cofounder of Homelands Productions in Gloucester, Massachusetts, an independent public-interest journalism organization, where he's focused much of his reportage on natural resource issues and indigenous and international affairs. He's also a frequent contributor to the MPR documentary project American Radio Works.

Beyond ivory towers and the left end of the dial, you can find his think pieces printed in the New York Times Magazine, USA Today, The Nation, and Current.

Sandy's renaissance intellectual breadth and moral commitment to telling real stories exemplifies what's best about independent radio producers. His curiosity and passion -- his ear and his vision -- represent the brain and heart AIR members strive to emulate.

Sandy Tolan has produced groundbreaking achievements in public radio. Moreover, he's generous -- willing to leverage his accomplishments for the greater good of fellow independents, as with his dedication to the Content Producers' Advocacy Group dialog with NPR.

Perhaps most compelling, Sandy demonstrates that principled commitment can translate into genuine success in public broadcasting. And he's graciously agreed to break away from his journalism classes at Berkeley to share his ideas and insights with AIR colleagues.

Audio
  A Need to Belong [excerpt] (01.31). Download: MP3 [2.0mb]