In a massmail today to faculty and staff, University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen announced the launch of a new podcast series:

Dear colleagues:

I’m pleased to announce the start of something new and exciting from the University of Illinois System.

The U of I System is introducing “Rising to the Challenge,” a new podcast dedicated to telling stories from across the system and our universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield.

Like few other times in our history, we are being called on now to meet myriad challenges. And I believe the stories behind just how those tests are being met can and will inspire and inform all of us.

How do you create a fast, new saliva-based test to detect COVID-19 and change the thinking about what’s possible as we work to restore the educational, economic and social life of our universities, our state and our country? What’s involved in creating a new vaccine that can help us do all of that? And how do we meet the long list of other challenges created by a pandemic?

Our first few episodes will tell the stories behind those questions and many more.

The podcast is being produced in cooperation with Illinois Public Media and will be hosted by Gwen Macsai, an award-winning veteran of audio storytelling who is based in Chicago. Producer Libby Foster is an award-winning journalist also based in Chicago and formerly of Illinois Public Media’s "The 21st" talk show. Both are graduates of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

You can find “Rising to the Challenge” at WILL, our partner in this endeavor, as well as on Apple and Google podcasts, and Spotify.

I hope you'll find it interesting and inspiring.

Sincerely,
Tim