Steve Paulson

Steve Paulson was born in Rome, Italy, where his father worked with the United Nations. His family eventually settled in Milwaukee, where Steve spent endless hours hanging out on tennis courts. In high school, he won Milwaukee's City Championship, but dreams of a tennis career quickly faded.

Steve went on to study European literature at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, then freelanced for several Milwaukee newspapers. After earning a master's degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin, he stumbled into public radio. He worked as a reporter and talk show producer at Wisconsin Public Radio and then joined To the Best of Our Knowledge.

One of the pleasures of working on To the Best of Our Knowledge is the chance to indulge certain intellectual passions - even ones that don't seem terribly high-minded.

"In the early 90s I went through my early Elvis phase. And I talked to lots of young scholars who were deconstructing pop culture," Steve says. He then switched gears and got hooked on field biologists like Jane Goodall, George Schaller, and E.O. Wilson. Steve admires the way they blend science and environmental activism. "And their personal commitment is amazing. Many of these scientists spend months or even years at a time out in the field."

More recently, Steve has managed to turn other personal obsessions into radio shows: jazz, child development, memoirs and the murky line between fact and fiction. "To the Best of Our Knowledge is a great show for people who are intellectually curious", Steve says. "I feel very lucky to work on this program."

paulson@wpr.org