Bridgit Bowden can sum up a lot of her job as “going down the rabbit hole,” and that’s just how she likes it. As someone who bought a DVR solely for recording each day’s episode of “Jeopardy!” (and, she adds, “competing against my husband,”) she comes to work each day excited to learn something new about our state and its people.
In over a decade at WPR, Bridgit has gone down plenty of rabbit holes. That’s what you do when you’re taking a long view of the news and charting the hows and whys of an important issue. Sometimes this means digging through lots of documents, as she did while studying the history of Wisconsin’s political maps and how they were drawn. Or, for a project like WPR’s interactive voter guide, it can also mean staying in touch with countless residents, nominees and staffers so that voters can see where the candidates on their ballots stand on key issues. And it can take her all across the state, like it did with WPR’s audio “road trips” to some of the state’s must-visit summer spots, from the best ice cream shops and bookstores to beloved stops for birders and stargazers.
Bridgit’s favorite project so far: “Derailed,” a 2019 podcast about a proposed high-speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee that became a signature issue — and a turning point — in state politics. She and co-host Shawn Johnson dug so deep into the issue, she even found what happened to the trains that were built for Wisconsin after the state canceled the rail line.
Bridgit is also an avid reader, a lifelong dancer (both Zumba and tap) and “a real musical theater nerd” who takes regular trips to Broadway to check out new shows. She currently recommends Percival Everett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “James” and the original cast recording of the musical “Death Becomes Her.”
– Brady Carlson, Host of “All Things Considered”
