If you want to see WPR Newsletter Editor Jenny Peek light up, try saying something nice about her home state or her hometown.
“I love Madison, and I love Wisconsin,” she said. “I feel like that is just a part of my inner being.”
Jenny is that person at WPR who you go to when you need to know a good place to eat, or hike or maybe just somewhere to impress your friends from out of town.
She was born in Madison and went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Now, she’s raising two “rambunctious” young boys on the city’s east side.
“That means I’m always busy and always running around,” she said. “Generally, I have either a Hot Wheels car or a stack of Legos in my pocket or my purse at all times.”
When she has a moment to herself, Jenny might listen to the “You’re Wrong About” podcast, or her college playlist from the 2010s, “because I still haven’t
found any new music that I like.”
Jenny realized she wanted to work in journalism in seventh grade, when she came home from school after 9/11. As the news conferences rolled on TV, she instinctively grabbed a notebook and started writing.
“I was just writing down quotes, and writing down things that I thought were important,” she remembers. “In that moment, I was like, ‘This is what I need to do.’”
Jenny has been at WPR since 2017 and worked previously as a news editor and a digital editor. She’s reported deep dive stories on parental leave and child care, she’s a frequent contributor to “Wisconsin Life,” and her story on respiratory illnesses was featured on NPR’s Science Friday.
WPR got its start more than a century ago, but until Jenny, it never had a full-time newsletter editor. Now, she’s the person helping readers figure out what to explore in a state and world that are ever-changing.
“This is me putting myself out there,” she said. “Being like, ‘Hey, I’m a human, and this is what matters. And you should pay attention.’”
– Shawn Johnson, Capitol Bureau Chief
