Shawn Johnson has had a tape recorder slung around his shoulder since the early 80s.
As a young boy, he recorded everything: his parents, the TV, neighborhood animals and himself.
“It turns out this was foreshadowing a life in radio,” he said.
Now he brings that need-to-document, archival knowledge to WPR as our Capitol Bureau Chief.
He joined WPR in 2004 covering the political happenings of the state solo for more than a decade. As the politics team expanded he took a leading role reporting and editing.
While his 21-year career at WPR has been marked by thousands of stories, the ones that stand out to Shawn are the deep-dives that explore the history and nuance of state politics. He points to a 2017 story on gas tax indexing which he admits sounds boring on the surface but highlighted the state’s bipartisan roots in an era of politics when lawmakers worked to compromise.
Shawn was also at the ground floor of WPR’s foray into documentary-style podcasts. His favorite, “Derailed,” took him and WPR’s Bridgit Bowden on a journey to explore Wisconsin’s high-speed rail line that never was.
It’s that context-driven reporting that stands out to Shawn as uniquely public radio. When reflecting on the craft, he said the “dedication to the truth and to teaching” is what he loves most.
“We want to learn information about our world and we want to share it with everyone,” he said, “What better place to do it than public radio?”
Pulling from that desire to know a subject from top to bottom, Shawn loves tuning into The New York Times’ “The Daily” because he can “listen to an episode going in completely uninformed on a topic, and come away from it feeling like I understand it.”
When he’s not working, Shawn is raising two teenage daughters. From spring through fall you’ll find them at the softball diamond, kicking up sand and playing catch.
– Jenny Peek, Newsletter Editor
