WBUR and NPR’s On Point Reimagined To Tackle The Most Consequential Issues Of Our Time

Starting Monday, October 5, WBUR’s On Point, the nationally syndicated NPR show hosted by Meghna Chakrabarti, forges a different path with a distinctive new sound and format. No longer a live call-in show, On Point will transform into one powerful hour each weekday at 10 a.m. ET, investing more time, enterprise reporting and storytelling craft into each minute of each episode.

According to WBUR CEO Margaret Low, On Point is primed to adapt and help make complicated issues understandable for the audience.

“On Point began right after 9/11. A seminal moment for the country and the world. Now here we are in 2020, another paradigm-shifting year. A pandemic raging, waves of social change across the country and around the world and a presidential election looming large. So we took a look at how we could reimagine On Point for this moment.

The new On Point is defined by editorial rigor and coupled with the deep conversations that are the program’s hallmark, tackling the most consequential issues of our time. By changing the way we engage with the audience, we’re getting a more meaningful mix of people from across the country into the program than we were able to as a live call-in show.

And we’re shaping the show around Meghna. Her magnificent mind and her relentless curiosity. We like to think of the show as explanatory journalism. At the same time, it is exploratory and intimate.”

For On Point, that means harnessing its resources in a way that takes the listener on a journey across an hour. Host Meghna Chakrabarti explains the new approach and why it matters:

We’re living in another time of transformation. On Point is being proactive—we’re doing research to dig deep into an issue and uncover what I’ve taken to calling ‘the signal in the noise.’ It’s the line of inquiry that helps listeners make meaningful sense of all the noise in the world right now... and you’re going to hear this approach, this drive as ear-catching sound and story right at the top of the show.

Meghna Chakrabarti

Listeners today expect great audio journalism, and one of the ways we’re doing that is by bringing together high-touch storytelling and live conversation. You’ll hear fresh takes and new voices, lending first-person urgency and humanity to the program. We’re broadening our view of what expertise means. We’ll always talk with academic and subject matter experts, but the issues the country is grappling with are so complex that we’ve got to find other voices with expertise and experience that maybe we haven’t heard before.

When you combine it all, you’ll hear the deep dive conversation, the crackling intelligence of a live show, and the profound empathy that comes with highly produced narrative journalism.”

Make sense of the world with Meghna Chakrabarti and the new On Point, weekdays from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. on your local NPR member station, online at wbur.org/onpoint and on-demand wherever you listen to podcasts.

The new On Point is part of a new fall programming lineup at WBUR. On Point will now air from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Following On Point listeners will hear 1A with Jenn White (WAMU) from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. For more details, please go here.