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We all know the origin story of public media—the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson, the Public Broadcasting Act, the premiere of Sesame Street, and NPR’s Watergate broadcasts. But public media’s spirit of innovation, mission-driven storytelling, and fearless experimentation started long before that—over 100 years ago. In this webinar, Current’s Mike Janssen leads a thought-provoking conversation with our panel about the long and necessary history of innovation within public media. Together, they’ll uncover how past innovators in public media navigated emerging technologies, shifting audience behaviors, and a constantly evolving understanding of what it means to create media in the public interest—struggles that feel familiar today. Long before PBS and NPR, pioneers like us rose to the occasion. Join historians Josh Shepperd and Allison Perlman, sociologist Laura Garbes, and Black Public Media Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz in exploring stories of innovation that offer inspiration and practical lessons for shaping the next era of public media.