The State We're In

The State We're In is the flagship public affairs program produced by Radio Netherlands Worldwide about how we treat each other around the world.  

It's a program that puts people first, as host Jonathan Groubert talks to guests from all continents about the first-hand experiences that changed them. Our hope is that listeners will somehow be changed as well.

The program has won a slew of international honors, including three New York World Medals in 2010 as well as a Gabriel. US public radio legend Ira Glass has praised the program for its "amazing editorial judgment," and Ira called Jonathan "one of the best new interviewers on public radio today." 

The core of the program is interviews: when hijacking's off the coast of Somalia were making headlines, we talked to a former pirate about why he took part in hijackings; on Labour Day, we talked to a woman in Texas who vowed she'd never become the boss she once had... and then did exactly that; when Charles Taylor was put on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes in Sierro Leone, we talked to a man whose village was wiped out by Taylor's forces, and who decided to go to the trial to make what he called his own, personal "confrontation with history."

The State We're In is broadcast on major public radio markets in the U.S., Canada, Australia, India and Africa; and via RNW's worldwide broadcasts. To find out how to broadcast The State We're In on your station, please contact RNW at  MEDIA@RNW.NL. 

Jonathan Groubert
Jonathan Groubert helped develop the show and has been its host since its inception in 2007. His informal, friendly style of conversation defines the tone of the program, which aims to get at the heart of first-person stories about how we treat each other around the world.

Raised in Brooklyn, New York, he moved to the Netherlands nearly twenty years ago, where his calling in radio began as a freelancer. He wrote, produced and presented pieces on political, social and cultural issues for the BBC, Deutsche Welle and RNW. He began full-time work at RNW as a newsreader and graduated to host of EuroQuest, a magazine program about Europe for Americans. His work has won many awards, including a World Gold Medal at the New York Festivals, and more recently a Gabriel for an interview he did for The State We're In.

 
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Listen to a sample of the February 2nd 2011 program: