What: MPR pilot, How's the Family?, features stories covering the terrain of family life

On the radio: Friday, May 25 at 2 p.m. on Minnesota Public Radio's News and Information stations statewide, including KNOW 91.1 FM in the Twin Cities.

On the Web: Both pilot episodes of How's the Family? are available on www.mpr.org by clicking on the programs menu.

How's the Family?, a pilot program about family relationships, will air Friday, May 25 at 2 p.m. on Minnesota Public Radio News & Information stations statewide, including KNOW 91.1 FM in the Twin Cities.

Hosted by Nanci Olesen, How's the Family? delves into the everyday truths about the families we grow up in and the ones we choose later on. It features the news that comes from our families every day—what we share with each other about how we get along and how we manage to answer the question "how's the family?" as a society and as individuals.

"Family is at the heart of our lives," says Olesen, "We want to infuse the workaday radio world with stories and conversations between the generations about this business of family."

Episode 1, which aired on May 18, features a report on what strangers can do to help families with children having meltdowns in public places, an investigation into how depression affects parenting and poetry from former poet-laureate Billy Collins. Episode 2 contains multiple segments, including an interview with a mother deployed in Iraq, a conversation between a teen drawn to gang life and her mother, and dealing with parents who break the rules. Both episodes are available on www.mpr.org.

Nanci Olesen is an independent radio producer whose commentaries are heard on Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media's national programs. The concept for How's the Family? has been 16 years in the making, as Olesen seeks to tell the everyday truths of parenthood. She has produced pieces for Weekend America, Public Radio International, Marketplace and her own Web-based radio production company, MOMbo.org. Olesen worked as an actor, puppeteer, canoeist and waitress before she turned her talents toward radio and motherhood. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three children.

Minnesota Public Radio® operates a 37-station radio network serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states and produces programming for radio, Internet and face-to-face audiences. Programs produced by Minnesota Public Radio, operating as American Public Media,™ reach 14.6 million listeners nationwide each week. Of those, more than 800,000 listen regionally, in Minnesota and surrounding states. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services can be obtained at www.mpr.org and www.americanpublicmedia.org.

###

Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc., Nationwide and PSA data. Arbitron data are estimates only. Spring 2006/Fall 2006 average