The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, is now airing on a record 376 public radio stations across the United States and in Canada, more than at any point in the program’s history. The show, produced by GBH and PRX in Boston, is heard by more than 2 million people nationwide on a weekly basis. 

Its secret sauce, says Executive Producer Dan Lothian, is “human-centered” journalism. “We add another layer of understanding to our stories beyond just the standard who, what, when, where and why,” he said. “Our goal is to bring listeners’ stories of deep human experience and at the same time deliver critical information on key topics such as global security, women and gender, the environment, migration and public health.“

Focusing on the human dimensions of the news, he said, helps U.S. listeners connect to people across the globe.

“We explore what people think about the news. We don’t only care what officials are saying. We try to get to the heart of a story through the eyes and the hearts of the people who are being impacted.”

With a staff of 30, the program is hosted by Marco Werman who works with a team of award-winning journalists, including foreign correspondents stationed in a half dozen locations, freelancers and staff reporters. It debuted in 1996 in response to the lack of nuanced global perspective in American news coverage.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gave The World a big thumbs-up last year with a large grant to expand and sustain its coverage of the war in Ukraine.

“This grant allows us to do really aggressive and important journalism,” said Lothian. “We can tell this story beyond just another siren going off, another bomb, another area taken over or taken back. We can report on humanitarian issues like refugees, asylum-seekers and the impacts across Europe.”

The team also is working on attracting new audiences.

“With support from the Lumina Foundation, we created The World’s Global Classroom, to not only broaden the issues we cover but also to get traction among young college students, who are the public media audience of the future.” said Lothian. “Students can pitch stories and even help produce them. This helps us bring in diverse stories that we otherwise would have missed,” he said. For example, The World featured University of California San Diego (UCSD) student Fabian Garcia’s story about what it was like to live in Mexico and go to school in the U.S. The program, which launched at the UCSD, is also active at Northeastern University and Lothian hopes to sign on more schools this year.

But The World is not only about serious news. Lothian is committed to making the show enjoyable and interesting. One of its lighter-hearted stories, about an artist who created a mural with his record-breaking bottle cap collection, has been heard online more than a million times. Another report went behind the scenes at the London Zoo, where they weigh their 14,000 animals each August.

“We don’t want our audience to feel like we’re always giving them medicine. At some point they’ll want some fun food,” he said. “We hope they can learn, have a new experience and maybe have a laugh as well.”

Listen to The World, which airs every weekday from 3-4pm on GBH 89.7 and repeats from 8-9pm. Listen to the podcast and read The World’'s articles at theworld.org.