Cathy Lewis might’ve turned off her “HearSay” mic at WHRO in May, but she’s found her place behind a new one.
Just bear with her as she learns the new technology behind it.
She’s tackling topics better suited to her new show’s format and getting to the core of the region’s biggest challenges.
“The Cathy Lewis Show,” a 30-minute podcast, picks up where “HearSay” left off. It launched last month and will be weekly by mid-July.
Head to her website, where she lays out her new venture in what she labels a “manifesto.” It is complete with an instrumental backtrack her listeners should expect after years of being soothed into her noon-hour radio show with Penguin Café Orchestra’s “Perpetuum Mobile.”
“The truth is, I really loved the local public radio talk show I hosted for 25 years,” she says in the recording. “The audience, the interaction on the air and in the community.”
But around her 20th year, she started to get restless and thought more and more about doing her own thing. The 2016 election and then the fight over the 2020 election results kept her invested and motivated. In 2019, COVID began spreading across the world and the global shutdown brought that restlessness back. She knew she had to hang on until the lockdowns lifted and the world started to resemble its former self.
After that, she’d get back at it with a renewed mission.
“I really do feel concerned about so many of the things I see going on in the world right now,” Lewis said in a phone interview. “But I have this belief that we can change the world right around us and that does have an effect to change the larger world.”
She aims to provide listeners with context on key issues and ways to get involved.
“Unless we equip ourselves with those tools and knowledge to make change at a local level that drives change at the national level,” she said, “we are missing half the equation.”
For the first episode (which is already available at cathylewis.com), Lewis brought back frequent “HearSay” contributor and political commentator Quentin Kidd to discuss Virginia’s Democratic primaries. Expect conversations with local leaders and community members about elections, race relations, social justice movements and what Lewis considers a major issue:
“The future of local journalism,” she said. “I am profoundly concerned and I think everyone in this region should be. I intend to elevate that issue in ways I wasn’t quite able to do on the radio.”
Subscriptions cost $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. The first 14 days are free and don’t require any payment information until listeners decide to subscribe.
Lewis said she was stunned by how many people have already shown faith in her podcast by subscribing for a year.
“It’s inspiring and daunting all at the same time,” she said, “but their confidence is comforting.”
