More than 11,000 “kids and their grown-ups” enjoy MPR’s Rock the Cradle event each year. At an art museum and a children’s theater, families experience music together through movement, art, picking up an instrument, and listening to live performances. Working with the Citizens League, MPR’s The Current (89.3 FM) developed “Policy and a Pint” events to engage younger listeners in local issues. MPR talent serve as moderators for lively pub debates, interviews, and conversations, and the station follows up with online forums.

As part of its comprehensive LearnMoreMN initiative, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) worked with private colleges in a statewide effort to foster and broadcast conversations with education experts, business leaders, and students about the state’s education challenges, including the growing gap between the shrinking supply and increasing demand for a college-educated workforce. TPT’s 2008 documentary Vanishing Graduates, which catalyzed discussions about how to make a college education more accessible to Minnesotans, continues to reach new audiences through repeated broadcasts on the MN Channel, streaming through the MN Video Vault, YouTube, and the LearnMoreMN site, where it is accompanied by a toolkit containing turnkey copy, presentations, video clips, and statistics.