Trent Gilliss

A multidisciplinary thinker and learner, I'm interested in the confluence of human relationships between digital and analog audiences — and connecting people with big ideas.

I was the driving editorial and creative force behind the nationally broadcast public radio program On Being — connecting audiences with big ideas via the radio, digital platforms, and live events nationally and internationally. I've reported and produced stories from Turkey to rural Alabama, from Israel and the West Bank to Cambridge, England.

In July 2013, I spearheaded the efforts to move the radio program to independent production and co-founded the On Being Project and created On Being Studios. This included envisioning new opportunities for the multi-platform project, negotiating contractual agreements, leading the buildout of our new public events space + offices on Loring Park, and fostering new business relationships and underwriting efforts. It was a lot of fun, and a whole lotta learning.

I grew up in North Dakota and studied English Language & Literature at the University of Mary. I'm a blue-collar cat who has tarred asphalt cracks, waited tables, and even driven a Zamboni. I spent several instructional years in state government, rode the dot-com wave, and worked at several Fortune 500 companies. I'm now a proud family man who longs for subtle glimpses of beauty in the ordinary.

I received a Peabody Award in 2007 for my work on "The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi" and garnered three Webby Awards (in 2005, the first public radio program to do so, and again in 2008 + 2013). The Online News Association nominated my journalistic work multiple times in the general excellence and outstanding specialty journalism categories.