Tenth Anniversary Special

It’s been 10 years since The 21st Show first went on air, on March 14, 2016. We’ll listen back to a decade of the program and reflect on what’s happened in that time — in Illinois, in America, and around the world.

Here are some of the programs excerpted in today's episode (in the order they were mentioned):

• Founding host Niala Boodhoo's debut episode (March 14, 2026)
• First producer Christine Herman's feature on MakerGirl (March 18, 2016)
• Niala, Monica Eng and Louisa Chu dine at a Chinese restaurant (March 9, 2018)
• Niala shares her experience with breast cancer (October 9, 2017)
• Niala signs off (July 25, 2019)
• Host Brian Mackey's debut episode amid the early days of COVID-19 (March 30, 2020)
• After George Floyd, New York Times writer Kurt Streeter reflects on “running while Black” (May 27, 2020)
• DePaul University law professor David Franklin remembers clerking for the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg (September 21, 2020)
• ISU grad student Maryna Teplova recounts family fleeing Ukraine after Russian invasion (March 14, 2022)
• Illinois residents Dua Aldasouqi and Yarden and Stav Ashur share their respective Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the war in Gaza (December 6, 2023)
• Illinoisans react to the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol Building (January 11, 2021)
• Illinois Wesleyan biology professor Edgar Lehr researching lizards and being chased by narco cartels in Peru (August 3, 2022)
• Matt Moneymaker of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” emeritus Illinois primatologist Paul Garber on alleged Sasquatch sightings in Illinois (January 12, 2022)
• Emily Antonacci and Cami Proctor of emily the band perform live in studio (March 13, 2025)
• The team visits Mercado on Fifth's Day of the Dead celebration in the Quad Cities (November 2, 2023)

Brian Mackey, on behalf of Niala Boodhoo and himself, ended the show by noting that while they have enjoyed privilege of being the voices of The 21st Show, they've only been able to do that because of the many producers, engineers, and other colleagues who make the program what it is. Working with current and former staff, Brian set out to make a list of everyone who’s worked on The 21st Show over the years. Sincere apologies if anyone was left off (if so, please get in touch and let us know)!

That said, The 21st Show has been produced by Tiffany Jolley, Amanda Honigfort, Christine Herman, Sean Neumann, Philip Kisubika, Travis Stansel, Robert Holly, Robin Linn, Julian Hayda, Alan Monticilio, Libby Foster, Eunice Alpasan, Anna Casey, Ryan Wilde, Chantal Vaca, Erica Scalise, Aden Choate, Kennedy Vincent, Harrison Malkin, Christine Hatfield*, and Jose Zepeda*.

Digital producers have been Damian Contreras, Stephanie Mosqueda, and Kulsoom Khan*. Our interns have been Abrar Al-Heeti, Khaola Delahi, Zainab Qureshi, Brielle Skullark, Owen Henderson, Nick Boivin, Aniyha Jones, and Layli Nazarova.

Technical direction and engineering comes from Jason Croft* and Steve Morck*.

Our news directors have been Scott Cameron and Reginald Hardwick*.

* Denotes current staff.