After John Ryan’s cheap microcassette recorder fell out of his pocket in an Indonesian taxi, a generous BBC stringer lent him his professional gear. Pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong-playing grandmothers for his first radio story, Ryan got the radio bug.

Seven years later, he has reported for NPR’s Day to Day, Living on Earth, Marketplace and PRI’s The World. He has also continued his print career by freelancing for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor and the Los Angeles Times.

His KUOW-Seattle documentary, As the Sound Churns, won the Public Radio News Directors Inc. 2007 award for best news series and 2nd place from the Society of Environmental Journalists for best in-depth radio reporting.

Ryan is now a reporter at KTOO in Juneau, the Alaskan capital city accessible only by boat or plane and North America's biggest potential urban-avalanche disaster. What fun!