This Week on WGN
There’s a rhythm to this season that feels different in the best way.
As Season 11 of The Whitney Reynolds Show continues to unfold, I had the chance to sit down with John Landecker on WGN Radio and reflect on what this moment really feels like. And the word that kept coming up for me was movement.
Not just in the stories we’re telling but in how they’re landing.
We’re a few weeks into the season now, and every Monday in Chicago, when we air on Lakeshore PBS, it still feels personal. This is home. This is where the show has grown, where it’s been given space to evolve, and where viewers have shown up year after year. And then, as the show reaches the rest of the country, it’s a reminder that what started here this idea of leading with hope has continued to travel further than we could have imagined.
This season, that mission feels especially clear.
We’re calling it a season of everyday brave. Of people who don’t always look like what we expect courage to look like but are living it anyway. From voices like Kelly Sabrosky, who challenges the idea that strength and femininity can’t coexist, to Terrence Lester, who turned one of the lowest points in his life into a mission to restore dignity for others these are the stories that remind us what’s possible when people keep going.
But what’s been just as meaningful is what’s happening off-screen.
If this season has taught me anything so far, it’s that storytelling and showing up go hand in hand.
Chicago has been in full giveback mode and being part of that has been incredibly grounding. From the powerful impact of the Ronald McDonald House Charities gala, where the community came together to raise over $1.7 million for families in need, to upcoming moments with Women Employed, continuing the work to close the wage gap and support women in the workplace these aren’t just events. They’re reminders of what happens when people choose to lean in.
There are also organizations like Boxing Out Negativity, creating real change for youth right here in our city. The kind of work that doesn’t always make headlines but is shaping lives every single day. And being able to support that, even in small ways, feels like an extension of everything we talk about on the show.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what this season is about.
Not just hearing stories but doing something with them.
Letting them move you. Letting them shift your perspective. Letting them remind you that there is still so much good happening often quietly, often consistently, and often right in front of us.
When I first started this show, I was told that hope wouldn’t hold.
That it wasn’t enough.
And now, over a decade later, seeing how this message continues to connect, both here in Chicago and far beyond, it’s a reminder that sometimes the things that feel the most simple are actually the most needed.
Season 11 is underway. And if there’s one thing I hope people take from it, it’s this:
Your story matters.
And what you do with it can make more of a difference than you think.
