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The Tavis Smiley Show is a high-energy exchange of views, information, and insight hosted by Tavis Smiley. The one-hour weekly show offers a unique blend of news and newsmakers in expanded conversations, along with feature reports and regular commentators Cornel West, Connie Rice, Deroy Murdock, Omar Wasow, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Rachael Ross, Kathryn Lopez, Antonio Gonzalez, Jonathan Walton and George Johnson. Each weekend Tavis engages commentators and guests in substantive and provocative discussions on a wide range of topics including: politics, health, finance, sports, technology and pop culture. An insightful exploration of the issues that matter from fresh, diverse points of view is the show's hallmark.

The Tavis Smiley Show is produced by Smiley Radio Properties, Inc. in partnership with Public Radio International (PRI). The show is available to PRI's 727 affiliate stations nationwide for broadcast and simulcast streaming.

About Tavis Smiley

About Public Radio International


PRI is public radio's leading source for innovative programming and audio content. The Minneapolis-based network provides over 400 hours of programming each week, content that is broadcast and streamed online by its 727 public radio station affiliates nationwide, who reach 31 million listeners each week. PRI is the managing partner of the satellite radio company American Public Radio, LLC, established with Chicago Public Radio® and WGBH Radio Boston. PRI's cultural programming is available via XM Public Radio. Its news and information programming is available via Sirius Satellite Radio.

PRI is known for driving innovation in public radio through partnerships with stations, independent producers, and other organizations, and for working collaboratively to pool resources and share risk, cultivate new talent, and bring diverse voices and perspectives to the public airwaves. Its best known offerings include Marketplace®, produced by American Public Media™ in association with the University of Southern California; This American Life, produced by Chicago Public Radio®; PRI's The World, a co-production of BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Radio Boston; Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?®, produced by Wisconsin Public Radio; PRI's From the Top®, produced by From the Top in association with WGBH Radio Boston and New England Conservatory of Music; and PRI's Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, produced by PRI and WNYC, New York Public Radio.

About Public Radio International

The Tavis Smiley Show Staff Bios


Sheryl Flowers (1966-2009)
Sheryl Flowers was the guiding force behind Tavis Smiley's public radio career. Her own career spanned nearly 20 years, during which she worked in almost every facet of media. Since 2001, she, along with Smiley, was committed to bringing substantive, insightful, and provocative conversations on issues that matter most to everyday people. She passed away in 2009 after a two-year battle with triple negative breast cancer.


In memory of Sheryl Flowers, The Tavis Smiley Show from Public Radio International (PRI) is now recorded and mixed in the "Sheryl Flowers Radio Studios" in Los Angeles. For more information about Sheryl, visit www.triplestepforthecure.org.


Vanessa Rumbles
Vanessa Rumbles is the Producer / Editor for The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI. Vanessa joined The Tavis Smiley Show in 2009 from the Emmy award-winning KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles where she had been a technology correspondent, Segment Producer and eventually, a morning News Writer.

A graduate of California State University, Fullerton, her career began in 2004 when she served as Associate Producer and Field Reporter for a national kids sports show. Vanessa's work as a sports reporter landed her on the front page of the Daily Times newspaper, while covering the Connie Mack World Series Baseball Championships in Farmington, NM.


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Annie E. Casey Foundation




The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI appreciates the support of its national underwriters. The program is produced by Smiley Radio Properties, Inc. and distributed by PRI.





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