Lucas Willard
Assistant News Director, Host/Producer, The Best of Our Knowledge and WAMC Listening Party/ReporterLucas Willard graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Communications. He also attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2010, where he studied audio and multimedia storytelling.
Prior to joining WAMC in 2011, Lucas worked with the Sound and Story Project of the Hudson Valley, the Big Shed Audio Documentary Podcast, the Albany Broadcasting Company, WDVL & WCVF-FM Fredonia, and WSUC-FM Cortland.
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Playlist as aired on Saturday, January 17th, 202 -
The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.A common lizard in the American west plays a unique game of rock, paper, scissors.And your dog may be smarter than you think. A new study finds some dogs can learn by eavesdropping. -
Playlist as aired on Saturday, January 10th, 2026
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The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.Scientists have discovered a distant planet that resembles a lemon.And while studying a mysterious cloud of hot dust 70 light-years away, researchers have found an unusual star. -
In an unusual move, Troy’s City Council used its first meeting of the year to hold an open public forum for residents. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons joins us now to talk about what residents commended and condemned. -
Playlist as aired on January 3rd, 2026
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The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll speak with a scientist who helped pinpoint a unique – and long theorized – form of matter.And we’ll visit museum in upstate New York that organizers hope will inspire the next generation of firefighters. -
Playlist as aired on December 27th, 2025
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The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.This week we’ll celebrate the best of The Best of Our Knowledge in 2025.We’ll learn about a new color that humans normally can’t see, a project that created one of the most advanced maps of the brain, and research that uncovers truths to the extinction of the dinosaurs. -
The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll learn how an endangered antelope was born to a mother of a separate species.A new report from New York examines declining public-school enrollment.And lawmakers are celebrating the return of whole milk to the cafeteria.
