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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The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education and research.Under President Donald Trump’s push to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School is providing advice to families who are concerned about their children during back-to-school season.And an organization representing public school districts in New York has published a report to assist districts attract teachers during a national shortage. -
As students and teachers prepare to head back to the classroom in New York, a statewide organization representing local districts has released a report on how to address a teacher shortage in New York.
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Playlist as aired on Saturday, August 23rd, 2025 -
The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education and research.On this episode, we’ll learn about how one artist views and creates visual art through the use of artificial intelligence – and discuss the importance of AI literacy.And American cities are sinking. We’ll learn how satellites are used to track shifting population centers.
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The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education and research.Humans aren’t the only animals able to keep a beat. And we may not be the best at it either.A new study examines the time-keeping abilities of a special sea lion.[Rerun] -
The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education and research.On this program, we’ll learn about curious orcas.The Supreme Court has issued a decision could affect religious freedom in schools.And we’ll speak with an artist whose medium of choice is Lego. -
Playlist for Saturday, August 2nd, 2025
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Tonko seeks a change at the federal level that would even the playing field. In 2021, the House, then controlled by Democrats, passed a voting law that languished in the Senate that would require states to utilize independent redistricting bodies to draw Congressional maps. -
Daniel Morton-Bentley, General Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs for the New York State Education Department, speaks with WAMC's Lucas Willard. -
As Republicans fear losing their narrow House majority in the upcoming midterms, GOP leaders in some states are discussing redrawing Congressional district boundaries to give their party an advantage in 2026.
