What If...
Good ideas often start with a simple question. Nebraskans answer with innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. We tell their stories in our award-winning Nebraska Public Media series, "What If..."
Season 5
- Season 5
- Season 4
- Season 3
- Season 2
- Season 1
Coming Soon!
Four new episodes of "What If..." premiere beginning March 26! We'll tell you about entrepreneurs making good from bad, innovation in the sky and much more. Plus a special episode that revisits what we've created since "What If..." began in 2018.
Innovator Insights
What drives Nebraska’s innovators, big thinkers, risk takers? How do they think? What influences them? What have they learned from? What’s next? We explore this in a separate "What If..." project component, designed for a high school/college age target audience, called "Innovator Insights."
CLICK HERE to watch "Innovator Insights" videos (including versions with Spanish-language captions), and access viewing guides and discussion questions for educators.
"What If..." Music
"What If..." celebrates innovation and creativity. So in our stories we showcase original music, submitted for use in the project by a wide range Nebraska composers. Since 2019 we've used more than 200 pieces of music created by 40 different composers in our award-winning stories and shows!
- CLICK HERE for submission details, plus a listing of the songs and composers from each "What If..." story.
What is "What If..."
"What If..." is an award-winning exploration of innovation, creativity, invention and discovery," says host and producer Mike Tobias. "Stories about interesting Nebraskans with interesting ideas in a wide range of areas, like university research, entrepreneurship, education, economic development and more. It’s a great project because we’re having fun and challenging ourselves creatively to tell these stories in a way that takes you inside the worlds and minds of these innovators."
Since the project debuted in 2019, it's earned multiple local, regional and national awards, including:
- Two Heartland Regional Emmy awards and seven other Heartland Regional Emmy nominations
- Two National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) awards
- Seven Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association Eric Sevareid awards
- Seven Nebraska Broadcasters Association Awards

More Content

Comments, questions, ideas? Contact "What If..." host/producer Mike Tobias at mtobias@NebraskaPublicMedia.org.
Follow Mike and #WhatIfNebraska on X, Facebook, Threads & Bluesky.