Four New Episodes!
A "Something Good from Something Bad" themed episode features entrepreneurship in Sidney, entrepreneurs creating a place for people and their horses to stay and a behind-the-scenes look at the unique production of the "horse hotel" story. (premiered March 26)
An "Innovation in the Sky" episode features a drone show entrepreneur, students building a small satellite and a tech company testing it's surgical robot in space. Plus innovation on display at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum. (premiered April 2)
For a "Fun and Learning" episode explores the Kiewit Luminarium and features a 4-H project challenges kids to create a product, a lifelong entrepreneur's mustard business and a candy scientist's product development lab. (premiered April 9)
A "What If... Rewind" episode celebrates the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship "What If..." has featured since 2019 by revisiting and updating past stories; and showcasing the education and music aspects of the project. (premiered April 16)
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.