Interview edited for clarity and timeliness.
MATTHEW WITT: Hello, welcome to another episode of Crimson and Gold Connection here on KRPS. And today I'm pleased to talk with one of our newest employees, who has been here, I guess, about six months now. That's Ms. Reagan Neufeld. Her official title here at KRPS. She is the All Things Considered host and arts and culture reporter. And I'd like to say, first of all, it just occurred to me what a joy it is to actually have an 'All Things Considered' host, because we didn't have an official person sitting in that chair. A lot of that, most of that was pre-recorded for maybe as many as five or six years before you were here. So it's a relief. I think it's a vast improvement for KRPS. We're delighted to have someone actually sitting there in that chair hosting the show as it should be. Welcome, Reagan.
RAEGAN NEUFELD: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
MATT: Okay. Well, we want to find out a little bit about your background, like maybe where you grew up. Can you tell us something about that?
RAEGAN: Yeah. Well, I grew up in Inman, Kansas, which is about an hour north of Wichita. I lived there all my life until I went off to college, went to Inman Public Schools, my whole childhood.
MATT: Okay. As A youngster, what were you interested in?
RAEGAN: I really liked to read as a kid. That's probably the biggest thing. I also was really, I really did enjoy going to school when I was a little kid. I was kind of one of those kids who would be sad when school ended for the summer, which makes me sound kind of dorky. But I enjoyed school. I have one younger sister. We're two years apart, so I grew up with her. She was always a good friend to have growing up.
MATT: Yes, adolescence can be a challenge.
RAEGAN: Yes. She was a good sister to grow up with. I played, I did a lot of sports since starting like in preschool, and then I continued all throughout my elementary and junior high school years and into high school as well.
MATT: Did you have any musical interests?
RAEGAN: A little bit. I was in band from the beginning, we started in fifth grade, and then I did that up until, or through the time I graduated. I was in choir for a couple of years, but I just did that a couple of years ago. And then I also I did like the school musicals when I was in high school. And then I should also say I did Scholars Bowl in junior high and high school as well.
MATT: Okay. You were busy and productive then.
RAEGAN: I was. It was a small, it's a small school. So a lot of kids do a lot of everything.
MATT: Okay. Well, I'm imagining that when you were getting into high school and then eventually into college, your interests must have been in radio? Were you listening to radio much then or starting to think about a career in radio?
RAEGAN: I wouldn't say I, not necessarily, probably my first interests, if I was thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up, I was really into history as well, so I thought it'd be cool to maybe do something with history. I always liked English and writing, so I had those interests as well. And then I really didn't think about journalism or anything in the media field until high school, a couple of years into high school.
I think I've told; I probably told this story when we were in our spring pledge drive. But My sophomore and junior years of high school, I got to go to the Kansas State Fair for the Scholastic Press Corps competition that they have. Every year, it's a competition where high schoolers can send groups of kids. There's a print. division and a video division. And I was always a part of the print team.
And so, we spent the whole day at the fair. And on the print side of things, we had to create a newsletter. So we had the whole day to, well, the whole day, but it really went by pretty fast. But we had story assignments, and then we went out and did the interviews, wrote the story, and then had someone designed the newsletter for us. Like I said, I did that for two years, and that really kind of, I guess, got me interested in journalism. Both years I went, I had a lot of fun the whole day. I learned a lot.
Like I said earlier, I was a kid who loved school, so I like learning, and I got to learn a lot about a lot of different things, and I got to talk to some really cool people. So I figured if I could do that as a job, then I would probably have a lot of fun.
MATT: Wow, we hope that turns out to be so. Well, any thoughts about the future or about work goals that you have or anything like that you want to?
RAEGAN: Well, I just want to continue getting better in both aspects of my job. So I hope that I can continue to be a better host. I think it'd be a pretty tall order for me to say I want to be perfect in my hosting because I don't know if anyone is quite perfect. There's going to be times I stumble over words and stuff. But getting better with my on-air delivery and really finding my voice, and then in reporting, it's just a matter of, and this I think will come with time, but just feeling more comfortable in my reporting because we do cover such a large area, and arts and culture is a pretty, like I said earlier, a broad beat. So there's lots of different things I could cover, and sometimes it's kind of a daunt, it feels pretty daunting.
MATT: Well, it's been great to have you come aboard because the KRPS staff shrank down to just two people for a while last year. So it's been a great pleasure to have you and Rachel on board at KRPS. And I like the stories you do. It's a different voice, a different perspective on, you know, Pittsburgh and the surrounding four-state area. And we're delighted to have you here.
RAEGAN: So, yes, I'm enjoying being here.
MATT: Good, well, we're very hopeful, optimistic about the future. All right. Well, thank you, Reagan. It's great talking to you today. This has been that conversation with Reagan Neufeld, our All Things Considered host here at KRPS, who is also the arts and culture reporter at KRPS. Thank
you, Reagan.
RAEGAN: Thank you.
Copyright 2025 KRPS. To see more, visit Four States Public Radio.
