Marie Nelson: Signing Off

At the risk of being stoned, by you our loyal online community, and quite honestly, most to the team that produces Tell Me More, I begin this posting with lyrics from Michael Jackson's "Gone Too Soon."

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon

Today is a profoundly difficult one for me. It's my last day producing Tell Me More as I embark upon a new journey, working in the Obama administration as part of their efforts to build peace in the Sudan.

But, I want to share with you the reasons that I accepted Michel's invitation, three years ago, to come to NPR to create this program. First, I believe in Michel Martin. She has the unique capacity to dazzle and to get down and dirty. She is funny and human and she gets it right. I would have followed her anywhere, and that's the real truth. However, there was the added attraction of being able to make real things we had only dreamed of — telling stories and reaching people that we believe are an integral and often underserved part of the public radio universe.

In the early days, we sat for hours in small rooms with nothing more than flip charts and a fountain of ideas.

What could we bring to the table that was fresh, relevant and powerful?

The Moms, Barbershop and scores of talented contributors began to make the ideas from the flip charts come to life. And though our motley crew started as a dynamic duo, we built a team of dedicated and crafty journalists, who added their dreams to the mix.

How else could we have brought you conversations like James Harvey (a a Newark father who lost his son to gun violence) , Makaiya (the pregnant teenager), veteran black journalist Bernard Shaw, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former KKK leader David Duke and Queen Latifah, to name a few?

We traveled the program from Las Vegas to Jackson, Miss. We chased Obama in a convoy down the highways and byways of the campaign trail, forced Michel to consume alcoholic beverages for our "summer sipping" series —- all for the love of you. So, as I pack my boxes, and honestly shed more than a few tears, I know that I am leaving you in the best of hands.

For me, in this chapter, the sun sets. For you, the moon rises and the dream lives on for all of us.

Be good to each other.