ESPN Anchor John Anderson Connects With Home State Through “Inside Wisconsin” Podcast

John Anderson hasn’t officially called Green Bay, Wis. ‘home’ since 1983, when he graduated from Southwest High School and made his way to the University of Missouri to kick off a journalism career that has made him one of the most recognizable faces of ESPN but he’s never forgotten his roots.

So when longtime friend Trevor Thomas called out of the blue one day during the pandemic and suggested launching a Wisconsin-themed podcast, the venerable and affable anchor didn’t need to think long about it — though, he did need to run it past the powers-that-be in Bristol, Conn.

But once they gave their blessing, Anderson and Thomas set forth to tell the stories of their home state through conversations with some of the Wisconsin’s most recognizable and beloved names.

One year later, Inside Wisconsin has taken off in ways neither host could have imagined and Anderson, who proudly displays a Green Bay Packers stock certificate on the wall of his office at ESPN, couldn’t be more thrilled with the experience.

“It’s a way for me to feel connected, more connected than I am,” Anderson said. “I like the Packers, I like cheese, I like beer and all those things but there’s a very small peer group out here so this is a way to stay connected back home.”

Anderson is the recognizable name but he’s quick to credit Thomas not only for the idea behind the podcast, but also the legwork of production and promotion.

“I am literally just riding Trevor’s coattails,” Anderson says with a grin. “This is all his passion and he was kind enough to ask me to get on board.”

Their friendship began in the most unlikely of ways, years ago when Thomas was working for an independent summer baseball league team in Green Bay and had the idea of getting Anderson to attend an upcoming game for a promotional event.

Unsure of how to reach Anderson, Thomas tried an unorthodox approach: he direct-dialed the ESPN switch board and asked to speak to the anchor.

“I said ‘hi, this is Trevor in Green Bay calling for John Anderson’ and I don’t know who they thought I was but the put me right through,” Thomas said. “I thought it was a mistake and almost hung up because I wasn’t prepared to actually talk to him.”

A few months later, Thomas was sitting in a deer stand when his cell phone rang, showing a Bristol, Conn. phone number and the two spoke for roughly 30 minutes.

“We’ve been buddies ever since,” Thomas said.

Fast-forward to the Fall of 2020 when the country was still gripped in the depths of pandemic-induced lockdowns. Thomas got the idea for the podcast and reached out to Anderson and got the ball rolling.

While Anderson worked on getting approval from ESPN, Thomas started building a studio in his basement; watching YouTube videos on how to run audio and video recording equipment. The two spoke regularly as they started to hammer out a format, style and guest list with none other than Barry Alvarez, the legendary football coach who returned the University of Wisconsin to respectability before taking over as the schools Director of Athletics.

Landing Alvarez for the debut episode turned out to be a stroke of good fortune. Not only was he one of the most respected sports figures in state history, Alvarez had also just made headlines by announcing his retirement.

And while the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had the story first Anderson and Thomas had something nobody else did: roughly an hour of uninterrupted conversation, snippets of which would appear on television broadcasts, social media feeds and newspapers across the state and the country.

“A hell of a way to start a podcast,” Thomas said.

Not even the biggest and most expensive marketing campaign could have provided the kind of advertising Inside Wisconsin got from Alvarez and from there, Thomas’ long-shot idea started to take off.

Since launching, the duo have talked to Wisconsin sport legends like two-time Daytona 500 champion Matt Kenseth, Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang, and former Milwaukee Brewers legend Gorman Thomas, among others.

Broadcasters like the University of Wisconsin’s Matt Lepay, Brewers radio announcer Jeff Levering and Brian Anderson, the Brewers’ longtime television announcer who has become one of Turner Sports’ top play-by-play announcers. Even Anderson’s ESPN teammates Steve Levy and John Buccigross joined the show last fall after spending some time in Wisconsin for various assignments.

But while the guest list has been heavy on sports names and despite Anderson’s and Thomas’ sports backgrounds, the show isn’t sports-specific. Along with the long list of famous sports personalities, Anderson and Thomas have also sat down for conversations with Craig Culver, the founder and CEO of Culver’s restaurants, a Wisconsin-based chain famous for its frozen custard and butter burgers, and Dick Leinenkugel, president of the eponymous brewing company founded in Chippewa Falls, Wis.

“We did not want to do a strictly sports podcast,” Thomas says. “John and I talk about having core values of being promoters of joy, of positivity and helping build unity and community in Wisconsin.”

The duo coined a phrase that has come to define the podcast: “the people, the stories and the ‘state-tritism’ of America’s Dairyland.

“We are Wisconsin people,” Anderson said. “If you know what a bubbler is, then we’re for you. We don’t try to be more than that.”