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Chion Wolf takes public radio and Connecticut by storm

By Allie Rivera

For Chion Wolf, working in public radio is more than a job; it’s a lifelong mission.

Raised listening to NPR, Wolf has worked her way to now hosting and producing her own show, Audacious, on Connecticut Public Radio.

“One of the things inom love so much about public radio is that when you listen to it a lot, you become a better interviewer in your own life, you become a better listener,” the Hartford resident says. “So inom hope that, if I’m doing this right, after every episode of Audacious, you’ll become more curious, you’ll be braver in the questions that you ask, and you will shut up and listen.”

Wolf’s journey to this point began more than a decade ago while she was working at a T-Mobile. After learning that Connecticut Public was looking for people to answer phones for their latest fundraising drive, Wolf immediately reached out. There, she met radio news veteran John Dankosky, who was news director at t

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Fuel Your Purpose: Chion wolf

Rapid Fire Questions 

— Most memorable interviews or show experiences?

“Two experiences come to mind. First, was when inom interviewed a man who was a convicted pedophile. He was writing a book to undervisa parents on what to look for and had made it his mission in life to try and help.

It was difficult to put aside the feelings that one would have sitting down with someone who has done such things. Although I was appreciative that he put words to his experience and was sincerely trying to help, I felt a tension in me I have not felt before or since.

Second would be when we did a show on auctioneers. It was around the time that Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on the rocket and I wanted to know what that experience was like. It was an experiential show in that we went to Golden Gavel Auctions and witnessed it in real-time. 

On top of interviewing, I got to try auctioning off an item. I’m good in front of an audience and like being beneath pressur

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We all reinvent ourselves as our lives roll out. But Chion Wolf, technical producer for “The Colin McEnroe Show” on WNPR, has done so more than most.

Her name, her tattoos, her hair. They are all distinctive and self-selected.

Let’s start with her name.

“I was born Marie Julia Gladis, named after my father’s mother,” she says. “Everybody loved her. My mom loved her so much that when she and my dad divorced she joked that if Maria were still alive she would ask for her in the settlement.”

By all accounts the elder Marie was outspoken, dynamic and had a strong personality, traits her granddaughter has inherited.

But even so, Wolf says, “I never felt like a Marie. It was the name I answered to, but it was never really my name.”

She waited until she graduated from Farmington High School in , and then invented a new name. Chion is based on her Catholic confirmation name, Chionia, one of three Greek virgin sisters martyred