Janet “Plain Jane” Saidi is the writer and host of The Austen Connection, a free newsletter and podcast featuring conversations about how Austen’s stories connect to us today and connect us to each other.  Janet is a producer, adjunct journalism professor, and host at an NPR-affiliate newsroom in Missouri. She’s also written and produced stories for NPR, PBS, the BBC and BBC World Service, the Los Angeles Times and has written many book reviews for the Christian Science Monitor. The Austen Connection podcast has featured Unmarriageable author Soniah Kamal, The Ripped Bodice bookstore co-owners Bea Koch and Leah Koch, scholar and author Gretchen Gerzina, professor and Jane Austen & Co. co-host Danielle Christmas, scholar and author Devoney Looser, and biographer Claire Tomalin. In 2014 and 2016, Janet co-produced two journalism-on-the-stage theater productions with playwright Michelle Tyrene Johnson: “Justice in the Embers” at Kansas City’s Living Room Theatre, which won a Midwest Innocence Project award; and “The Green Duck Lounge,” with MU Theatre. Janet began her public-media work at KPBS in San Diego, where she co-produced and co-hosted a live, nightly talk show called The Lounge, and served as an editor for Southern California’s Gay & Lesbian Times and Uptown Newsmagazine. At her NPR-affiliate in Missouri, Janet has executive-produced many projects that seek to build community through audio, oral histories, and conversation – and this is also the aim of The Austen Connection, where she hopes to find you and hear all your thoughts on Jane Austen!