About Us

2 below zero is dedicated to creating thoughtful, thought-provoking radio, interactive and film documentaries. It was founded by Todd Melby and Diane Richard, a pair of Minneapolis-based producers and reporters. They are also a couple, with kids/stepkids, a mortgage and a French bulldog named Foxy to prove it.


Radio stories produced by Todd and Diane have aired on NPR’s All Things Considered, Marketplace, The World and elsewhere. And on lots of individual public radio stations, including Chicago Public Media, MPR News, Prairie Public, New York Public Radio and the hippest little radio station in Minneapolis, KFAI. Their work has won multiple national journalism awards, including a pair of Edward R. Murrow awards and a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists.


Todd received his bachelor’s degree from Hamline University, in St. Paul, Minn., and a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Todd also hosts The Drunk Projectionist, a podcast that’s buzzed about film.

Diane received her bachelor’s degree from Smith College, in Northampton, Mass., and a master’s in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia.