Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with NPR

If the real thing don't do the trick

peachfuzz — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:02:46 -0800

Just curious-filter: Who chooses music for talk radio, and how do they do it? On the big NPR shows, there will always be a piece of out music after an interview or report. I'm curious about who chooses it, and how - sometimes it makes (perhaps dubious) sense with the context of the piece (i.e., the opening bars of "Barracuda" after a piece about Sarah Palin), and you'd think it was selected ahead of time and planned for, but occasionally it indicates some fast footwork on someone's part - this is a silly example, but a few weeks ago a commentator used the word "beshert" at the end of a piece that had nothing to do with Judaism or Yiddish or anything remotely related, and the out music was, bizarrely, a snippet from Yentl. Weird! Is it just some associate producer with a sense of silly humor? Who's involved in making that call?

Larger question - how does music, er, work in a format like this? Do radio stations have huge libraries of music available at all times that they have the rights to play? Or does someone need to think of something and then chase it down?

finding an NPR segment

Jody Tresidder — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:41:30 -0800

I heard part of a feature about this eccentric artist's extraordinary technique on NPR just this weekend - so why can't I find any reference to him/it anywhere? This was definitely on NPR & I thought I'd easily caught enough information to track down the right segment. But I'm not even getting warm. It was an interview with a documentary maker, I think, and her subject was an obsessive visionary eccentric artist who had spent years on one (life sized?) portrait done with ludicrously microscopic pencil strokes. She talked about her overwhelming shivery physical reaction the first time she examined his work closely, and said it was NOT pointillism. I thought she said the portrait was of Marilyn Monroe and that the artist was trying to attract David Hockney's interest in his unique technical achievement? (I only heard what seemed to be the middle of this feature so I guess it's possible I got totally the wrong end of the stick?)

How can I get my hands -- and ears -- on old Planet Money podcasts?

hungrytiger — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:47:01 -0800

I just fell in love with NPR's Planet Money podcast but can't figure out how to access back episodes. I just started listening to Planet Money and I'm excited about it. I'd like to go back and listen to the whole hundred-plus of them, but as far as I can tell they only have the last seven or so available on the NPR website.

Do any of you know another place where these podcasts might be archived/available? It seems odd that they're inaccessible...

Weekly News Podcasts

rossination — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:08:13 -0800

"Week in review" news podcasts? I am a busy student and find that I sometimes have a hard time staying on top of current events. While I do spend a few minutes each day reading NY Times headlines on Twitter, I find that radio is the best way for me to digest news.

I'm looking for the podcast equivalent to the NYT Week In Review page. I currently listen to the 7AM ET News Summary podcast but would like to listen to a slightly more detailed show that comes out every 4-7 days and is in the 20-45 minute range.

I just realized that Weekend Edition is available in podcast form, so I'll check that out. But if I recall correctly, it's a little bit more featury and slightly lighter. Ideally, I'd like something that's more news updates than features [On preview: maybe Weekend Edition Saturday is more what I'm looking for. Still, any other suggestions would be great].

I live in the US but am not opposed to a global news update program. I don't need sports updates of any kind.

[I was inspired to ask this question by this thread, which is great, but I'm not looking for an irreverant show].

What music played in the intro of today's episode of NPR's On Point?

niles — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:09:17 -0800

What music was used in the intro on today's episode of NPR's On Point? You can here it by clicking the "listen to this show" button on the top of this page. It's the drum/guitar piece that starts at 10 seconds in.

I know shows like This American Life list out songs that they use, but I can't find any corresponding list for On Point. The words spoken over the music also prevent me from using any music identification programs.

Anyone recognize it? Thanks!

What was this song I heard?

contessa — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:33:43 -0800

Help me figure out the name/artist of the 8-bit techno snippet played on All Things Considered today. ...And before it's suggested, I did search the NPR site, because I know they list the songs they play between segments.

Not this one, though!

It was played at the tail end of "President's Comments on Economy Examined." I listened to all the songs on the rundown page and...nada. Help?

For NPR, This is Daniel Schorr ... AGGGGH! leaps for dial

WCityMike — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:59:02 -0800

Whenever I listen to National Public Radio, I occasionally come across a news segment or op-ed by Daniel Schorr (he can be listened to here, and here's his Wikipedia article). I don't understand why, but his voice drives me up one wall and down the other. Why? The man has a voice for newspaper — so much so that I literally leap for the off switch or 'Next' button — and I'm not usually sensitive to such things. It's not him being an elderly man — it's something unique to his voice in particular that drives me nuts, but I can't quite figure out what quality it is. I know I'm not alone, though, as I've seen other comments on his voice. Anyone know what quality his voice has that drives so many (and me) nuts? And did it derive from something in his past development (i.e., stroke, etc.) or is it just a natural quality?

(And I'm definitely not belittling the man's achievements – which are many and impressive. Just trying to figure out what the auditory quality of his voice is that drives me up the wall – much as scientists have tried to figure out the auditory reasons behind the fingernails on chalkboard thing.)

What Public Radio station doesn't interrupt Morning Edition & All Things Considered with local programming?

wuntu — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:09:49 -0800

What public radio stations, with an internet stream, broadcast NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered without local programming segments? I listen to Morning Edition and All Things Considered, but don't care for the locally generated content. (I get my local news elsewhere, and the quality of the local programming isn't that great/of interest.)

So I'm looking for an MP3 stream of a station that doesn't have any local parts that interrupt ME and ATC.

I found a small station that did this (at least with Morning Edition), but I can't remember what it was.

Podcasts aren't available for ME and ATC. I'm also interested in listening to this "live" so a podcast wouldn't suffice.

Grumpy NYC Street Photographer?

donblood — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:55:38 -0800

Looking for an NPR video about an aggressive NYC street photographer. Some time within the last six months, I saw an NPR video about a man in NYC who photographs pedestrians. His style was very aggressive: he'd conceal his camera and flash until he was within a foot of his subject, then go in very quickly for a close-up. He's an older guy and he's been doing this at least since the 1970's. His demeanor was decidedly crotchety in the style of the stereotypical New Yorker.

I've been googling around for this story (which I could swear I found on MeFi originally) with no luck. Anyone have any ideas?

(I ask because I saw him working in Times Square today and followed him around for a while.)

Speeches sans words

silby — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:31:44 -0800

I remember hearing on NPR a few years ago, during the California recall election I think, a story about some merrie internet pranksters who digitally removed all the words from politicians' speeches, leaving the stutters and breathing. It was fascinating to hear. Can anybody link me to this stuff, or even a similar thing created for academic rather than comic purposes?

It was one of those days?

Stonestock Relentless — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:28:22 -0800

When I was a kid getting driven to school with NPR on the radio in the late 80's early 90's, there was this sort of interstitial poetry series that often played. I googled for a while finding nothing. I was hoping to find a collection or even just the author/reader's name. The poems themselves all had a similar structure and reused certain lines throughout, similar to a mad libs almost, though obviously a bit more complex.
The following examples are pulled from foggy memories:
It started with "It was one of those and the ________ was _______."
There was also "Down by the fireplug _______ was singing ______by the _______."

I also remember a line "salt and pepper hair, you're no spring chicken."

The purpose of this search is for a mother's day gift.

Why All the Weird Names at NPR?

empath — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:33:16 -0800

Why do NPR reporters have such unusual names? Inspired by this blog post, I started wondering about why NPR reporters and hosts seem to have such unusual names. Or are their names even that unusual? Is there something about the hiring process there that might lead to hiring people with uncommon names?

How do I get a job at NPR?

orville sash — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:08:03 -0800

I'm 29, I'm living comfortably as an IT professional in New York City, but my dream is to work for NPR. I have a bachelor's in journalism and I was the music director at my college radio station...6 years ago. I have no connections, I have been out of radio production since college. What do I do? My first impulse was the to just buy the necessary equipment and start interviewing people to create clips I could use in my cover letter/resume. I bought a Marantz PMD 620, and an electrovoice Re-50 mic, and started contacting the folks I wanted to interview, but no one was particularly interested in being interviewed by a guy who's basically doing it as a hobby, with no immediate intention to find a place for it on the airwaves.

Next, I went to the New York NPR affiliate (WNYC) and asked if they had internships for people outside of college, or if there was any way to do volunteer production work. Again, nothing.

I applied to a couple of production jobs that were posted on the WNYC website, but my lack of experience was apparent on my resume, and I was never called back for an interview.

My next step is to audition for a radio show at WFMU, the community run radio station in Jersey City, so I can get more recent broadcast experience. The earliest opening they have is in April.

Still, I feel like I'm being rebuffed in every direction. This is compounded by the fact that I live in New York City, which ups the ante considerably as far as competition goes. I know that I would excel in this position, and, in spite of a likely steep pay cut, I am sure I would be infinitely happier at work than I am now. Where do I go from here?

Name this This American Life story

NoraReed — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:29:06 -0800

NPR Filter: What is the story from This American Life about two newspaper journalists who compete to get a certain phrase in the newspaper? A friend remembers this story but hasn't been able to find it in the archive; he doesn't remember what the phrase was.

Short story read on NPR about white family helping black family in the 1930s at the holidays?

chr1sb0y — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:16:51 -0800

Can you help identify a short story read on NPR on or around x-mas day 2007, about a poor white family helping out a poor black family, probably out west, probably in the 1930s? One particular scene involved something like this: a white father coming back from town with 2 turkeys and fruit or candy, from a church or food pantry, and giving one turkey to a black man, who had assumed black folks were not invited to the giveaway. Ths story may have been told from the point of view of a child.

I've searched the NPR site and have not been able to track it down. Thanks!

Total employees at NPR?

Paleoindian — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:39:55 -0800

How many people work at NPR inc. National Public Radio what is the total number of employees? I can't find the info in their annual reports.

help me remember this NPR segment

pipti — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:08:29 -0800

Anyone remember this segment?: A few years ago I heard a radio essay (probably on NPR) about the process of getting a country song written and recorded. The reporter wasn't a songwriter by trade, but he had written a silly-ish song for the purposes of trying to get it published. Part of the song was something about trying to reach someone and always getting her voicemail. Another joke in the essay was something like, "Daddy didn't raise no fool, you'd better get in to a magnet school." At the end of the essay, Willie Nelson sings the reporter's song. Anyone remember this? I want to play it for a songwriter friend.

How do you listen to NPR?

jckll — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:15:13 -0800

Help me download/stream (generally listen to) the best NPR programming. So the NPR.org website, as I see it, is generally a bit lacking. I love listening to NPR on the real radio (ahh!) when I'm in the car, but this isn't very often. But catching up on segments that air when I'm not driving is harder than it should be, or I'm just missing something.

How do you stream/download NPR? Ideally, I'd love a website that has a list of all available NPR programming, organized by show or by date, with short descriptions of each clip, available for streaming or downloading. Is this somewhere on the NPR website and I just haven't found it? Does it exist on a third-party site? Or a third-party program (iTunes, etc)? Having to navigate through each "show" and digging within those individual pages for interesting segments is tedious.

How do you listen to NPR?

I want to hear this broadcast again!

kepano — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:00:02 -0800

About ten days ago I was listening to NPR in my car (KPCC in Pasadena, to be specific) and heard a hysterical piece on Great Britain's success at the Olympics. Help me find it! A British columnist(?) was stating with great humor that most Olympics sports were in invented in England but somehow the Brits have become terrible at them. As a result they've striven to become the world's best losers. The recent downpour of gold medals came as a shock and the columnist wanted to apologize to the other nations for their success.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? NPR has a great archive but I just can't find this broadcast! Help!

How do I make an NPR audition recording?

lizjohn — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:19:46 -0800

How do I make an NPR audition recording? My husband has an opportunity to be a fill-in anchor/host/announcer for jazz/classical programming on a local NPR affiliate. He needs to make an audition recording tape/cd. The problem is, we don't have any decent recording equipment nor are we exactly sure what they are looking for.

Is this something we can do on a reasonably cheap microphone hooked to our laptop? What should he record? Does anyone have experience in this area?

Qualifications my husband has: hosted a jazz radio show in college, well-read enthusiast's knowledge (or better) of jazz and classical and a music education background. When he got his first show, he kind of fell into it, and did not need to audition, so he is unclear what he needs to do. Also, he doubts any recordings exist of previous radio show as it was a simply a college radio show.

Thanks!

Indian consumer-oriented research service?

blue andrea — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:59:09 -0800

I'm looking for a company based in India, cited in a story I heard on NPR sometime in the past week or so, that handles a given number of Joe Consumer research queries per month for a flat fee. The reporter in the story used the example of calling the service around 5pm on a Friday, trying to find a part for a bike, just wanting to know who locally had the part, how much it cost, and if they could set it aside for him to pick up; the service was able to accomplish this in a short period of time.

Normally I can find these stories searching the NPR or WBUR site, but not even Google is helping me this time.

Explaining a unique and ubiquitous kind of stuttering on public radio?

evariste — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:36:26 -0800

Is "NPR stutter" a collective affectation? Public radio stutter? Yeah, for lack of a better name, that's what I'm calling it. Like today on Talk of the Nation, host Neil Conan and interview subject AO Scott from the NYT both did the NPR stutter a lot. I only hear this on public radio: not "um", not "uh", but "the...the...the...the something". And the stutter encompasses not just articles like "the", but real words too. I almost never hear this in real life, but on NPR, it's constant! In real life people just say "ah" and "uh" and "um". I also heard "uh" and "um" from AO Scott, so I'm guessing the NPR stutter isn't necessarily an attempt to avoid saying "uh" and "um" on the radio. Or is it? Could it be that simple?

The places where NPR stutter strikes also don't always make sense to me. I can see stuttering while you're searching for just the right word or trying to decide what you're about to say, but very often, the NPR stutterer comes out with the obvious next word or phrase, a word or phrase he or she just heard two seconds ago. For instance, in the aforelinked interview about superhero movies, a caller asked a question about Batman video games, and AO Scott's reply contained a phrase like this: "the first, first, first, first Batman video game". It seemed so unlikely to me that he would be struggling so mightily to pull the words "Batman video game" out of his mind. Isn't that the topic, and didn't he just hear that very phrase in the question he was answering?

I'm not trying to pick on people if this is a medical condition of some kind, I'm just honestly befuddled and curious. It seems like it's way more common on public radio than it has any right to be, which makes me think it's a collective affectation and not a speech disorder.

Can anyone explain what's going on with this ubiquitous stutter?

Anyone remember a NPR/PRI 'search for a baby sitter' story?

rlm-job — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:53:05 -0800

NPR or PRI story- About a year ago, I heard a story in which the narrator was attempting to find his long lost baby sitter- a woman named Susan or Sharon?! It seemed like a TAL type story but I don't believe it was Ira Glass. Sadly I missed the ending and have been searching for it ever since. Has anyone heard of the story?

Best episode to introduce someone to This American Life?

exhilaration — Sun, 04 May 2008 13:49:27 -0800

Best episode to introduce someone to This American Life? I'm a big fan of This American Life and I'd like to introduce my friend to it by pointing him to a truly great episode. I know this sounds suspiciously like a chatfilter question, but I'm looking for suggestions of the most moving and compelling episode/segment you've heard on the show.

Remember the NPR interview about the book on a Chinese businessman?

rmless — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:37:19 -0800

Help me find a book about a Chinese businessman mentioned on NPR for my Dad! My Dad says he was listening to NPR a few months ago and he heard an interview with a Western author about his nonfiction book. The book was about (paraphrasing, could be wrong) a Chinese businessman who imported automobiles, got too rich for the government's liking, and fled in a rowboat.

Any ideas? I have tried googling and looking on the NPR website and I am not coming up with any good results.

I am looking for the name of the author, name of the book, or anything that helps me be able to buy it!