A couple days ago, we were trying to remember the name of a British comedian. As is so often the case, Morning Edition answered our questions for us. This guy: Is John Oliver. He’s the guy whose name we were looking for. And he’s going to win the States back for Mother England. Which would [...]
RadioLab’s Jad Abumrad was commissioned to remake reconstruct a piece of music. According to the Radiolab page on WNYC’s site, “In C,” a 1964 composition by Terry Riley, “quietly changed the world of classical music (and eventually pop music too).” It’s easy to hear that minimalist influence creeping through from Steve Reich to Sufjan Stevens. [...]
You probably already know this, but Jonathan Goldstein, of “This American Life” fame, has his own radio show, “WireTap,” that runs on the CBC Radio One in Canada, and, via Public Radio International, several American public radio stations. It’s more or less like his stuff on “This American Life,” with his sense of humor shifting [...]
Terry Gross accidentally made Tracy Morgan cry, but listening to it again, rather than being the funniest and most touching thing ever, it sounds like Morgan was being bullied. Gross seemed unfazed by his vulnerability, and poked at his frailness with something approaching a dumbstruck disbelief, until it cracked him. Gross expected him to be [...]
One of the things I’ve always loved about the public radio approach is the exploratory attitude the hosts/correspondents/commentators/reporters take when dealing with an unfamiliar topic. This effect is most pronounced when the person talking needs to explain the relevance of the subject. One of the greatest strengths of “Planet Money” is that the show’s staff [...]
While I was at Ball State, I didn’t exactly fall in love with Muncie, but I developed a fondness for the city and its problems that’s difficult to explain. Muncie was a city built on the manufacturing industry, and it was spared somewhat from the Great Depression, owing largely to the Ball brothers and their [...]
I’m not going to say much about Terrence Buckner’s story (from the Moth Podcast) of coming out as gay, except to say that it’s by turns terrifying, troubling, and hilarious. And that you should listen for the line, “He was looking at me like I had three eyes, 32 faces.” Also, the Moth doesn’t post [...]
It is a pretty picture, that’s for sure. And if there was a higher resolution version available, it’d be my new desktop picture. It’s the first photo used in the eerie and awesome radio drama, “The Flickerman.” It originally aired in London earlier this year, and you can poke around with the whole thing, but [...]
Apparently Bill O’Reilly ran out of ideas. He went fishing though NPR’s “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me,” looking for clips of Obama advisor David Axelrod making a fool of himself. It’s clear that O’Reilly isn’t a dues-paying member of his local public radio station, even if just for the classical music that I’m pretty sure [...]
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New York Governor Paterson Makes Rumors Fun Again
New York Governor David Paterson is dealing with rumors that he’s about to be accused of something bad – he’s already admitted ‘marital infidelity’ and cocaine use. The rumors are going crazy, and much like with Britney Spears, we think we know, but we don’t know. It’s gotten to the point that the rumors themselves [...]