This Is NPR: The First Forty Years

"Always put the listener first" has been NPR's mantra since its inception in 1970. Now celebrating its 40th anniversary, NPR's programming attracts over 27 million listeners every week. This beautifully designed volume chronicles NPR's storied history, featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes photos, essays and original reporting by a who's who of NPR staff and correspondents, transcripts of memorable interviews, and an audio CD of the most memorable programming throughout the decades. Beyond an entertaining and inspiring tribute to NPR's remarkable history, this book is an intimate look at the news and stories that have shaped our world, from the people who were on the ground and on the air. With contributions from Steve Inskeep, Neal Conan, Robert Siegel, Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer, Scott Simon, Melissa Block, P.J. O'Rourke, David Sedaris, Sylvia Poggioli, Paula Poundstone, and many more, this is the perfect book for any NPR supporter, fan, or devotee.

This celebration of National Public Radio comes in a snappy magazine style, full of short histories from familiar names. NPR's shaky start was fortified by the devotion of the few staffers working out of a small office in D.C. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 only included radio because of a push from broadcast veterans at the University of Michigan, but the CPB set aside a paltry 10% of funds for Public Radio. Stories such as these remind us that NPR existed, and exists, as a way for everyday voices to explain the world, rather than the stentorian tones of broadcast news. Sylvia Poggioli, Nina Totenberg, Renee Montagne, Cokie Roberts (who suggested that NPR attracted so many talented women because salaries were too low for men), and others were on the front lines of war coverage, reporting from Rwanda to Bosnia to Afghanistan; as a former NPR senior foreign editor put it, "You really never saw a reporting team made up mostly of women." It's fitting that the women, and the men, who built NPR should be the ones to present this retrospective illustrating just how much they have given us.
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