NPR - stuffy or sexy?

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yeah that's true, his delivery was a little weird. It didn't start out like it was going to go in that direction.

socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:11 (seven years ago) link

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/362/got-you-pegged

Act 1 for those interested

circa1916, Thursday, 7 July 2016 15:16 (seven years ago) link

I gotta say I love Code Switch, the new NPR podcast.

banjoboy, Saturday, 9 July 2016 19:08 (seven years ago) link

there's a new girl who does the support/benefactor spots and her delivery is so affectedly smooth and precisely enunciated it makes me wanna hurl

skateboard of education (rip van wanko), Saturday, 9 July 2016 19:51 (seven years ago) link

one month passes...

Cokie Roberts: Commentator Says Supporters of Donald Trump Are 'Morally Tainted'

brass fucking balls

The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 04:29 (seven years ago) link

four months pass...

Diane Rhem's last show will air today. (Fear not, she says she wants a podcast!)

I thought her show was a good way to dig under the surface of headlines . . .The show topics were always prescient and she seemed to get good guests.

Beyond the standard NPR liberal bias, she didn't inject much of her personal life into the show. If she had any great auses or passions, I wasn't aware of them.

Her voice never bothered me at all.

Any superfans or h4t3rz?

rip van wanko, Friday, 23 December 2016 11:12 (seven years ago) link

"sexy npr" is a rather disappointing GIS.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bh02IobCbGM/TdCH3WaZ3RI/AAAAAAAAGU4/HEgQmmpX2CM/s1600/cokie.jpg

Least-satisfying overall (Sanpaku), Friday, 23 December 2016 23:02 (seven years ago) link

nine months pass...

One of my youtube habits is to go through random "Tiny Desk Concerts" videos, and I'm shocked at how awful the vast majority of them are. I don't think the people selecting these bands have any taste at all, they just want stuff that superficially has that cloying "Tiny Desk" aesthetic, and occasionally this formula accidentally results in a great performance by a great band. Or maybe it's just that most bands suck, in general.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link

that aesthetic makes my skin crawl but the christian scott and gucci mane tiny desk concerts are so good i can try to overlook the national playing ukeleles or whatever

adam, Monday, 9 October 2017 16:41 (six years ago) link

The NPR music people seem to sincerely like/love most of the music they highlight.

sacral intercourse conducive to vegetal luxuriance (askance johnson), Monday, 9 October 2017 17:04 (six years ago) link

Steve Innskeep is a straight up dealbreaker when it comes to me listening to npr for morning news

rip van wanko, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:13 (six years ago) link

pinegrove tiny desk is also incredible

ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 9 October 2017 17:14 (six years ago) link

I used to think KEXP Live was kinda corny and twee. Then Tiny Desk comes around

rip van wanko, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:21 (six years ago) link

I guess I'm just surprised at how many corny, mediocre, old-man-hat style bands there are in the world.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 17:30 (six years ago) link

Steve Innskeep is a straight up dealbreaker when it comes to me listening to npr for morning news

you mean that if it's no inskeep, it's not a must-listen, or that if it is inskeep, you'd rather listen to nothing at all?

i didn't binge-listen to NPR until i had a temp job in data entry for about a year. i'd spend the entire day mindlessly QCing spreadsheet data with headphones on, and really began to rely on NPR and other talk radio to get me through the day. morning edition was an important part of the routine. i'd listen to it all the way across the workbridge from morning arrival to lunch. i started to like this steve inskeep character, or just the reliable tenor of his voice, really.

then i took a few years off from morning edition, and whenever i heard snippets of it i subconsciously associated it with entering and reviewing spreadsheet data for hours on end, so i'd turn it off. now when i listen to morning edition, steve inskeep often actively pisses me off, and i'm not sure why. i think it has something to do with the way he blankly describes everything with the same tone, his weak interview questions, and even weaker follow-up questions. i haven't heard him do a segment on antifa, but listening to steve inskeep talk about antifa and both-sides it to death sounds like torture.

the twist at the end of all of this? i am steve inskeep

Karl Malone, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:36 (six years ago) link

I did a quick search and this came up:

Steve Inskeep at Amazon - Low Prices on Steve Inskeep. (Ad)
Low Prices on Steve Inskeep. Free 2-Day Shipping w/ Amazon Prime.

A is for (Aimless), Monday, 9 October 2017 17:38 (six years ago) link

steve inskeep is death

marcos, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:38 (six years ago) link

i have literally no idea how i missed the christian scott tiny desk concert when it came out but holy shit

ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, 9 October 2017 17:39 (six years ago) link

@Karl yeah I just can't stomach him. He seems to be actively trying to change the tone of NPR to something a little looser, hipper, more irreverent; which mayyy not be a bad idea -- he's just not the guy to do it

rip van wanko, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:42 (six years ago) link

this party is officially started

https://i.imgur.com/2CJvcqz.jpg

Karl Malone, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:45 (six years ago) link

that is not how I imagined his appearance

I was ok with him but now I'm having second thoughts

mh, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:47 (six years ago) link

there's gotta be a bitchin' rat tail back there

rip van wanko, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:48 (six years ago) link

steve inskeep shows up at your party at 5:30 pm before you even get home from work, talks to you non-stop for the next two hours as you scramble with preparations, and then leaves the party at 8:45pm because he has to get up super early the next morning

Karl Malone, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:51 (six years ago) link

oh shit i'm steve

mh, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:52 (six years ago) link

NPR HR graciously covers the Jaws Of Life rental fee required for all Steve's dental visits

rip van wanko, Monday, 9 October 2017 17:54 (six years ago) link

One of my youtube habits is to go through random "Tiny Desk Concerts" videos, and I'm shocked at how awful the vast majority of them are. I don't think the people selecting these bands have any taste at all, they just want stuff that superficially has that cloying "Tiny Desk" aesthetic, and occasionally this formula accidentally results in a great performance by a great band. Or maybe it's just that most bands suck, in general.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, October 9, 2017 11:58 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i feel like i once argued this to you on here, to a rebuttal of 'theyre just high qual live recordings bruv'. i feel vindicated now thank u

flopson, Monday, 9 October 2017 18:03 (six years ago) link

ha! that sounds very plausible. I mean the sound quality of the recording is very nice imo, just the curation is terrible.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 18:39 (six years ago) link

But then again it looks like they do at least one per week, so I guess I can't totally fault them for not having 50+ good artists per year.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 18:41 (six years ago) link

lol there was a recent one by a band called The Oh Hellos. Perfect.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 18:42 (six years ago) link

Blind Pilot
October 21, 2016 • The band's shimmery folk-pop sound, with its vibraphone and overarching vibrancy, is perfectly suited to the space behind Bob Boilen's desk.

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 18:42 (six years ago) link

The Secret Sisters
September 12, 2016 • The Alabama sibling duo's music can be hymn-like: plain but powerful, heartsick and hopeful. Watch The Secret Sisters perform a river ballad, a hymn and a song capturing some old-fashioned loneliness.

Oh god please no

IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Monday, 9 October 2017 18:45 (six years ago) link

car talk is actually good though

global tetrahedron, Monday, 9 October 2017 21:06 (six years ago) link

i kinda don't mind steve inskeep. when he was temporarily replaced by mary whatever i really hated that bc her voice is so annoying like really bad annoying and i don't like how she says the letter S

assawoman bay (harbl), Monday, 9 October 2017 23:57 (six years ago) link

mary louise kelly, hate her

assawoman bay (harbl), Monday, 9 October 2017 23:57 (six years ago) link

eight months pass...

NPR repeatedly referred to Ocasio-Cortez as wanting to abolish the "Federal Immigration Agency" this morning, instead of abolishing ICE. There is no such agency as the Federal Immigration Agency, there are like six different agencies that deal with immigration. ICE is just the police state wing.

Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Wednesday, 27 June 2018 15:49 (five years ago) link

keep thinking that, sheeple

rehab hot (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 27 June 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link

nine months pass...

"Coming up, the puzzle with Will Shortz and an interview with Cathy Guisewhite!" I don't think I've ever turned anything off so fast.

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 14 April 2019 12:44 (five years ago) link

If you take the name of Cathy's boyfriend and rearrange the letters, you end up with this word that perfectly describes Will Shortz. What is it?

del griffith, Sunday, 14 April 2019 18:01 (five years ago) link

I can't help but be a little fascinated by Will because of his association with the world's greatest sport (table tennis). But it's almost comical how reluctant and low energy a presence he is on air

rip van wanko, Sunday, 14 April 2019 22:03 (five years ago) link

he might be the most npr person on npr

be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Sunday, 14 April 2019 22:34 (five years ago) link

i was going to come to this thread to complain about on being with krista tippett. now that farmers' market season has returned i'm driving at 7:30 a.m. on sundays and she makes me want to drive into a wall mmm yeah

forensic plumber (harbl), Monday, 15 April 2019 01:20 (five years ago) link

i've seen people mock her by calling her 'christian tidbit' lol

weekend NPR is the absolute worst with car talk being the only exception

global tetrahedron, Monday, 15 April 2019 03:23 (five years ago) link

wait wait dont tell me is p good but theres a show called "ask me another" and it might be worse than prarie home companion, yikes

be the 2 chainz you want 2 see in the world (m bison), Monday, 15 April 2019 04:13 (five years ago) link

oh god that one is horrible. it has that particular self-satisfied npr sense of humor. you know the people they play around fundraising time, regular people they have recorded talking about how they love npr. so proud of themselves, for nothing.

forensic plumber (harbl), Monday, 15 April 2019 11:29 (five years ago) link

onnnnn beinggggg

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 15 April 2019 11:39 (five years ago) link

wait wait don't tell me is awful, the panelists think they're 10x funnier than they actually are

global tetrahedron, Tuesday, 16 April 2019 17:25 (five years ago) link

When I graduated many, many years ago, my sweet mother gifted me a multi-volume CD box set of many, many hours of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. She knew I listened to NPR, and I guess I must've mentioned that I sometimes listened to Wait Wait on Saturday mornings, but I guess I didn't make it clear that my listening was entirely passive and my appreciation of it mostly ironic. Anyway, it was very sweet of her and so that's why I waited a few months before placing it directly into the trash can. I like to think that a few days later a 75 year old white liberal dumpster diver's day had been made.

del griffith, Tuesday, 16 April 2019 18:00 (five years ago) link

four years pass...

man I listened to All Things Considered this evening and almost turned it off, the reporters were so terrible (this was after suffering through fucking kai ryssdal's marketplace, why is this still on?). There was a back and forth between host and reporter and the reporter was clearly reading written responses in a completely flat, inflectionless tone, and also sounded like she was in junior high. Asking someone I know who works with NPR what the deal is he simply said "you get what you pay for"

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 18 August 2023 01:32 (eight months ago) link

I get irritated at NPR more than I used to but i haven’t been able to tell if it’s worse than it used to be or I just have less patience with middlebrow milquetoast journalism than I used to.

i'd welcome middlebrow milquetoast journalism, it's the barely coherent junior-high level reading of something prewritten and pretending it's an off the cuff conversation that made me cringe.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Friday, 18 August 2023 01:55 (eight months ago) link


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