Is it fashionable to dislike NPR?

Radiolab is unlistenable. Are there people out there that enjoy randomly edited sentences of different people interrupting each other every other word? I swear if you don't catch it at the very beginning it's just a meaningless jumble of different words. Maybe this is what all of life sounds like when you have dementia. Maybe I do.

I've also complained elsewhere about how everyone on NPR seems to now start every sentence with "yeah so." Yeah so I've complained about this elsewhere.....

I hate radiolab, I also hate all the crappy podcasts made by people who should never be in front of a microphone (so many “uhhhh”s). I like root beer.

Up with 'urps! Down with uhs!

I don't know a single person (outside of one person who is a friend of Jad Abumrad's) who likes Radiolab, and I know a lot of people who work for NPR stations.It's got to be the least liked of anything on NPR outside of game shows (Sez You, I'm talking about you, you smarmy shit)

Eh. Finding excellence in the mass media is always hard, especially in programming that must churn out something new every day of the week. I'm just gratified when NPR does a better job than daily cable or broadcast television newscasts, podcasts, or commentary programs. Which happens just often enough for me to continue to listen in hope of those segments.

As someone said upthread a ways, what are your alternatives? And are they more consistent than NPR? Cover as broad a set of topics? As timely? Nothing's perfect out there.

Radiolab has been patronizingly bad from the beginning. I never understand how/why people loved it so much.

Some people don't mind being patronized, if they think they are also learning something. Robert Krulwich has always been the King of Patronizing, but he has always had an avid following on NPR, too, because he often picks topics people are interested in hearing about or feel insufficiently informed about. He made his first splash on All Things Considered in the late 70s doing 'Vox-explainer' type segments about economics.

it’s not hard to make something not suck, just cut out with the cute and clever all the time

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/07/today-in-npr

disgusting

Why voters aren't impressed by 'Bidenomics'

Many Democrats think delivering tangible economic benefits to working class and lower-income voters will help them win more elections.

Some policy wonks call it "deliverism." But does it work?

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/08/01/why-voters-arent-impressed-by-bidenomics

shit like this makes my blood boil!

Uh, what does that have to do with NPR and whether it is worth listening to?

it's a radio show that's co-produced by NPR and syndicated on a lot of NPR stations including my local

Sorry about the boiling blood. You might want to lie down until it passes. Or you can call them to complain. Tell them you won't pony up for the next pledge drive if they air that drivel. They might even notice and it will make you feel better.

you can really be an ass for no good reason on here

anyway, the whole program was basically about how the democrats need to stop giving away free money to everybody all the time, because it doesn't actually "work," and actually it could lead to authoritarianism. as if. in other words, the usual barefaced contempt for working people and poor folk, the same ones that NPR is constantly reminding us are to blame for inflation. i know i should never put it on. i'm posting here to remind myself to never put it on.

"providing ppl economic benefits is not a winning electoral strategy" is the kind of take you could only imagine the pundit class coming up with

It’s a lie that “giving people money” doesn’t work because we have direct evidence of a drop in child poverty when we had the child tax credit during Covid.

conservatives should love NPR it’s all about upholding the current system.

I stopped listening to NPR 20 years ago when they became cheerleaders for Iraq War II: The Deuce. I guess I haven’t missed anything. Their music selections always sucked; I continue to discover more from KXLU (Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles’ radio station, which I stream online)

this is what my local NPR station is broadcasting right now. fucking piece of shit station

https://opentodebate.org/debate/do-unions-work-for-the-economy/

Ha, I listened to that too. Very both-sidesy! I yelled SCAB at the anti-union debater several times. The pro-union guy seemed more competent and composed in his argument but then again, I am a card carrying union member.

yeah, you must have more fortitude than me. the fact that they made some sleazy libertarian the 'moderator' pissed me off too.

A week or so ago I was listening to NPR, and for whatever reason, on whatever show, they were doing a deep dive into Sepultura.

i heard that too -- it was on Code Switch iirc. enjoyed it tbh! Radiolab is indeed on the irritating end of the spectrum. I kinda miss Fresh Air now that it airs at some time I am never listening.

i listen to the Chicago NPR station for all kinds of reasons -- local news coverage, listen to news while i go about required daily tasks, scouting for digestible examples of various topics/arguments to use in class.

What I find unlistenable and would choose silence over: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and anything resembling "topical humor", radio plays old and new, most "storytelling" shows like The Moth, and most TedTalks-related programming. Runner up goes to the too-long lunchtime talk show that asks only the most basic questions of its guests and can't keep a host for very long.

also 0 tolerance for Scott Simon's laugh if i am being my most petty self

Years ago I had a little crush on Kai Ryssdal, but lately it seems like he is i dunno just really leaning way to hard into Kainess on Marketplace.

Oh yeah lol he’s in the moderately aggravating category. Too full of the sound of his own voice.

I always wanna defend NPR against the rancor of my communist friends, whose position is basically "everything sucks except for us communists," but then they go and have a guy from fucking REASON "guest moderate" their "Do Unions Work?" panel and I'm like, fuckin, are you shitting me

If I understand Kai-ness correctly, it is a strong tendency to folksy phrasing, delivered with a certain chirpy cheerfulness like he's trying to turn his face into a heart and mash it through the mic and into your brain.

radio plays old and new

I was gonna say I've never heard an NPR station broadcast anything like this but then I remembered Selected Shorts... does that exist as a radio show anymore?

I remember some holiday-themed radio plays or maybe they just play them on holidays to take up space? Idk. They’re unbearable.