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All Things Considered and Fresh Air are daily things for me, although I listen to the podcasts since I'm not in the US. Planet Money, Wait Wait, This American

All Things Considered and Fresh Air are daily things for me, although I listen to the podcasts since I'm not in the US. Planet Money, Wait Wait, This American Life, and Ask Me Another are also regular shows I listen to. I've also been listening to KCRW's Left, Right & Center, and they're part of the NPR network, though I don't know who ends up funding that show. Sometimes I wish All Things Considered had more details on some of the stories, but if all their stories were longer, I would start picking and choosing what I listen to and not get as much variety.

chrisrhoden 11y ago
All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and Wait Wait are all traditional NPR broadcast programs, but since you're not listening via broadcast, your listening behavior is covered here, and it's important to understand why (I'll get into that in a bit). The rest of the shows are either strictly podcasts (Planet Money), not NPR produced (This American Life, Left Right & Center) or built specifically to fight this trend (Ask Me Another). The reason why the way you listen matters is because NPR gets its money from broadcast stations. Every time they do something that has a whiff of asking listeners to donate directly to them, there is a backlash from the stations they are bound by contract to serve. If you listen via podcast and you don't donate to your local public radio station, there's no very good way for NPR to get paid for that listening. Ads exist, but they generally do not support this type of programming entirely and NPR has a complicated relationship with them anyway.
JshWright 11y ago
Fresh Air is a little too biased for me... Terry Gross fawns all over guests she agrees with, and is very aggressive with ones she disagrees with. I much prefer Diane Rehm, who is generally appropriately tough with everyone. My absolute favorite interviewer is Carol Off (As It Happens). She's very polite, but doesn't let anyone get away with anything, no matter what side of the issue they are on.

chrisrhoden 11y ago

All Things Considered, Fresh Air, and Wait Wait are all traditional NPR broadcast programs, but since you're not listening via broadcast, your listening behavior is covered here, and it's important to understand why (I'll get into that in a bit). The rest of the shows are either strictly podcasts (Planet Money), not NPR produced (This American Life, Left Right & Center) or built specifically to fight this trend (Ask Me Another). The reason why the way you listen matters is because NPR gets its money from broadcast stations. Every time they do something that has a whiff of asking listeners to donate directly to them, there is a backlash from the stations they are bound by contract to serve. If you listen via podcast and you don't donate to your local public radio station, there's no very good way for NPR to get paid for that listening. Ads exist, but they generally do not support this type of programming entirely and NPR has a complicated relationship with them anyway.

JshWright 11y ago

Fresh Air is a little too biased for me... Terry Gross fawns all over guests she agrees with, and is very aggressive with ones she disagrees with. I much prefer Diane Rehm, who is generally appropriately tough with everyone. My absolute favorite interviewer is Carol Off (As It Happens). She's very polite, but doesn't let anyone get away with anything, no matter what side of the issue they are on.