Fasting may be the remedy for jet lag. By overiding your clock (audio interview 12 min) that prepares your body to eat, it is likely that you can reset your body's clock. Might this be the missing step in training yourself to be an early riser? via
posted on May 23, 2008 - View this thread

The Giant Pool of Money. This American Life teams up with NPR News to explain the Housing Crisis.
posted on May 11, 2008 - View this thread

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

This story's making the rounds today, for a very, very good reason: A Victim Treats His Mugger Right
posted on Mar 28, 2008 - View this thread

MindHabits : The game that helps you love yourself? Via.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes? Related: Whatever Happened to John Hughes? which has an accompanying photo gallery: Where are Hughes' teen stars now? [A previous post about John Hughes here.]
posted on Mar 24, 2008 - View this thread

Bobby Dunbar was a four year-old boy that vanished in 1912, while on a fishing trip with his family in a Louisiana swamp. For weeks, searchers combed the area looking for him. The lake where he went missing was dynamited. Alligators were captured and had their bellies slit open to see if the body was inside. Nothing was found except a set of child's footprints leading to an old railroad trestle. Eight months later, the police found Bobby in the company of a drifter with a horse-drawn cart. He protested his innocence but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Another woman came forward and claimed Bobby was, in fact, her son. But she was an unmarried fieldworker, and her claims were dismissed. The crime became a nationwide media event and the boy was returned to his parents, and their hometown held a parade in his honor. Bobby returned to his life. Ninety-one years later, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter uncovered the truth.
posted on Mar 19, 2008 - View this thread

Live right now NPR is broadcasting REM from SXSW along with sets from Summerbirds in the Cellar, Johnathan Rice, Papercranes and Dead Confederate.
posted on Mar 12, 2008 - View this thread

In 1962, in a mission-run girls' boarding school in Kashasha, Tanzania, a student started laughing uncontrollably. Her laughter spread throughout the school, and the girls grew violent when teachers tried to calm them. Administration closed the school, sent some girls home, and the "epidemic of laughing and crying" spread to villages up and down the Bukoba district.
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - View this thread

Om nom nom nom! NPR's In Character interviews Cookie Monster. In addition to the video interview, there is are articles (written and audio) about The Big C.
posted on Feb 15, 2008 - View this thread

NPR and twelve public radio partners have launched NPR Music, a free, multi-genre Web site showcasing the best of public radio music.
posted on Nov 7, 2007 - View this thread

Proposed Candidate Ringtones. Taking a cue from the Obama campaign, Billion Dollar President (a new public radio show) whips up some possible ringtones for the other candidates. Be sure to check out Kucinich and Huckabee. There's also a contest to design your own.
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - View this thread

Sigur Rós have been doing publicity for a documentary about the band called Heima (trailer). They went on NPR's The Bryant Park Project and did an interview which went achingly wrong. On the show's website, interviewer Luke Burbank describes it as "possibly the worst interview in the history of electronic media."
posted on Oct 11, 2007 - View this thread

An unscientific, blind taste-test of US$55/btl bottled vs tap water
posted on Sep 10, 2007 - View this thread

President Bush touched down in New Orleans at 7:11 p.m. this evening The 84-year-old Chase sat close to the president and accepted his praise for the meal of jambalaya, stewed okra and gumbo z'herb, an all-greens gumbo that's a tradition at Chase's Holy Thursday dinners.
posted on Aug 28, 2007 - View this thread

"I've said all along, we are in this together." John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange - the royalty collecting arm of the RIAA - extends an olive branch through 2008 that will cap the advance payments internet broadcasters will have to cough up at $2500 per year. This comes in the wake of the Day of Silence, (it was June 26, did anyone notice?) spearheaded by Los Angeles-based terrestrial/online radio station KCRW (home of the brilliant Morning Becomes Eclectic) and SaveNetRadio, during which some of the biggest names in online radio - include Live365, NPR and Pandora - went dark for 24 hours, airing a one-hour broadcast twice during that day on the history of flat fees in public broadcasting. [direct .mp3, 38mb] Under the much-maligned changes made by our government's Copyright Royalty Board, the top six internet radio stations would have had to pay 47 percent of their total revenue (anticipated to be around $37.5 mil.) to the RIAA, starting this July. The Internet Radio Equality Act [summary, in its entire pdf glory] has been introduced to the House of Representatives, seeking to permanently reverse this decision.
posted on Jul 3, 2007 - View this thread

This week, WNYC's On The Media reran a report from November 14, 2003 entitled "Pulling Back the Curtain." Here's the transcript of the report or you can listen here. Reporter John Solomon relates what it was like to join NPR and suddenly realize how much the "behind-the-scenes manufacturing process" gives NPR its polished product. Whether you are surprised by any of this or not, it is refreshing to hear a news outlet (which I could not live without) examine itself.
posted on May 26, 2007 - View this thread

“I wanted to try to capture the intelligence of the design, not just the outcome of the design.” “In 1977, [Donald] Knuth halted research on his books for what he expected to be a one-year hiatus. Instead, it took 10. Accompanied by [his wife] Jill, Knuth took design classes from Stanford art professor Matthew Kahn. Knuth, trying to train his programmer’s brain to think like an artist’s, wanted to create a program [TeX] that would understand why each stroke in a typeface would be pleasing to the eye.”—from a profile of Knuth in the Stanford Magazine (May '06). Salon calls him “computing’s philosopher king” (Sep '99). NPR’s Morning Edition interviews Knuth as “the founding artist of computer science” (Mar '05). Perhaps a MeFite somewhere has one of these? (Previously)
posted on Apr 23, 2007 - View this thread

IPR: Irrational Public Radio "We love NPR, PRI, & MPR. We are fans of All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Car Talk, This American Life, Fresh Air, and Prarie Home Companion. We like the commentaries, the features, the independent member station programs. We love them all dearly. But we also think they're begging to be made fun of. So here we are."
posted on Mar 29, 2007 - View this thread

Ira Glass sits at a soundboard and schools us on the art of storytelling.
posted on Mar 20, 2007 - View this thread

Robert Krulwich tells the tale of Dr. Alan Rabinowitz and his friend... "Dawi told Alan the terrible secret that explained why there were so few Taron (left in the world). And then Alan told Dawi a secret of his own..." (includes audio link)
posted on Feb 3, 2007 - View this thread

Barbaro is dead. He was a horse. A horse with fans. Enjoy some fan videos. [mostly via]
posted on Jan 29, 2007 - View this thread

Wayward country son Jimmy Dale Gilmore's essay via NPR A little post-feast reflection. Real/WMP audio and text.
posted on Dec 25, 2006 - View this thread

NPR rebroadcasts David Sedaris reading from his book Santaland Diaries.
posted on Dec 22, 2006 - View this thread

From performing in a concert for Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, to serving as background music for the shock-and-awe bombing of Baghdad, Lionel Richie is much beloved throught the Arab world. A Nightline piece, and an upcoming GQ magazine article (via NPR) examine the Lionel of Arabia phenomenon.
posted on Dec 4, 2006 - View this thread

This short NPR interview with two guys that do negative campaign ad voiceovers is not to be missed. They cover buzzwords, types of delivery, and then riff on nursery rhymes. [via notmartha]
posted on Nov 7, 2006 - View this thread

Radio Lab! Already listened to everything This American Life offers or maybe looking for something a bit smarter and full of science? Maybe you'll like Radio Lab. Maybe you'll like the mind-blowing and historically expanding episode on music. Maybe older history is your cup of tea -- how about biblical times and how they sit in shoeboxes in Oxford. A stack of shows available via podcast, MP3 download (and some .RAM, sorry).
posted on Oct 13, 2006 - View this thread

This American Life is now offering free podcasts. A while ago, someone noticed MP3s of This American Life episodes were sitting in a publicly accessible directory. People soon starting making podcasts. This American Life asked them to stop. Most of them did. Fans of the show were disappointed. Now the podcast is available directly from TAL for free.
posted on Oct 12, 2006 - View this thread

The Room: The Movie. Triple-threat (actor/writer/director) Tommy Wiseau made his cinematic debut in 2003 with the The Room (see trailer and various scenes), "a blend between a softcore porn flick and a Tennessee Williams stageplay." Wiseau ("who's not just one of the most unusual looking and sounding-with an unidentifiable Eastern European accent-leading men ever to grace the screen, but a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint...may be something of a first: A movie that prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back-before even 30 minutes have passed." - Variety), allegedly raised $6 million outside Hollywood to cover production and marketing costs of the self-described "black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies" (see various rough dress rehersals). Audience members, including comedian David Cross, have been "marveling at the bizarre editing, bad bluescreen, uncomfortably explicit sex scenes and, of course, the enigma of Wiseau himself" as the film played monthly for years in Los Angeles. Available on DVD, diehard "roomies" swear by the theatrical experience, shout out their own commentary, hurl spoons at the screen and singalong to the soundtrack. Some call it "The Rocky Horror of the New Millenium" and stage "Room" parties. If you look at the marketing campaign or survived a screening you might see The Room as "a seminar on how NOT to make a movie." [Inspired by Boing Boing]
posted on Jun 1, 2006 - View this thread

Hurdy Gurdy. Swedish techno band that uses only sounds sampled from the hurdy gurdy. [via NPR] [a little more inside]
posted on Mar 9, 2006 - View this thread

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are a band that, less than a year ago, were making music without the help of a record label, pressing CDs themselves and selling them at concerts and on the Internet. Then the following happened: June 9: Dan Bierne writes about the band on his MP3 blog, June 14: Pitchfork Media posts a review of the song "In This Home On Ice", June 15: Blogger Gothamist posts an interview with the band, June 20: Blogger Stereogum announces the band's show at the Knitting Factory, June 21: Gothamist reports that David Bowie was in the audience at the Knitting Factory show, and June 22: Pitchfork posts one of a slew of reviews of Clap's first album. Now, they've been named to dozens of critics 'best of' lists, they're playing Conan and Letterman, and are about to embark on a new tour. Why choose today to post an article about a band blowing up written in November you ask? Because their tour kicks off tonight at the 9:30 club in DC, and you can listen to it live.
posted on Mar 8, 2006 - View this thread

Twilight for Black Farms. An interesting topic at NPR. Photos. Audio. Essay.
posted on Feb 24, 2006 - View this thread

So You Think You Hate Country Music? Then listen to this. The roots of American country music may surprise you. In this series of NPR programs, trace the gradual development of real country music through the first half of the 20th century. Learn how a woman's instrument of the late 1800s, the parlor guitar, became the the central symbol of country and rock; see how African-American musical forms like gospel and blues meshed with the development of country and early rock and influenced the traditional forms in turn; listen to German-Mexican hybrids of accordian style; find out why women had so many honky-tonk torch songs to sing in the late 40s. The series contains hours of content (narrative, interviews, music tracks), and a multitude of excellent links for deeper digging.
posted on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

NPR’s Live Concert Series site offers recordings of recent live performances by James Brown, Sinead O’Connor, Iron & Wine and Calexico, Son Volt, My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, M. Ward, Sigur Ros, Bloc Party, The Decemberists, and live tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET, Colin Meloy.
posted on Jan 27, 2006 - View this thread

this i believe: there is no god. the inimitable, outspoken penn jillette (of penn and teller fame) takes a hell of a brave stand in today's climate of blind faith.
posted on Nov 21, 2005 - View this thread

NPR: 'My Lobotomy'
In 1960, Howar Dully was a badly behaved 12-year-old. He was lobotomized with an icepick (as were hundreds of others) and talks about it on this radio show. See also.
posted on Nov 16, 2005 - View this thread

"Demand the truth."
A stunningly detailed interview with (Abu-Ghraib-involved) former general Janis Karpinski.
(Interviewer: Diane Rehm.)
posted on Nov 8, 2005 - View this thread

Spam Stock Tracker Haven't you ever been just a little curious if you could "D0UB1E Y0UR |M|0|N|E|Y| EVERY WEEK!!!" like the the email said? [via NPR's Marketplace]
posted on Oct 16, 2005 - View this thread

Studs Terkel, lengendary historian and radio host pays a visit to Democracy Now! today. Audio and Video, as well as the transcript of this historic interview are here. Also, the WBAI pledge drive is this week too, please give what you can.
posted on Oct 5, 2005 - View this thread

After The Flood Surprising stories from survivors in New Orleans. We give people who were in the storm more time than daily news coverage can to tell their stories and talk about what they're thinking. This leads to a number of ideas that haven't made it into the regular news coverage. The most recent episode of This American Life is now up on their website--This American Life is one of the best programs on public radio and this was one of their best episodes ever. It is well worth a listen.
posted on Sep 13, 2005 - View this thread

Does public radio sound fresh to you? Ira Glass is interviewed about the current state of public radio, as well as the ongoing experiment of re-tooling This American Life for TV. From the CJR.
posted on Aug 23, 2005 - View this thread

Yes, it's the great god bird,
with its altar call.
posted on Jul 7, 2005 - View this thread

Hip-Hop Legends Digable Planets Reunite! Word, and they're touring.
posted on May 25, 2005 - View this thread

Don't catch all the West Wing Dialogue? Me either... The idea so offended my NPR supporting cum aging grad student sensibilities that I had to read why "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" (nyt, reg. req.). Am now completely sold on the argument for the Sleeper Curve.
posted on Apr 24, 2005 - View this thread

Sometimes, we type what we really think.
posted on Mar 17, 2005 - View this thread

Respected arts reporter David D'Arcy has been dumped by NPR apparently in response to complaints by MoMA, who were unhappy with his recent coverage of the controversy surrounding Egon Schiele's Portrait of Wally. (D'Arcy's previous report here.) The portrait was stolen by the Nazis in 1939; since 1997 it has been on loan to MoMA from the Leopold Collection. The concerns and controversy surrounding the Nazis' looting of art, of course, continue to be thorny issues.
posted on Mar 10, 2005 - View this thread

Like, wow, man. NPR interviewista Terry Gross sits down with a talk with infamously legendary comedian Tommy Chong and the DOJ flunky who decided that he'd make a good target. The acrimony between Chong and the much more successful Cheech Marin seems to be healed, no doubt in part owing to their upcoming appearance together at the US Comedy Arts Festival. Terry gets down to business including the bust and the origins of the comedy duo, more interesting than one would expect.
posted on Feb 7, 2005 - View this thread

Goodbye, Everyone... Karl Haas has passed away at the age of 91. Barely anyone knew what he looked like, but his show Adventures in Good Music (running since 1959) brought millions of people into the world of Classical Music. He was also the author of Inside Music, now in its 10th printing.
posted on Feb 7, 2005 - View this thread

"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about..." - John Waters

Gotta give him credit... he never loses the ability to shake people up, this time on NPR.
Listen for yourself to the "offending" piece here. (Safe bet he's giggling about it all...)
posted on Jan 26, 2005 - View this thread

Perverted, God-Hating Frenchies vs. Inbred, Sex-Obsessed Yokels
Truth About Liberals #1: They're Just As Moral As Conservatives
Truth About Conservatives #1: They're Just As Smart As Liberals
An interesting article on the role of faith by Steven Waldman that exposes 'moral values' as not being the sole domain of either side while pointing out that the media continues to polarize by playing tempest. Via Speaking of Faith on NPR.
posted on Jan 23, 2005 - View this thread

The Dark Room Magic of NPR.
posted on Jan 10, 2005 - View this thread