Ever wonder about your NPR correspondents?

September 21, 2001 10:04 AM

Ever wonder about your NPR correspondents? If you're like me, you've been listening to NPR every time you get in the car lately. Over time, it's only natural to wonder what Nina Totenberg and Snigdha Prakash actually look like. Oh, Mara Liasson, will you be mine?
posted by vraxoin (25 comments total)

No.
posted by timothompson at 10:06 AM on September 21, 2001

on sept 10 slate ran a piece about this -- with a quiz!
posted by palegirl at 10:23 AM on September 21, 2001

My mother wrote an essay for NPR a few years ago (they like to play it when they're having pledge drives) about how she's in love with Scott Simon, and can't help but send him money.

The joke being that he's a gay man. (Yes, I know he got married last year. Don't ask me, I don't know)
posted by waldo at 10:25 AM on September 21, 2001

The very best of this wonderful lot of reporters is Scott Simon. Always fun and always insightful. Although I must admit to some, um, slightly less than pure thoughts about her, based of course on her excellent reporting. . .*smile*
posted by Danf at 10:27 AM on September 21, 2001

Yesssssssss, NPR. NPR helped me understand and follow the gulf war, and I have been hooked ever since. I am hoping for similar good coverage in the following months. These pages did not have the picture I wanted, though, of Laura Lorson, Sara Sarasohn, and Rob Robinson.

I fear that being an NPR fanboy may not be as cool as I would like it to be, though.....
posted by eckeric at 10:30 AM on September 21, 2001

hi eckeric!
posted by corpse at 10:32 AM on September 21, 2001

Ever since reading Sarajevo Daily, I've always sort of wondered what Tom Gjelten looked like...
posted by mrbula at 10:33 AM on September 21, 2001

I'm a big fan of Noah Adams, Bob Edwards, Melissa Block, and Steve Inskeep. My favorite NPR moment came when Inskeep was interviewing the infamous, hard-nosed Ohio Representative, James Traficant. Traficant, not known for being the most amicable person, ended the interview abruptly with some harsh words. Inskeep then finished the segment, sounding to me like a mischevous kid who was excited about just pissing off the teacher. I think this is the interview, though I remember it differently. Maybe I just made it all up in my head.
posted by Hankins at 10:57 AM on September 21, 2001

hi corpse!
posted by eckeric at 11:00 AM on September 21, 2001

I miss Ray Suarez hosting "Talk of the Nation."
posted by misterioso at 11:08 AM on September 21, 2001

I can't bear to leave the house Saturday mornings while Peter Sagal is hosting Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. He's so witty and so endearingly bald...*wistful sigh*
posted by pudders at 11:23 AM on September 21, 2001

I remember the first time I saw Daniel Schorr on TV after listening to him on the radio for years, I was shocked. I guess I'm young enough that I never really saw him during his heyday on TV, and since he started doing radio nearly exclusively in '85, that was my only exposure to him. He has a very authoritative voice, and I don't think it matches the way he looks.

the car guys also look nothing like i expected. they look more like auto mechanics than MIT grads.
posted by chacal at 11:32 AM on September 21, 2001

I see Mara Liasson on fox news between 6:45-7pm just about every day.
posted by revbrian at 11:38 AM on September 21, 2001

Snigdha Prakash, somehow I always heard her name as Snick Paprikash. I guess my subconscious mind combined my love of Nickelodeon television with Hungarian food.

Yes, I'd like to have a liason with Liasson too.
posted by MrBaliHai at 11:43 AM on September 21, 2001

The worst[*] thing anyone ever did to me was to leave an article about Sylvia Poggioli on my desk. It had a picture of her and while she's a very attractive woman, she looked nothing like the image in my head. As Ira Glass once said: Radio = No Pictures

* I am using hyperbole here; there are many many many worse things than this, I know.
posted by idiolect at 11:48 AM on September 21, 2001

I've been pissed off at NPR ever since they supported overly-restrictive regulation of low power FM, which many people believe they did because they don't want any competition from community radio. But their coverage is so good I often end up listening anyway.
posted by Potsy at 12:12 PM on September 21, 2001

Thanks, MrBaliHai, for making me feel a little less odd. Snick Paprikash has always been an NPR name that I repeated to myself in confused delight every time she's announced.
posted by donnagirl at 12:18 PM on September 21, 2001

My dad does radio news, so I know a lot of names and faces, and my whole family loves NPR. My mother has long been a huge Scott Simon fan, and I love Nina Totenberg. She won a Linda Ellerbee Award for Distinguished Reporting in 1991 in the "Damn Those Conservatives" category with this quote:

To Alan Simpson after Nightline: "You big [expletive]....You are so full of [expletive]. You are an evil man....I don't have to listen to this [expletive]. You're a bitter and evil man and all your colleagues hate you."

Heh. Go, Nina.
posted by swerve at 12:43 PM on September 21, 2001

I finally saw what Terry Gross looked like recently... after a great many years of listening to her show. It really does change something about the listening experience.
posted by ph00dz at 12:59 PM on September 21, 2001

ph00dz: agree with you re: Terry Gross.

And to all of you Mara Liasson fans - you can see her almost everyday on (brace yourselves, if you're a liberal) Fox News Channel's "Special Report." She is usually on during the last 15-20 minutes during the "Fox News All-Stars" discussion. Juan Williams makes an appearance sometimes, too. I miss him already on "Talk of The Nation." I really liked Ray Suarez, too...great voice for radio. Daniel Shorr is almost like I pictured...but his voice sure sounds like it has a beard attached to it...

You know what angers me about "Talk of The Nation?" That every 15 minutes or so, the host (Juan, most recently) would have to say "You're listening to 'Talk of The Nation' from NPR..." The weird part is how rude he would sometimes be, telling a guest to basically shut up so that he could recite that phrase. Is it a requirement of some sort by the FCC...?
posted by davidmsc at 6:09 PM on September 21, 2001

As of yesterday, Neal Conan has been named permanent host of Talk of the Nation. You're not the first person to notice how rude Williams could be -- program directors and fans have bee complaining for months. It's not just the bumpers -- it's people saying something of substance and import when he wants to change the subject, and an overall sense that he was dumbing down the show.
posted by dhartung at 6:41 PM on September 21, 2001

Juan Williams always sounded constipated.
posted by crasspastor at 7:11 PM on September 21, 2001

vraxoin: thanks for the link. I clicked my way through many of the voices that get me through my commute, especially the All Things Considered staff (Robert Siegel, Noah Adams, etc.). And while Mara Liasson is attractive, how about Renee Montagne? Hubba, hubba! Biggest surprise is that one of my favorite commentators, Daniel Pinkwater, is also the author of one of the most bizarre & memorable books that I've ever read ("Lizard Music" -- 5th or 6th grade, with a re-read about two years ago).
posted by davidmsc at 8:00 PM on September 21, 2001

Damn! I love Juan Williams. Don't I feel silly now.
posted by 7sharp11 at 9:50 PM on September 21, 2001

Compared to the host of San Francisco's local call-in program, Juan Williams is a prince. (Actually, comparisons aside, I thought Williams was a pretty excellent host.)

Did anyone catch the call-in discussion with Scott Simon and Daniel Schorr yesterday? It was the most intelligent, informative bit of programming about the events of 9/11 & their implications that I've heard.
posted by pudders at 8:38 AM on September 23, 2001