NPR...My Guilty Pleasure

Ok, I know... I am a huge nerd. As I look over my blog entries, it reminds me of the hugeness of my geekdom. Anyhow, nerd alert.

I love National Public Radio. It makes such a huge influence on my daily life. I am listening to a program right now, even as I type. From All Things Considered to Fresh Air, from Car Talk to This American Life, from The World to A Prairie Home Companion, they produce such amazing programs day after day, week after week, year after year.

There is an evocative quality about radio, something that television does not have. Hearing the subtleties and nuances of the human voice without putting a face to them affects me in ways that television does not. Perhaps it's my ADD acting up, but when I am watching a person on television or in real life, my mind constantly wanders and thinks of other things. With radio, I am forced to concentrate harder because the visual stimulation is not there. (In my case, I suppose it would be dis-stimulation.) Another great thing about public radio is that you can listen to it while driving. If I am driving to work, I usually get about an hour to two hours a day of news and updates on what's been going on in the world.

The World is my favorite program. It is a co-production of Public Radio and the BBC. The news updates are all in a fun accent from the UK and the stories are filed from all over the globe. From Siberia to Slovenia, from Madagascar to Mauritania, from Antarctica to Andorra, listening to this program every day gives you a sense of what is truly going on across the globe and how very very little news we truly get in this country. For example, one story that caught my attention was about our discarded clothes. When one drops off clothes at a local Goodwill or Salvation Army box, I never gave much thought to where they ended up. I assumed that people who were not as well off ended up purchasing them locally. Apparently, large numbers of the clothes we discard end up in Africa. I don't remember the particular country, but one of the reporters from The World was in a smaller Western African nation and reporting that she was seeing T-shirts from the U.S. all over large cities in Africa. Who knew? I never gave thought to the idea that my old junior high sweatshirt is now being worn by someone in Namibia. It gives you perspective on how such a small decision on my part could have a large effect on someone else's life in another part of the world.

National Public Radio gets about two thirds of their budget from public donations and a third or more from government funding. In the past few years, the Bush Administration has made several attempts to cut this funding from the budget due to their perception that NPR is a liberal institution. Thankfully the attempts have been rebuffed by Congress, but this does not mean that they will not try again in the future. If you are not an NPR listener, you can find a local radio station at www.npr.org and plugging in your zip code. It's a great way to stay informed about what's going on around you. It makes me feel a little less stupid everytime I listen.

Cuidate.