I’d forgotten what a joy it is to listen to NPR. I often need silence when working or writing — now for instance, I can’t listen to talking on the radio, or even songs with words, when I need to hear the voice in my head telling me what to write, [no, not that kind of voice] but the things I’m working on at the moment for work are sort of mindless. I listened to a couple of audiobooks, but got bored with the one I was listening to.
Today, in the car after dropping the kids off at school, I heard an interesting interview with Junot Diaz about being a foreigner in the US and wanted to hear the rest of it. I did, and kept the radio on all day (except when they discussed animal cruelty). I heard Obama’s press conference. I heard some slam poetry. I heard James Franco discussing his role in the new movie about Harvey Milk.
Such a small pleasure, but it made my day. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.
Clutch Cargo Lips 
I need silence to write, too, and could never work in a place that pipes in music all the time. They wouldn’t get any work out of me.
I also agree with you about NPR. I miss hearing it on the radio because the ham radio antennas my son put up have knocked out my radio reception. So I often listen to my favorite NPR shows on the computer. I confess the one that gets the most play from me is “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” Heavy stuff. 🙂
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I like Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me — but I forget to listen most weekends.
My favorite singer was on that show once.
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Our equivalent of NPR is the CBC, which has the quirkiest shows. The government “we” (I certainly had nothing to do with it) just elected is threatening to slash its funding. I hate them.
Like you though, as soon as there is a story about animal cruelty (or child abuse) I turn it off.
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I’m a bit of an NPR fanatic, but I also can’t work with music/radio/TV on. For me, it tends to be limited to my car time or—lately—when I’ve got a major cooking project going.
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Helen — Whenever we find outselves in Canada (not often enough) we love listening to the CBC. I remember one summer discovering a wonderful female folk singer when we were in PEI.
IB — I want to hear more about your cooking projects.
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Dona: They are nearly nonexistent. But this past week I had to cook dinner for 16 (book group) and today prep a dish for T-giving tomorrow.
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