Sylvia Poggioli's sign-off

One of the few highlights of last week’s dreaded Winter Membership Campaign on WAMU was Kai Ryssdal reading a list of his top ten favorite things about public radio. It was one of those pre-recorded spots by national personalities, meant to pry the money out of your wallet, that ended with the Marketplace host saying “and here’s how you donate” before transitioning abruptly into Caryn Mathes repeating the station’s phone number about four times.

Not that I needed a tongue-in-cheek list to remind me (unfortunately, the only item I can remember is “Sylvia Poggioli’s sign off”), but there are so many things that I love about public radio. This is particularly true with so much going on in the world lately (which I hope to be able to write about soon, with a couple of deadlines and 14 hour work days behind me, for now). And, as much as I enjoy complaining about these campaigns, I understand why they’re necessary and will gladly continue to contribute to help keep these programs on the air.

It’s tough to choose and rank, but here is an attempt to capture my ten favorite things about public radio:

TEN: The Writer’s Almanac, a segment I actually used to hate because it airs at 6:36 am and signals that it’s time to crawl out of bed. Now that I usually sleep in slightly later, when I hear it, it feels like something special.

NINE: The ability to access, and download, segments for free online.

EIGHT: Hourly newscasts that help ground you in the middle of listening to a lengthy interview about the local food scene on the Kojo Nnamdi Show, for example. I eagerly anticipate the moment when you find out which newscaster will step up to the microphone and critique the minute differences in their delivery of "From NPR News in Washington..." My all-time favorite is retired (see number three), but, of those who remain, I am partial to: Ann Taylor, Jack Speer, and Lakshmi Singh. I am not partial to Craig Windham, although I guess he’s growing on me.

SEVEN: Storytelling. Mixed in with reports about budget deficits and regime changes are fascinating stories – tracking a particular unit in the military from Camp Lejune, North Carolina to the front lines, interviewing scientists about quirky discoveries, purchasing a “toxic asset” and following its progress, reviews of movies, music, and books. NPR is more than just the headline news.

SIX: How easy and convenient it is to listen and digest all of this while driving.

FIVE: The range of emotions covered in a good episode of This American Life

FOUR: The distinctive variations of the Weekend Edition theme, perfectly suited for my mood and outlook on Saturdays and Sundays. Other theme songs that get me going: Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The Diane Rehm Show, The World

THREE: The beloved trifecta of Robert Siegel, Noah Adams, and Carl Kasell (and Steve Inskeep makes four).

TWO: The varied, unexpected, and sometimes strange course that conversations can take after beginning “I heard the other day on NPR…”

ONE: The news itself, particularly NPR’s comprehensive international reporting, with correspondents stationed all over the globe. In addition to the vitally important coverage, I really love the sense of knowledgeable, nuanced consistency that comes with reporters handling a particular region or beat. Floods in Pakistan? I know Julie McCarthy’s on it. Major Supreme Court Decision? Nina Totenberg. These voices have become comforting, trusted informants, helping to shape my understanding of current events and the world. You don’t get that as easily from other news outlets.

And here's how you donate.

Dim sum for lunch and dinner

Well, you know there's something wrong when you've eaten all three of the day's meals at your desk at work.  On the bright side, two of those meals were made up of my mom's homemade char siu baos (baked this time, as opposed to steamed).  Delicious, particularly when punctuated with homemade cookies, which she also sent in today as a Valentine's Day gift.  Something else to learn how to cook, at some point...

"Insularity is bad"

The Daily Dish turned me on to this fantastic piece from National Review Online's Dennis Prager, who is about to visit his 100th country.  In it, he extols the many nuanced and powerful virtues of traveling.  Some of my favorite passages:

Nearly everyone grows up insular. The problem is that vast numbers of people never leave the cloistered world of their childhood. This is as true for those who grow up in Manhattan as it is for those who grow up in Fargo. And as for college, there are few places as insular and cloistered as the university.

Insularity is bad because at the very least it prevents questioning oneself and thinking through important ideas and convictions. And at worst, it facilitates the groupthink that enables most great evils. Although one can hold onto insular and bad ideas even after interacting with others, it is much harder to do so, especially when one interacts on the others’ terms, as must be done when traveling to other cultures (and especially when traveling alone).

It is therefore one of the most maturing things a person can do. It is also one of the most humbling....  One of life’s great moral challenges is to see the stranger as fully real. While travel does not guarantee that one will see all others that way...it is very hard to do so without travel.

It is, perhaps, illustrative of my own inherent insularity that when I consider thoughtful, measured commentary, I do not often think of conservative publications like the National Review.  In all fairness, judging by some of the crass drivel to which they give a legitimate platform (not to mention the way in which they dispatched the very reasonable David Frum), I would argue that this sentiment is not always very far from the truth.  Which makes Prager's reflective piece all the more wonderful.

Traveling engenders the curious, open-minded spirit that should form the basis of our journey through life.  I try to make an effort to adhere to these principles as best I can.  Here's hoping that I find a way to visit 100 countries on the way.