In All Reality

Going to school at Missouri State University, I always ended up riding the shuttles since a lot of my classes were downtown in the design building; this is a good 10 minute drive from the main campus.  During my travels on the Bearline, the drivers would inevitable have NPR going over the intercom system.  I regarded it as a novelty, filled with random bits of jazz, the soothing voices of pundits, and the occasional odd tidbit of practical information.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I really started listening to NPR.  Mostly, it gained my attention as a relatively unbiased source of news regarding this recent 2008 election.  Given that I don’t have a TV at home (because I don’t watch the crap that’s on the networks and I loned all my Xbox games out), I tuned in especially for the presidential debates.

Before I knew it, it had its own setting on my stereo in my Mustang and I was listening to the streams while I was at work.  As soon as I realized this, I took a step back and started asking myself: Why do I like this eclectic mix of musical oddities, political jargon, and downright dry humor?

The News

As I said, I started listening to NPR around election time.  I supplemented my political information by watching some CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News (when Shep Smith is on).  But it wasn’t just the presidential info; NPR has a ton of other news about the world that probably wouldn’t end up getting filtered into the mainstream networks.  Things about Syria, the DRC, treaties, social commentaries, and interviews with real people.  I find the news content from NPR to be highly engaging, extremely varied in subject matter, and very succinct.

The Music

Many a time I’ve switched the radio over to NPR on a Sunday morning on my way in to church and have been delighted to find some smoothe jazz.  That makes the trip in at 8:30 to run the sound system quite a bit more bearable.  In addition, there are a ton of music types and genres that get play time, keeping with the general global information theme that’s present across the board for NPR’s programs.  If you hit site for their World Cafe program, you’ll instantly be introduced to music from a multitude of different countries and locales.

The Comedy

All that other stuff is good, but this was the real lynchpin in my growing relationship with NPR: they have fun.

I first became acquainted with the novelty that is public resource comedy many years ago with the Red Green Show on PBS.  While NPR doesn’t have anything quite like Red Green, they do have Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, a news satire program *slash* comedy gameshow.  I discovered this one Saturday afternoon when I become bored with Pandora and wanted a change.  It is absolutely hilarious…in it’s own special dry way.  Anything with Mo Rocca in it can’t be bad.  They even have Tom Brokaw on from time to time, who is one of the few older people that I can not only tolerate, but admire.

So…NPR has my full endorsement as a source of awesomeness.  Whether it’s for your news, your musical engagement, or because you want to hear a dramatic reading about love from the point of a deer (they seriously had one…I tried to find a link to it but finally gave up), then NPR is definitely worth a listen.