NPR news and program managers from Washington D.C. and around the world come together to discuss major stories of the day, and how to best serve our audience through their telling. Stephen Voss/NPR.

This is NPR. Story by story, we bring you the world.

We Are NPR

Great storytelling and rigorous reporting. These are the passions that fuel us. Our business is telling stories, small and large, that start conversations, increase understanding, enrich lives and enliven minds.

We are reporters in Washington D.C., and in bunkers, streets, alleys, jungles and deserts around the world. We are engineers, editors, inventors and visionaries. We are Member stations around the country who are deeply connected to our communities. We are listeners and donors who support public radio because we know how it has enriched our own lives and want it to grow strong in a new age.

We are NPR. And this is our story.

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Reporting in the western mountains of Libya, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro puts on her flak jacket before heading to the frontline of a battle between the rebels and Gadhafi’s forces. Photo: Jonathan Levinson

“ Nobody does what we do.

Jeffrey Katz • Deputy Managing Editor, Digital News

We Are Meaningful & Rigorous

Each day at NPR is a fresh chance to do something different by creating stories that matter, amuse, inform and inspire. Some are stories only we find and see. Some are familiar stories told in a way others just can’t.

We’ll go to the ends of the earth to bring you the heart of the story. Often we break news. But always we dig, question, examine and explore. We never settle for obvious answers and predictable stereotypes. We look to connect history and culture to breaking news.

And as hard as we work to get the story, we work just as hard in telling it. We edit, hone, and polish our work because that’s what the stories we tell deserve.

Gregory Porter, accompanied by pianist Chip Crawford, performs his soulful “Be Good (Lion’s Song)” at the New York Transit Museum. Photo: David Gilkey

“ We are ‘unbought and unbossed.’ The listeners own us.

Michel Martin • Host, Tell Me More, quoting congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

We Are Independent & Responsible

Our work is sponsored by the American people, who choose to support public radio with their contributions. Our products are unbiased and independent information, perspectives, and entertainment. We can interview the most famous people in the world, and people whose names most couldn’t even pronounce. We can bring you both music that tops the charts, and songs that are rarely heard outside of tribal villages or small-town garages. We built an audience of 30 million people by challenging and surprising people.

Gregory Porter

World-class jazz singer Gregory Porter performs “Be Good (Lion’s Song)” on a vintage subway car in downtown Brooklyn.

Every day in New York City, subways are filled with the sounds of over-qualified performers singing their impassioned songs. But one usually wouldn’t expect Gregory Porter, with the silhouette of a linebacker and the lungs and soul of an old world jazz legend. NPR Field Recordings takes musicians out of the concert hall and off the beaten path for surprising performances.

Our independence is what gives us the freedom to choose the stories we do. To give the microphone to people who have never had the chance to be heard. To bring attention to stories that preserve our histories, shape our futures, and give us a better understanding.

Megafires: The New Normal?

Bill Armstrong, Santa Fe National Forest fire manager, believes in thinning forests and returning them to a natural burn cycle to avoid megafires. David Gilkey/NPR.

It’s called, “the new normal.” Forest fires are burning out of control, engulfing millions of acres of the American landscape every year. We gave the mic to the fire experts who are working on the frontlines to save forests, wildlife, and water sources from destruction.

Photo 1 Wildflowers dot a once-forested landscape. The suppression of natural forest fires has set the stage for devastating megafires. Photo 2 A budding ponderosa pine tree sprouts up in the burn zone, a sliver of hope for potential forest regrowth. David Gilkey/NPR.

Read more of the special series, Megafires: The New Normal in the Southwest

We’re thankful for the corporate sponsors and individual supporters who share our belief that the American people deserve to be able to get the news from an organization whose only agenda is to inform and enlighten.

Steve Inskeep near a Lahore, Pakistan shrine, interviewing people after the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. NPR

“ We talk to people without their makeup on.

Chris Turpin • Executive Producer, All Things Considered

We Are Human & Connected

Radio is an intimate experience. And we treat those we interview with respect, even when we are tough and skeptical. This creates an atmosphere of civility that brings people to our microphones, and encourages them to be candid and confiding.

The Sendak Interviews

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are became a perennial and award-winning favorite for generations of children. AP.

Listen to Fresh Air’s interviews with Maurice Sendak (45:35)

“There are so many beautiful things in the world which I will have to leave when I die, but I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready.”

Maurice Sendak appeared on Fresh Air with Terry Gross several times over the years. In 1989, he told Terry Gross that he didn’t ever write with children in mind — but that somehow what he wrote turned out to be for children nonetheless. “They have written to me. They trust me in a way, I daresay, possibly more than they trust their parents. I’m not going to bull- - - - them. I’m just not. And if they don’t like what they hear, that’s tough bananas.”

Civil dialogue is the only way to get the best of every side of a story. On the air, our website, in our photography, through our apps and other projects, we answer to millions of people who turn to NPR for good stories, vividly delivered and well-reported above all the din. And our symbiotic relationship with hundreds of independent Member stations means we’re not just reporting on and to communities across the country, we’re reporting from within them.

Fracking

When fracking started in Pennsylvania, most of the experienced workers came from the western United States. Gas companies now say they are hiring more people from the local area to fill thousands of new jobs.David Gilkey/NPR.

There are important stories that need skilled reporting and civil debate. NPR joined with WITF in Harrisburg and WHYY in Philadelphia to report on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Some see fracking as a promising way to get rid of our dependence on foreign oil, clean up our air, and create jobs. Others see it as a poison toxin that will increase cancer. This joint reporting project reveals the fiscal and environmental impact of Pennsylvania’s booming energy economy.

$fracking rocks$

$fracking work area$

Photo 1 Rocks on the shore of the Lackawanna River in Duryea, Pa., are discolored by iron oxide and sulfur compounds — pollutants left behind by past coal mining in the state. Photo 2 A successful fracking operation requires a battalion of drilling rigs, miles of pipe and millions of gallons of water in order to bore through the earth. David Gilkey/NPR.

Read more of the special series, BoomTown: How Drilling Has Changed Towanda, PA

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis perfoming a three-song set at the desk of All Songs Considered host, Bob Boilen.Photo: Lauren Rock/NPR

“ People don’t come to NPR just to be told, ‘Everything you think is right.’

Scott Simon • Host, Weekend Edition Saturday

We Are Passionate & Immersed

We are passionate about capturing the full, fascinating spectrum of people, places and ideas that define our world. We approach differences in race, ethnicity and culture with intelligence, thoughtfulness, and a sense of humor that inspire vibrant conversations that continue well after our story has been told.

#IWasTheOnly

Code Switch, a team of NPR journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, asked to hear your stories about being the one and only person of your racial group someplace, some time. What’s your #IWasTheOnly story?

#IWasTheOnly black kid on my synchronised figure skating team. We had to order makeup in bulk and it *never* ended well.

‏@wriglied

#IWasTheOnly Latina in my sci-fi club. Except for online, being the only brown girl among my geeky friends has been the norm.

‏@wnwhgb4

#IWasTheOnly Asian in improv class. Separate incidents, partner’s 1st line was "I ordered takeout?" or "You speak so well."

‏@Madletters

#IWasTheOnly black boy in my school, located in a town in NJ that DIDN’T observe MLK Day, and still doesn’t...

‏@jkbasante

“We have an ethic of approaching stories by asking what about this story, what about this community we are covering, will surprise and delight the people in this community? We are never looking in, covering any community behind museum glass.”

Matt Thompson Manager of Digital Initiatives (and Mischief)

Looking more broadly, we also strive to bring you stories that will thrill you, about subjects you never knew you’d be captivated by. With a little wonk and a little whimsy, we always like to surprise.

Have you ever been listening to NPR, gotten to your destination, then stayed in your car, five, ten, even fifteen minutes longer just to hear the end of the story? Or maybe it happens to you on the train, in your basement, or on a walk. We call these driveway moments. We work on a story until we’re pretty sure it’ll stop you in your tracks.

Grand Trunk Road

Every evening Pakistani and Indian guards perform a ceremonial military ritual at the Wagah border crossing. Hundreds of Indians, Pakistanis and foreign tourists come to watch the show. Here, a bus drives off after the ceremony. John Poole/NPR.

If you want to really understand a country you need to go away from its officials and its elites. You need to go on the road and into the neighborhoods,” says Steve Inskeep, NPR Morning Edition host. In 2009, Inskeep and Morning Edition Executive Producer Madhulika Sikka assembled a team of reporters, producers, photographers, editors, researchers and multimedia artists to tell the stories of life along the Grand Trunk Road in extraordinary ways.

Man riding a bike on the Grand Trunk Road.

Photo 1 A man rides his bike down the main street of the ancient city of Taxila, which was a crowded settlement more than 2,000 years ago. Villagers now use the street as a shortcut to go home. Photo 2 A sign in Taxila, Pakistan, memorializes an ancient cobblestoned section of the Grand Trunk Road. Construction of the road is credited to the 16th century Afghan sovereign Sher Shah Suri. John Poole/NPR.

Read more of the special series, Along The Grand Trunk Road

Transmission and network control equipment for the Public Radio Satellite System® is housed at the NPR Headquarters Building in Washington, D.C. Stephen Voss/NPR.

“ We want to connect with people in ways that fit their lives.

Brian Boyer • Editor, News Apps

We Are Forward-Looking

We’re constantly innovating to bring you the NPR experience wherever you are, on whatever device you use. Whether you’re in the mood to read, watch, or listen, we have stories ready for you, tailored to how you want to experience them.

Radio For the Deaf

To produce the first, live-captioned radio programming and Braille radio programming for the deaf and deaf-blind, NPR Labs joined forces with cognitive scientist/professor Dr. Ellyn Sheffield, who developed a captioning center using a process known as voice writing. Once audio is converted to text, it can be displayed in captions almost instantaneous on computer screens, tablets and smartphones. The text can also be transmitted to refreshable Braille displays that can be read by the deaf-blind.

Photo 1 NPR audio programs are converted to text and displayed in near real time on captioning terminals. Photo 2 Once converted to text, NPR programs are displayed on computer screens, computer screens, tablets and smartphones. Stephen Voss/NPR.

NPR One: Public Radio Personalized

NPR One brings the values of public radio to the 21st century listener. For public radio, it’s a place to innovate with storytelling, audience engagement and revenue generation. It’s mobile, personal, local, curated and on-demand. For listeners, NPR One is a way to use the latest technology to fulfill a basic human need: connecting with a story that expands your world. Download NPR One on mobile today from the App Store and Play Store.

We’re proud to be innovators. Sure, we’ve seen the skits about ourselves on comedy shows. We laugh at them too. But NPR also changes every day, and every day we are creating ideas and technologies the world is watching. (And using.) But it’s always with the goal of learning from our listeners and feeding your interests and passions.

NPR News Apps

Sometimes a story is so interesting we have to invent a new way to tell it.

Charles Cushman at the Grand Canyon. Photographs by Charles W. Cushman, courtesy of The Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection/Indiana University and Eric Sandweiss.

Found boxes of Charles W. Cushman’s color photographs, dating back to 1938, contained an America few had seen before. Over 14,000 photos, spanning three decades, depict early 1900's American life in color. And the man devoted to documenting it. Lost and Found is a customized storytelling platform that showcases Cushman’s compelling life through the very images that defined it.

Investigating weak regulatory response to grain bin entrapments led us to the stories of nearly 180 people who have died at federally regulated facilities. Buried in Grain told these stories without embellishment to let their power speak for themselves.

While reporting on new playground accessibility legislation, we discovered there was no centralized nationwide list of accessible playgrounds. So we created Playgrounds for Everyone. Launched with 1,200 playgrounds, parents are continually building the app by adding their favorites.

When Arrested Development reemerged on Netflix, NPR’s Adam Cole came forth with a relevant (if not obsessive) personal project: his complete database of all the recurring gags and the episodes they appear in on the show. This evolved into an app we call Previously, on Arrested Development—digital, linkable and mobile-friendly, of course.

This is NPR. We’re broadcasters, whatever the platform. As we move forward in a world where stories are getting even more fascinating, and an understanding even more important, we’re humbled and inspired by the gravity of bringing this institution, which has been handed down to us, into the future.

We Are NPR

We Are Meaningful & Rigorous

Bearing Witness

Global Presence

Dateline: Afghanistan