This is NPR. Story by story, we bring you the world.
“ Nobody does what we do.
“ We are ‘unbought and unbossed.’ The listeners own us.
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.
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.
“ We talk to people without their makeup on.
“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.”
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.
“ People don’t come to NPR just to be told, ‘Everything you think is right.’
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.
#IWasTheOnly Latina in my sci-fi club. Except for online, being the only brown girl among my geeky friends has been the norm.
#IWasTheOnly Asian in improv class. Separate incidents, partner’s 1st line was "I ordered takeout?" or "You speak so well."
#IWasTheOnly black boy in my school, located in a town in NJ that DIDN’T observe MLK Day, and still doesn’t...
“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.”
Playing a Gariel Strad worth $10 million, Nicola Benedetti spins out beautiful music by John Williams and Bach.
Early one morning, Miguel betrays no nerves about stripping his highly produced hits down to their bones.
As they romp through a three-song set, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis literally shake the dust off the ceiling tiles.
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.
“ We want to connect with people in ways that fit their lives.
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.
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.
Sometimes a story is so interesting we have to invent a new way to tell it.
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.