This piece is absolutely delightful. If you are allowed to re-use it (I notice that she SOQs out by saying "For the Savvy Traveler") do! The young narrator strikes just the right balance between cynical and adorable and the "adults" are a hoot.

Presentation: Interesting attempt to shoot for a different sound. The (I guess it's) host sounds like she's speaking off the top of her head. Sometimes this works well, but sometimes it sounds a bit too scripted and "fake real." Nine minutes into the show she's gone and I'm listening to two guys. I assume if I listened more often I would know what's going on here and maybe I'm just too rigid, but I found this confusing. I liked very much the "college radio" sound to this program. It was just loose enough without being totally out of control like some college radio can be.

Content: Assumes a lot of knowledge on the part of the listener. So it comes off a bit exclusive and confusing. I understand that they don't want to waste time telling the audience things they might already know, but it might help to assume that some listeners don't know everything about the bands being discussed and could use a little "filling in."

People expect to turn to public radio and hear what they won't hear anywhere else. THIS is a piece that you would not hear anywhere but on public radio -- a window into a life that we would never see otherwise. At first the raw nature of this put me off. I thought it was staged. But within minutes I realized it for what it was -- an incredibly valuable contribution to our understanding of others.

I do think it would help young girls during a scary time. Youth Radio (like the WMPG show) is obviously perfect for it, but also as some sort of chruch or school talk about bodies and getting older. This sort of intimate storytelling would be good. A video wouldn't be able to convey the information, be intimate, but not freak people out.

Misery loves company, and some of these first time stories sound like they fit that bill. An uncle shopping with you, running races, out-of-the-country. I'd almost give my daughter a computer for her bedroom just so she could listen to Blunt Radio on the internet on her own time.

The Gideon Bible thing is pretty interesting.

Overall, I love pieces like this. I want to do a regular series of people's jobs that I want to sound just like this. You know what -- everyone has an interesting job. The most interesting ones are the ones I don't know much about. This piece takes it down a very nice avenue, to where the employee talks not only about her job, but about how things work and of what to be careful.

Where can this fit? Well, anytime 20/20 airs one of those Dirty Hotel shows would work. Or, at the beginning of a vacation season. Best of all, some show should do a regular "At Work" series and air pieces like this once-per-week.

This is a station break from WKSU. In addition to the weather, underwriters-- the standard station break fare--Geo Beach offers some interesting historical facts that tie in nicely with the station's classical music identity. I particularly like hearing the school cafeteria menu. It's details like these that do give station breaks some flavor and sense of place. It's also quite polished so you don't feel that you have downgraded from listening to NPR to the local station, which is hard to do. It's difficult for many lcal NPR stations to keep the quality consistent when switching from local to national public radio.

My understanding is that this is to serve as a model for other stations. If there are program directors o who want to reinvent their station breaks than consider turning to this for inspiration.

Funny saga with happily suitable sound accompaniment running underneath. Don’t want to give any of the story away. Not maudlin, not sappy, just a delightful one-of-a-kind holiday story about a very specific reason to rejoice. And you get to hear a doggy sung xmas carol. Can't beat that. sl

So, why do few women stick with chess? Because women talk so much, while men don't? There has got be a better answer. Or, maybe that is the answer, so why look for another? Still, I was looking for at least one alternative hypothesis, but no others emerged.

I think just about everyone can relate to chess. Many of us relate to it, and thus this piece, from a family member who taught the game with glee because they found someone willing to play.

It's a privilege to be so deep inside someone's head and in this case,
inside the heads of two people on opposite sides of "the bar." I like the
way the material is organized. We meet Matthew first and get a sense of him
before we actually know everything he's done wrong, and we get to know the
judge a little before we hear them together. It's very moving to hear the judge's journey from compassionate hope to resigned disappointment, and to hear Matthew's parallel journey from hope to despair. I wanted to put my head down and cry as this piece drew to its close. Knowing Matthew is dead makes the close of this piece that much more heartbreaking. It's beautiful, respectful and could air any time, but certainly when there is big news on youth crime. sl

What to say? This is a poignant piece. A lovely piece. It is so good, so essential to hear from older people. With everything becoming so youthcentric--even Public Radio--it is important to listen to where where we may eventually end up.

The view from the retirement home is at times bleak, sweet, and touching. It is rare that we get to witness mortality in this way.

With a transcendent piece like this you really don't need a particular context in which to broadcast it.

If you want your listeners to stop everything they are doing, if you want your email and voicemail overflowing with gratitude--then air this piece. If you don't have a 27 minute gap then consider making room for this.

This piece originally aired on All Things Considered. I could also hear it on This American Life or Weekend Edition. -CM