NPR founding mom Susan Stamberg displays on her profession and favourite recollections

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

There’s so much to take heed to at NPR’s D.C. headquarters, even within the elevators.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: Going up.

SHAPIRO: That’s the voice of Susan Stamberg saying every ground.

STAMBERG: Third ground – newsroom.

SHAPIRO: Susan is within the DNA of this constructing and of NPR News. She’s been with the community since its very starting 54 years in the past. And this week, she’s retiring. She’s been a number of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and Weekend Edition Sunday. Most lately, she was a particular correspondent protecting the humanities. She is also known as certainly one of NPR’s founding moms. So I requested how she felt concerning the title, and it seems…

STAMBERG: I made up the time period.

SHAPIRO: Did you make up the time period?

STAMBERG: Yes. Totenberg hates it.

SHAPIRO: Really?

STAMBERG: Yes (laughter).

SHAPIRO: I did not know that.

STAMBERG: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

STAMBERG: Well, I used to be getting uninterested in these founding fathers, you realize?

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

STAMBERG: Equal rights.

SHAPIRO: Totenberg, in fact, being authorized affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg. Another title Susan held was first girl to host a nationally broadcast night information program.

STAMBERG: That title didn’t pop into my thoughts till I’d been doing this for some time. And then I noticed, oh, my gosh, that is actually one thing. And, you realize, like all ladies, you are feeling it’s important to be further particular good. Like all first folks, you actually have to fulfill the road to be taken significantly, and so others can observe.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

STAMBERG: And that was actually my perspective the entire time.

SHAPIRO: What did you’re keen on about radio?

STAMBERG: Oh, how a lot enjoyable it was – the one radio I heard in these days was very formal. And so the air was open to any form of imaginative stuff that we might placed on, and folks have been happy with it.

SHAPIRO: Give us an instance of the imaginative form of stuff you placed on.

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STAMBERG: Well, my favourite second (laughter) was an excruciatingly sizzling day in Washington, D.C.

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STAMBERG: Gosh, it is sizzling.

We went out and examined whether or not, in actual fact, you can fry an egg on the pavement.

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STAMBERG: OK. Here we go. I’m taking the egg. I’m holding it on the manhole cowl. I’m cracking it.

And they went pfft (ph) – like that. They did nothing.

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STAMBERG: Are we going to get in bother for littering? Could this be thought of littering?

SHAPIRO: A line that has been attributed to you for the 25 years that I’ve been at NPR is the images are higher on the radio.

STAMBERG: Oh, they all the time are. I’m attractive on the radio, I let you know.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: What do you imply by the images are higher on the radio?

STAMBERG: Oh, as a result of something you possibly can think about is normally higher than what you truly see. So that is what I imply.

SHAPIRO: When I acquired an internship with NPR…

STAMBERG: Oh.

SHAPIRO: …In 2001, I ran to Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon, and I purchased a duplicate of your 1993 e book, “Talk.”

STAMBERG: And how a lot did you pay?

SHAPIRO: I do not suppose I need to let you know that as a result of…

STAMBERG: They marked…

SHAPIRO: …It was…

STAMBERG: …It down…

SHAPIRO: …It was a…

STAMBERG: …Didn’t they?

SHAPIRO: …Used bookstore.

STAMBERG: Oh.

SHAPIRO: And in that e book, you say your favourite interview was – do you bear in mind?

STAMBERG: It was Joan Didion…

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

STAMBERG: …To at the present time.

SHAPIRO: To at the present time.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: When Susan Stamberg lately interviewed Joan Didion…

SHAPIRO: What is it about that interview?

STAMBERG: Well, she was very reticent and did not discuss so much. And to me, she did. And I mentioned – one of many questions I bear in mind what she mentioned was, I assume I all the time see the underside of life.

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JOAN DIDION: The underside of the tapestry. I are likely to all the time search for the incorrect facet, the grim facet. I imply, I’ve since I used to be a baby. I imply, I do not know…

SHAPIRO: After 14 years internet hosting ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, in 1986, you stepped away from the present. What made you determine to present it up?

STAMBERG: Well, to begin with, I had most cancers, and so it was lots of strain to proceed attempting to do this. And it was a very good choice ‘trigger I helped put Weekend Sunday on the air.

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STAMBERG: Stef Scaggiari presiding over our lovely child grand Baldwin right here in Studio 3. We’ll hear…

SHAPIRO: One of your nice improvements on Sunday mornings was…

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STAMBERG: Let’s see.

SHAPIRO: …The puzzle.

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STAMBERG: Oh, right here it’s. Here’s what I used to be searching for. It’s not the comics. It’s the video games. Will Shortz has promised to puzzle us on Weekend Edition. He is senior…

STAMBERG: Oh, I introduced Will. I’m so proud. I feel that is the perfect factor I ever did.

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STAMBERG: …Things, huh?

WILL SHORTZ: I’ve an unique phrase puzzle for you right this moment.

SHAPIRO: Why did you need to do a puzzle on Sunday mornings?

STAMBERG: Well, I believed in my thoughts, what do I love to do? I used to be all the time very private – I assume it was virtually egotistical about it. But I believed, what do I love to do on Sunday mornings? And I believed, I like to do the Sunday puzzle.

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STAMBERG: I do not know my army, actually. General.

SHORTZ: Yes.

STAMBERG: A specific – oh, oh, particular basic.

SHORTZ: That’s proper.

STAMBERG: Really?

SHAPIRO: You have so many legacies. You are additionally famend for cranberry relish.

STAMBERG: (Laughter) I do know.

SHAPIRO: How did that begin?

STAMBERG: That’s going to be on my obituary. It’ll be the lead, you realize?

SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Where did that start?

STAMBERG: Well, I’ll simply let you know – first at WAMU, the place I used to be, ‘trigger I believed…

SHAPIRO: So the relish custom predates you internet hosting ALL THINGS CONSIDERED?

STAMBERG: Oh, means, means earlier than. Yes.

SHAPIRO: Wow.

STAMBERG: Yes. Because I felt we would have liked custom. Everyone was shifting in all places. And let’s give them one thing secure that they look ahead to yearly.

SHAPIRO: I knew this was a convention. I didn’t know that it was a 50-year-plus custom.

STAMBERG: (Laughter).

SHAPIRO: So if we’re going to select one 12 months’s cranberry relish to play, which one ought to we select?

STAMBERG: The greatest time on the time is I acquired all of the White House cooks collectively.

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RENEE MONTAGNE: She acquired two former White House cooks to speak concerning the vacation in entrance of an viewers and to inform some first household meals tales.

STAMBERG: And for the grand finale, I had introduced xeroxes of the recipe, and I handed them out.

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FRANK RUTA: One small onion.

STAMBERG: And each learn it.

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RUTA: Three-quarter cups bitter cream.

STAMBERG: Got to the final one. He learn it. He stopped midway. He mentioned…

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ROLAND MESNIER: And stunning pink. And after that, simply throw it out.

(LAUGHTER)

STAMBERG: Tear it up.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

STAMBERG: And he gave us – gave me my grand finale.

SHAPIRO: Perfect.

STAMBERG: Right.

SHAPIRO: For years, you reported on visible arts…

STAMBERG: Right.

SHAPIRO: …Which is troublesome to do on the radio.

STAMBERG: Yeah. Impossible. That’s why I did it.

SHAPIRO: Is that why?

STAMBERG: Yes, completely. You cannot do it. And so I made a decision that could not be appropriate. I can do that.

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STAMBERG: There’s a flickering 1915 black-and-white movie that exhibits Renoir portray regardless of his afflictions.

These palms are tragic to take a look at. They seem like the stumps of very, very outdated timber. You can barely see…

It took me some time to do it. But I might shift to biography, which is all the time probably the most attention-grabbing anyway.

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STAMBERG: Conductor, music director of main orchestras, the whole musician. I’m Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

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SHAPIRO: One of our colleagues informed us that on daily basis, when it was time to depart, you’ll say the identical factor.

STAMBERG: Go house, ladies. It’s getting darkish.

SHAPIRO: That’s it.

STAMBERG: Was that it, actually?

SHAPIRO: What did that phrase imply to you? Go house, ladies. It’s getting darkish.

STAMBERG: And I say it for a roomful of men, too.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

STAMBERG: It’s only a making group factor to say. Let’s go house, and tomorrow we’ll present up once more. That’s all.

SHAPIRO: Susan Stamberg, I do not need to say goodbye to you.

STAMBERG: Aw.

SHAPIRO: I do not need this interview to finish. I do not need your retirement to imply that we cannot hear you on…

STAMBERG: Oh.

SHAPIRO: …Our air anymore.

STAMBERG: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: Thank you for the greater than 50 years that you’ve given all of us – the nation, the community and me personally.

STAMBERG: Thank you a lot, Ari. I like listening to you.

SHAPIRO: Thank you. I observe in your footsteps.

STAMBERG: (Laughter) Mine are larger.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript offered by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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