avoiding news overdose

I have been an NPR listener since my college days in the 1970s. I don’t know how I managed during my year in Laredo, 1977-78, but other than that I have always had an NPR station to listen to.

I have to admit to taking a break during the Bush II years. It simply made me ill to listen to his voice or to discussion of this policies. For those eight years I listened to sports talk radio, which made little sense because the only sport I like is baseball. There’s only a couple of months in the middle of summer when the talk is pretty much exclusively baseball. Basketball goes well into June, and football talk starts early in August. But that’s what I did.

As soon as Obama was elected I was back to NPR. Given my current routine it’s easy to spend a lot of time listening to NPR. I don’t generally catch Morning Edition, because by the time I get past breakfast and the local television news, walking Tasha, and then my own walk or yard work it’s over. But after morning edition is Here and Now, and I can get that from 9:00 to 11:00 on one station or from 11:00 to 1:00 on another. I normally skip the mid-afternoon shows, but All Things Considered starts as early as 3:00 and goes as late as 7:00. That’s a lot of ATC given that it’s a two-hour program.

I want to stay informed. That’s just being a good citizen and a thoughtful person. But I can overdo it as well. Taking time out to listen to music is not a bad idea.

And. I have all these NPR podcasts programmed into my Internet radio. I have topic-based podcasts on the subjects of author interviews, book reviews, food, popular culture, and religion. And I have program-based podcasts for shows like Fresh Air, Science Friday, Soundcheck, Leonard Lopate, and Studio 360. I need to listen to more of those.

Now that’s a good idea.