"Tell Me More" airs for the last time on KERA 90.1 FM at 8 p.m. Friday. NPR has canceled the show after a seven-year run.
The show has focused on issues of particular — though by no means exclusive — concern to African-Americans and other people of color. Host Michel Martin made it a point to interview not just newsmakers and policy analysts but everyday people who shared both their stories and their perspective on matters ranging from poverty to parenting. After one segment aired about a woman who struggled to get her children across town to school following her separation from her husband, "for weeks afterward people stopped me on the street to tell me how it haunted them," Michel recalled in a recent essay for National Journal. NPR announced in May that it was canceling the show, which drew a fair amount of criticism. ... In her last "Can I Just Tell You" essay for Tell Me More, Michel said that the job of telling the stories of people often ignored by the media is far from finished. "There's still a pie out there, many stories yet to tell," Michel wrote. "We are going to keep looking for those."
Starting Monday, KERA will begin airing programs from the BBC in the former Tell Me More slot on weekdays, with a half hour of BBC Newsroom at 8 p.m. and specialized shows about health, science and technology at 8:30.