A new but familiar voice will take over as the host of NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered tomorrow. Michel Martin’s familiar to listeners as the longtime host of Tell Me More, but the Emmy winner says her new show will take on a different tone.
Interview Highlights: Michel Martin…
…on what listeners can expect from Weekend All Things Considered:
“…I can tell you that this is not Tell Me More Revived but we are going to be bringing back some elements from Tell Me More that I know people particularly enjoy, like we have a discussion segment called The Barbershop. The Barbershop is back and it’s going to be a little different. I’m not giving it all away, but we’re going to have a little tweak in there that people will appreciate.”
…On what she learned from her road series Going There:
“We live in what seems to be a very polarized moment where a lot of people in public life seem to talk at each other and not to each other. We have discovered that many people would rather talk to each other.
My very first visit [to Ferguson] was a couple of weeks after the most intense of the protests had occurred. There was a great interest on the part of the local community to have some sort of community forum where people could get together and talk about this. People were still in shock, as you might imagine, and there was a lot of openness and willingness to talk.
I found going back a few months later, people have hardened into their camps. All their friends have told them that they’re right.”
…On whether the ‘voice’ of public radio is too white:
“Well….I think it’s true. The fact is, I think we could tolerate a broader range of voices just because those other voices are there. I think sometimes we are more afraid than we need to be of difference. I think sometimes this is much more of a gatekeeper problem than an audience problem. But I do understand that many of the people who listen to us really feel that in some ways, that we are the last good house in a dying neighborhood.”
Michel Martin is the new host of NPR's Weekend All Things Considered. It airs Saturdays and Sundays at 4 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
