*On teh Internets*

The best part of being back on the West Coast (read riding around in cars a lot) is the time I spend tuned in to my local NPR station.

With all the forms of news and information available, there is nothing quite like the radio. Nothing compares to the  intimacy of the human voice; I feel like I’m on a first name basis with the presenters and show hosts like Terry Gross from Fresh Air, or Robert Siegel and Michele Norris from ‘All Things Considered.’

Seattle in particular is blessed with a verdant public radio landscape. NPR stations KUOW and KPLU serve up jazz, talk and world news for all comers. KEXP is respected as one of the world’s best sources for coffeehouse rock, electronic and eclectic sounds, and  for nearly a year, I hosted a music program on KBCS in Bellevue, which is known for it’s strength in blues and global music.

Public radio covers many of the same news stories as the mainstream press, but often their features are in a world of their own.

The picture above comes from  ’This American Life,’ episode 178, ‘Superowers.‘ My favorite segment, Act 1 begins at minute 6:00 and starts with the question, flight or invisibility?  Contributor, John Hodgman–the PC from Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ commercials–asks people which super ability they would chose, if they were the only person on earth with the power. People, he says, react instantly, as if they have been contemplating the question their entire lives. They start to test the limits of their imagined powers and turn to a life of crime, almost in every case. The whole episode had me laughing out loud.

Without wanting sounding like an informercial, I hope you will think about supporting public radio. I recently put down money ($20) to support KCTS my local PBS station, and it’s time for me to walk the talk too.