A day in the life...

Every two-hour broadcast of All Things Considered is the product of many hours of work by reporters, editors, producers, engineers and other NPR professionals. The show comes together at the ATC "horseshoe," a cluster of cubicles on the second floor of 635 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., in Washington, D.C.

Choosing a day at random -- Wednesday, April 25 -- NPR's Patricia Edmonds and Jonathan Kern tracked the tasks involved in getting All Things Considered on the air.

6:00 a.m. — Linda Wertheimer starts her day at home with coffee, toast and research -- reading the latest newspaper coverage on Japan's new prime minister, about whom she'll do an interview for this afternoon's broadcast.

7:00 a.m. — Noah Adams arrives at the office. The three ATC hosts -- Adams, Wertheimer and Robert Siegel -- take turns hosting the show, singly or in pairs. On the days they're not on the show, the hosts travel, or work on future projects. This afternoon, Siegel and Wertheimer will host; so today, Adams will work with production assistant Matt Martinez on hours of tape they recorded during a recent reporting trip to Seattle.

The day starts in ATC with nothing on the whiteboard where the show's story lineup is tracked.

7:45 a.m. — Today, Senior Editor Mary Louise Kelly is the first to arrive at the ATC "horseshoe." Her desk faces the giant whiteboard on which show segments are tracked. Leaving small blocks of time into which member stations can insert local news, the show is scheduled down to the last second into four segments per hour: 1A, B, C and D for the first hour; 2A, B, C and D for the second. (A broadcast that deviates from this schedule -- when stations are notified they won't have their customary minutes -- is called a "format-breaker." ATC will air one today: As part of NPR's Changing Face of America series, the show's entire second half hour will be devoted to a field report and a follow-up studio interview about women who've left welfare.)

8:15 a.m. — Kelly meets with Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr, to discuss his afternoon commentary on Bush's first 100 days.

Associate Editor Carol Klinger books experts for the day's show.

Linda Wertheimer interviews a Japan expert; she's in the studio, he's on the phone from Tokyo.

8:35 a.m. — Associate Editor Carol Klinger, who taps her storied Rolodex to book the right experts for each day's shows, prepares background information for an interview she arranged yesterday: The Wertheimer chat with a Japan expert.

9:30 a.m. — At the morning news meeting led by Managing Editor Barbara Rehm, editors and producers list the stories their staffs are working on, and which might be suitable for a "lead," the top story for either of ATC's two hours. The foreign desk offers pieces on Mexican guest workers, and a hunger strike in a Turkish prison. The science desk offers reports on a rescue mission to Antarctica, and the risks of unmanned space flight. The cultural desk offers a report on faith-based initiatives. The national desk offers coverage of Supreme Court arguments on tobacco advertising restrictions, and congressional wrangling on the proposed Bush budget; editors want to interview former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey about recent reports that his Navy Seal unit slaughtered civilians in Vietnam, but Kerrey hasn't committed yet. ATC executive producer Ellen Weiss, the show's top executive, asks if there's more to report on a Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling that a man is legally obligated to continue to pay child support for a little girl, even though DNA tests proved he's not the birth father.

With all story options before him, ATC Senior Producer Chris Turpin delivers much the same appraisal as at many morning meetings (though some days it's truer than others): "We're in pretty decent shape." It's Turpin's job to choose which stories will be included in the day's show, and who will work on them.

At their regular morning meeting, ATC staffers discuss story ideas. At one end of the table (photo above) are Hosts Robert Siegel (in dark tie) and Linda Wertheimer (two seats to Siegel's left); at the other end of the table are (photo below, from left) Associate Editor Carol Klinger, Executive Producer Ellen Weiss, and Senior Producer Chris Turpin.

10:00 a.m. — The ATC staff -- Siegel and Wertheimer, Turpin and Weiss, and 14 other producers and assistants -- gathers for its own meeting. "We're an abundant show today -- there will be leftovers here for the rest of the week," Turpin says. After a brief, spirited debate on whether Bush's recent statement about defending Taiwan should properly be called a policy "sea change," staffers begin tossing out story ideas, 16 in all. Among them: Should we profile a Japanese baseball phenom? Appraise the new, unauthorized sequel to Victor Hugo's book Les Miserables? Weigh in on the former Philippines president's arrest, or actor Robert Downey Jr.'s ouster from Ally McBeal? Interview the nation's new drug czar, or a parent whose child died when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Murrah Federal Building?

This last option sparks an exchange on "closure," whether the Murrah victims' relatives will achieve it by watching McVeigh's execution -- and whether providing it is a legitimate function of the criminal justice system. Siegel's bottom line: "I hope we don't fall for pop-psyche discussions on these matters."

After 45 minutes, Producer Art Silverman ribs Turpin: "Can you bring closure to this meeting?"

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