The hosts: welcoming listeners in

The role of a host is to... well, to greet you at the door and welcome you inside. That's what the hosts of All Things Considered do every day: welcome listeners in for two hours of reporting, observation, insight, conversation, storytelling and humor.

They are guides to what happened today, and what is likely to happen tomorrow -- in glittering world capitals of fame and notoriety, and in forgotten juvenile detention centers where kids wonder if anyone will ever hear their voices; in writers' rooms and at family dinner tables.

For 30 years, All Things Considered has explored who and what we are in the company of hosts who are smart, dedicated, experienced, and curious. They have an audience that expects the best -- and that rewards them with long letters, passionate dialogue, sometimes even a box of homemade cookies.

They consider themselves -- with some justification -- the luckiest journalists in the world.

   — Alex Chadwick, a former ATC host, is currently a correspondent for Morning Edition and Radio Expeditions.

Linda Wertheimer began as a production assistant with the small team that originally launched All Things Considered. She quickly went on to find her own voice on the air as a reporter. She covered Congress and eventually developed NPR's national political correspondent beat before returning to the show as a host. Her keen interest and experience still informs much of the distinctive political coverage on ATC. But thanks to the eclectic nature of the daily show, regular listeners also know that Wertheimer likes to ferret out new mystery writers, sample Southwestern cuisine, and dance the Texas two-step (in her Ferrari-red cowgirl boots).

• Read her bio.
• Check out her special 30th anniversary report.

Also a former NPR production assistant, Noah Adams has served longest as ATC host, with more than 20 years on the show's weekend and weekday editions. His colleagues know Adams as the most careful of writers, and a keen observer of details: He'll remember not just the small town in Iowa, but the corner restaurant there where he got a great pork chop, and the conversation he had with the waitress who served it. Adams' longtime ATC co-host Susan Stamberg has called him "the original NPR flower bringer. He'll leave small bouquets on desks where tense work is being done, or stick daffodils into a Styrofoam cup and carry it into the studio on days when news is breaking too quickly."

• Read his bio.  
• Check out his special 30th anniversary story.

A radio newsman since his freshman year in college, Robert Siegel joined NPR in 1976 because the company had good maternity benefits, he recently told a reporter: "I figured we'd have the (second) kid on NPR, and then I assumed we'd be gone to work for a real network. That second child is 22 now, and here I am." Friends call Siegel an intellectual omnivore, never happier than when he's learning something new. Whether he was running NPR's news division, opening its first overseas bureau (in London in 1979) or hosting its flagship news program, Siegel says "there have always been good, interesting things to do."

• Read his bio.
• Check out his special 30th anniversary report.

Contents Copyright 2001, National Public Radio