Categories: i heart npr
May 24, 2012
Lead singer of Garbage, Shirley Manson, showed her NPR love when she stopped by NPR West to talk about her new album, Not Your Kind of People, with Morning Edition's Jess Gitner.
Categories: i heart npr
May 22, 2012
Actress Tia Mowry, who has proven in recent years that she's got "The Game" both on and off screen, talked with Michel Martin of NPR's Tell Me More today about her career and her new book.
Categories: i heart npr
May 22, 2012
Peter Dinklage at NPR New York
Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage stopped by NPR's New York office for a conversation with All Things Considered host Audie Cornish about his reservations in accepting the role of character Tyrion Lannister.
And not to worry, both Audio and Peter came out of the interview unscathed.
Categories: i heart npr
March 2, 2012
A quick look at Patton Oswalt's resume reveals that he is no stranger to the pop culture world: 20-years of stand-up comedy, writing and acting on the TV shows United States of Tara and Dollhouse, voicing the loveable star rodent in Disney and PIXAR's Ratatouille, starring in the 2009 film Big Fan and in last year's dark comedy Young Adult.
Oswalt chatted with Weekend Edition host Audie Cornish about his character in the film, Matt Freehauf – a small-town guy who gets wrapped up in a scheme to reclaim the high school boyfriend of Marvis Gary (played by Charlize Theron) - and reflected upon his own growth and maturity, both personally and professionally.
Before leaving, Oswalt left us with some inspiration:
"You know, it's great to be young. Be young. By all means, be young. But always remember that youth is also kinda dumb, and doesn't know a lot yet. So what you want to worship above youth, I think, is beauty, and beauty is so beyond just appearances after a while."
...and a little NPR love!
Categories: i heart npr
February 24, 2012
Are you Oscar hungry? Pull out your prom dress, pop open the champagne and join NPR in an Oscar preview.
NPR Coverage of the 84th Annual Academy Awards
In the past few months, nominees in many categories have stepped into NPR studios to share backstage details from Oscar-worthy productions, including four of this year's 'Best Actor' contenders.
While you may have seen some of these pictures floating around Twitter and Facebook recently, check out Oscar faves Gary Oldman, George Clooney, James Bobin, Brett McKenzie, Alexander Payne, James Cromwell, Kenneth Branagh, Paul Feig and Wim Wenders striking a pose for public radio on the NPR West "red carpet." Here's hoping they wear NPR shirts under their tuxedos this weekend:
Top: George Clooney, Brett McKenzie, James Cromwell; Middle: Paul Feig, Gary Oldman, James Bobin; Bottom: Alexander Payne Kenneth Branagh, Wim Wenders
Top: George Clooney, Brett McKenzie, James Cromwell; Middle: Paul Feig, Gary Oldman, James Bobin; Bottom: Alexander Payne Kenneth Branagh, Wim Wenders
Before heading off to an Oscar party this Sunday, brush up on behind-the-scenes awards knowledge with these NPR interviews featuring box office headliners and stars on the rise:
Categories: i heart npr
February 7, 2012
While you may know George Takei best as Star Trek's valiant leader, Mr. Sulu, Takei's leadership reaches far beyond the ship's iconic bridge. As one of the first Asian-Americans to be cast in a prominent TV role, Takei paved the path for many Asian actors.
Takei chatted with host Robin Young for an interview on WBUR's Here and Now about his formative childhood experiences in a Japanese internment camp that led to his lifelong fight for civil rights. He tells Young how those experiences led him to work on "Allegiance," a Broadway play opening later this year that follows a family as they try to survive in a Japanese American internment camp.
After the interview, Takei sent us his best wishes: "Live long and prosper."
February 1, 2012
With February 14 only two weeks away, "This is NPR" is looking for love. NPR love, that is.
Throughout the year, guests of NPR programs (and some who weren't guests at all) have held up their support for public radio, all posted right here in the I Heart NPR series.
Listeners and fans have also shared their public radio love in every way you can imagine: during music festivals...
on sidewalks...
I Heart NPR sidewalk
at weddings...
You may even remember seeing LEGO and cartoon versions of your favorite hosts or the occasional Ryan Gosling-themed 'Hey Girl' Tumblr photo. NPR love is everywhere, and we can't get enough of it.
Now it's your turn to tell us how you "I Heart NPR." Are you a professor who consistently slips Nina Totenberg into PowerPoint presentations? ... Do you dress like Bob Boilen? ... Or, do you wear your love on your sleeve, tote or car? We want to know about it!
Show us how you heart NPR or support your local Member station by submitting photos, videos, songs, etc., by email to thisisnpr@npr.org or share a comment below. Encourage your friends to participate by tweeting with the hashtag #NPRLife.
Submissions will be featured in a blog post on Valentine's Day, Tuesday, Feb. 14. As another incentive, the NPR Communications team will pick our five favorite entries and send the contributors some "I Heart NPR" swag in return. Subscribe to 'This is NPR' blog (or by clicking on the square RSS icon under Podcast + RSS Feeds on the right-hand side of this page) or check back here in two weeks for a slideshow of the submissions.
Thanks for sharing the love!
NPR reserves the right to reprint, edit and distribute all submitted content.
Categories: i heart npr
January 23, 2012
The Good Wife is CBS' Emmy Award-winning series about a political spouse forging her own path after her husband is disgraced by corruption and scandal. Despite the show's serious note, the creators, married couple Robert and Michelle King confessed they opt for "a bit of bitter humor" in their own TV and movie choices when they stopped by NPR West for an interview recently.
The Kings chatted with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep to share their top television and movie recommendations on Watch This, the recurring segment asking Hollywood insiders for TV and movie recommendations. The couple's praise included Breaking Bad, In the Loop, Team America and Twin Peaks.
The Kings also showed a little love for NPR, and each other, before they left. Thanks!
Categories: i heart npr
December 28, 2011
Nobody's perfect — even the Green Bay Packers lose a game every once in a while. For Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne, it's that natural imperfection in people — in his films' protagonists, specifically — that he prefers to shape his stories around.
Payne chatted with Fresh Air's Terry Gross last month about his newest drama, The Descendants. The film stars George Clooney as the flawed leading man - this time, a Honolulu lawyer facing a slew of life challenges.
Thanks for stopping by, Payne!
Categories: i heart npr
December 23, 2011
The Muppets director, James Bobin, stopped by NPR West for no reason other than to show some NPR love.
Bobin is the creator of HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords, and he recently reunited with one member of show's dynamic, Grammy Award-winning duo, Bret McKenzie, in The Muppets, which NPR's own Linda Holmes said, "[does] justice to the lovers and the dreamers."
Bobin's not exactly a newbie to comedy: The British writer has previously worked on both the 11 O'Clock Show and Da Ali G Show; a time during which he helped create, in addition to Ali G, the characters Borat and Bruno.
Thanks, James! We promise not to Forget You.
Categories: i heart npr
December 15, 2011
Near the end of the 2009 film Crazy Heart, Otis 'Bad' Blake — a former country artist and recovering alcoholic — watches in reminisce as his song, 'The Weary Kind,' is performed by Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) at a night club.
The song, co-written for the film by musician Ryan Bingham, went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2010.
Bingham stopped by NPR West to chat with National Desk intern Danny Hajek about his life leading up to Crazy Heart — his upbringing in rural Texas, where he performed for "ranchers and oil-filled roughnecks" (his words); the man behind the inspiration for 'The Weary Kind'; and his fourth studio album, set for release next year.
He may have also mentioned that whole Academy Award thing, too.
Hajek's piece on Bingham, along with more than 10 others written and produced by the NPR's fall 2011 intern class, will be available online Wednesday, December 21. Tune in to this blog or the Intern Edition website to hear them all.
Categories: i heart npr
December 6, 2011
Step aside, Nosferatu: Silent film's got a brand new (and much less creepy) face.
James Cromwell, one of the stars of the new silent flick, The Artist, stopped by NPR West for an interview with Neda Ulaby for her Morning Edition piece on the film. Already stirring up Oscar-buzz, the movie follows a 1920's actor struggling with the introduction of "talkies" — movies with sound. Cromwell tells how he prepared for his first non-vocal role.
(Spoiler alert: Cromwell was allowed to break character and speak during the interview.)
Categories: i heart npr
November 18, 2011
If you've ever caught an episode of FOX's Family Guy and wondered if the characters, who occasionally break out into song and dance, might be better suited for a Broadway play, then it will come as no surprise that the show's creator, Seth MacFarlane, spent his adolescence watching Broadway shows and taking voice lessons.
He stopped by NPR West to chat on the weekend edition of All Things Considered about how his upbringing inspired him to create his first non-comedic, studio album, Music Is Better Than Words – a compilation of songs from the Great American Songbook, sung in classic big band style.
But that's not all, Seth paid a visit to the folks at Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, too, where he was the show's 'Not My Job' guest.
(Listen to 'It's Anybody's Spring' from the album — soothing with a capital "S").
A bit of a step from Family Guy, sure; but certainly proof that MacFarlane's chops expand well beyond Americana satire and fart jokes.
Thanks for the tunes, Seth — I knew those "good old-fashioned values" were out there somewhere.
Categories: i heart npr
November 2, 2011
Emmy Award-winning actress Jane Lynch plays a cheerleading coach gone wrong on FOX's Glee. As Sue Sylvester, Lynch certainly has her memorable characteristics: harassing young starlets as the glee club's arch-nemesis, wielding (and often times using) a megaphone against innocent high school students and donning finer striped jumpsuits than the Run DMC boys themselves.
Thankfully, the real Jane Lynch is far less cruel. She chatted with David Greene on Morning Edition last month about her new memoir, Happy Accidents, the jumpstart of her career and the difficult process of coming out to her parents.
She conducted a little cheer for NPR before she left. (Olivia Newton John's 'Physical' may or may not have been playing in the background when we snapped the pic.)
Categories: i heart npr
October 18, 2011
Whether he's cooking crystal meth with his former high school chemistry teacher or brawling with Albuquerque drug dealers, actor Aaron Paul's performance as Jesse Pinkman on AMC's Breaking Bad has proven itself as one of the more edgy and inimitable characters on cable television.
The Emmy Award-winning actor sat down with Fresh Air's Terry Gross to chat about the show's fifth and final season, his chemistry (no pun intended) with Bryan Cranston and director Vince Gilligan's decision to keep Paul's character alive — at least for now.
Before he left, he even cooked up a little love for NPR.
NPR thanks our sponsors
This is the NPR that you can’t see or hear: news and announcements, sights from roaming our illustrious halls, behind-the-scenes perspectives. Written by NPR’s communications team. Learn more!
You can reach us directly via our contact form.
Everything you ever wanted to know about NPR (almost) is collected on our "about" section. Learn about our history, staff, member stations and audience, get the latest announcements and find the many ways to support public radio.
