But you can make good radio, interesting radio, great radio even, without an urgent question, a burning issue at stake.

I can only control what I can control.

The most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work.

One reason I do the live shows - and the monthly speeches at public radio stations - is to remind myself that people hear the show, that it has an audience, that it exists in the world. It's so easy to forget that.

I dont meet many people who are talking about shows on Showtime.

I dont take care of my voice at all, which is one reason that I sound as bad as I do.

...these stories are a kind of beacon. By making stories full of empathy and amusement and the sheer pleasure of discovering the world, these writers reassert the fact that we live in a world where joy and empathy and pleasure are all around us, there for the noticing.