How the NPR voices look (in my head)
Gaelan | Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8:33PM
When I was in high school I had to spend about 30 minutes every morning driving into town to get to school. This time I spent religiously listening to Morning Edition's first segment. This was the 90's so the host was the great Bob Edwards and I can remember for some reason or another getting into my head that Bob was an old Japanese man. Yeah I know, 'Edwards' not the most Japanese name but I wasn't really thinking about it, I just had this picture of him in my head. Fast forward a few years and I see an interview on TV with Bob Edwards (he was retiring) and... What the hell? Bob Edwards looks like Adam West?!
Well I'm sure we all do this with the voices on the radio, we (for some reason or other) get a mental picture of that person and it sticks. The shock is when we actually end up seeing the face behind the voice and our mental image is shattered forever! Like an iconic actor playing a role in a movie or an actor playing an iconic role in a movie from a famous book. For better or worst, sometimes you just can't disassociate the two after the fact (thank you Ian McKellen).
Anyway, this is who I see in my head when I listen to NPR these days, not always intresting but always wrong. Well except for Terry Gross, she just looks like she sounds.
Final thought, Renee Montagne does Morning Edition now, those guys have to get up at like 3am!
Reader Comments (32)
Ira Glass looks like.... Ira Glass.
As does Garrison Keillor.
This is so, so good.
Renee Montagne works out of NPR West. I believe her work day starts about 11:30 p.m.
Spot on for Garrison Keillor.
If they really built a Carl Kasell robot, NPR would be an unstoppable news force the likes of which the world has never seen. Someone get on that.
It is clear where your mind's eyes are staring when looking at Brooke Gladstone. Well done, well done.
Kinda funny - Renee Montagne is connected with me on LinkedIn, and she runs a yoga studio. She's a yogini. I was amazed.
I heard a letter on Morning Edition a long time ago and the listened basically said that his kids thought that Carl Kassell was a castle shaped chess piece.
Ah, this kills me! I love it!
Well done. Sorry to see you missed Diane Rehm, who always looks like an old Katharine Hepburn in my head.
i imagined Krulwich as somewhere between your version and Sipowicz from "NYPD Blue".
Your Robert Krulwich, with black hair and minus the 'stache, is exactly what Ray Magliozzi looks like in my head. I don't have an image for his brother Tom, for some reason.
I imagine Click and Clack as Mario and Luigi. I think it's a GenX thing.
This made my day! I often spend my drives imagining the NPR personalities in my head and talk about them as though they are my close and personal friends.
Peter Sagal wishes he had that much hair!
Ouch! you guys are hateful.
Cool concept. This would make a cool mouse pad or maybe a coffee mug.
It's always been my secret fantasy to witness Kai Ryssdal giving Rick Steves a wedgie and/or swirlie. This came so close.
Yea it's real : )
I sort of see Carl Kasell as a sports-stadium pressbox with a speaker on the outside.
I was not retiring. I have hot retired. I likely never will.
Yeah. I get it! That's why I'm afraid to see what Gaelan Kelly really looks like.
It could shatter all my illusions.
Very sorry for misstating the facts, Mr. Edwards.
Forget radio towers, you're mass communicating over the satellites! And we thank you for it.
For years, I did exactly the same thing. I told my brother once that I loved to listen to Nina Totenberg. With a mesmerizing blend of intellect and mellifluence, I admitted to a small attraction to the mental image I'd created. Indeed, I deliberately made no effort to look up any more about her than I already knew from her occasional legal reports on All Things Considered.
Then my brother, perhaps thinking me unhinged, unwittingly committed the sin of forwarding her picture! And I'll leave it at that...
I think the backcolor is so dark , made me feel uncomfortable.I think you can improve it ,then there will be more visitor!eve isk
Maybe faces made for radio...but we worship you all just the same!