After more than five decades reporting and hosting at NPR, Susan Stamberg — an iconic voice at the network — retired.
A broadcast pioneer, Stamberg joined NPR at its founding in 1971 and went on to host All Things Considered for 14 years. She then became the first host of Weekend Edition Sunday and most recently, she was a special correspondent covering the arts.
Along with Nina Totenberg, Linda Wertheimer and the late Cokie Roberts, she's considered one of NPR's "founding mothers" — a term Stamberg says she made up.
"I was getting tired of these founding fathers," she told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro. "You know, equal rights," she added with the laugh that millions of listeners recognize from her decades on the air.
As a host of All Things Considered, Stamberg was the first woman to anchor a nationally broadcast evening news program.
"That title did not pop into my mind until I'd been doing this for a while," she said. "And then I realized, oh, my gosh, this is really something."
"And, you know, like all women, you feel you have to be extra special good. Like all first people, you really have to meet the line to be taken seriously, and so others can follow. And that was certainly my attitude the whole time."
In a note to newsroom staff announcing Stamberg's retirement, Edith Chapin, NPR's editor in chief, said Stamberg won nearly every journalism award for broadcasting. She is in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, the Radio Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Stamberg's last day at the network was Monday.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Ari Shapiro: A line that has been attributed to you for the 25 years that I've been at NPR is the pictures are better on the radio.
Susan Stamberg: (Laughter) Oh, they always are. I'm gorgeous on the radio, I tell you.
Shapiro: What do you mean by "the pictures are better on the radio?"
Stamberg: Oh, because anything you can imagine is usually better than what you actually see. So, that's what I mean.
Shapiro: After 14 years hosting All Things Considered, in 1986, you stepped away from the show. What made you decide to give it up?
Stamberg: Well, first of all, I had cancer, and so it was a lot of pressure to continue trying to do that. And it was a good decision 'cause I helped put Weekend Sunday on the air.
Shapiro: One of your great innovations on Sunday mornings was … the puzzle.
Stamberg: Oh, I brought Will [Shortz]. I am so proud. I think that's the best thing I ever did.
Shapiro: Why did you want to do a puzzle on Sunday mornings?
Stamberg: Well, I thought in my mind, what do I like to do? I was always very personal — I guess it was almost egotistical about it. But I thought, what do I like to do on Sunday mornings? And I thought, I love to do the Sunday puzzle.
Shapiro: You have so many legacies. You are also renowned for cranberry relish.
Stamberg: (Laughter) I know.
Shapiro: How did that start?
Stamberg: That's going to be on my obituary. It'll be the lead, you know?
Shapiro: (Laughter) Where did that begin?
Stamberg: Well, I'll just tell you — first at WAMU, where I was ...
Shapiro: So, the relish tradition predates you hosting All Things Considered?
Stamberg: Oh, way, way before. Yes.
Shapiro: Wow.
Stamberg: Yes. Because I felt we needed tradition. Everyone was moving everywhere. And let's give them something stable that they look forward to every year.
Shapiro: I knew this was a tradition. I did not know that it was a 50-year-plus tradition.
Shapiro: For years, you reported on visual arts — which is difficult to do on the radio.
Stamberg: Yeah. Impossible. That's why I did it.
Shapiro: Is that why?
Stamberg: Yes, absolutely. You can't do it. And so I decided that couldn't be correct. I can do this.
It took me a while to do it. But I could shift to biography, which is always the most interesting anyway.
Shapiro: One of our colleagues told us that every day, when it was time to leave, you would say the same thing.
Stamberg: Go home, girls. It's getting dark.
Shapiro: What did that phrase mean to you? "Go home, girls. It's getting dark."
Stamberg: And I say it for a roomful of guys, too.
It's just a making-community thing to say. Let's go home, and tomorrow we'll show up again. That's all.
Shapiro: Susan Stamberg, I don't want to say goodbye to you.
Stamberg: Aw.
Shapiro: Thank you for the more than 50 years that you have given all of us — the country, the network and me, personally.
Stamberg: Thank you so much, Ari.
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