On May 3, 1971, at 5 p.m., All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations.
In the more than four decades since, almost everything about the program has changed, from the hosts, producers, editors and reporters to the length of the program, the equipment used and even the audience.
However there is one thing that remains the same: each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, insightful features on the quirky and the mainstream in arts and life, music and entertainment, all brought alive through sound.
All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Every weekday the two-hour show is hosted by Ailsa Chang, Audie Cornish, Mary Louise Kelly, and Ari Shapiro. In 1977, ATC expanded to seven days a week with a one-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays, which is hosted by Michel Martin.
During each broadcast, stories and reports come to listeners from NPR reporters and correspondents based throughout the United States and the world. The hosts interview newsmakers and contribute their own reporting. Rounding out the mix are the disparate voices of a variety of commentators.
-
Rebecca Simonitsch had just learned she might be a candidate for brain surgery. The man seated beside her on the flight home pulled out a notebook to explain what lay ahead.
-
Sometimes a broken appliance gets thrown out even though it just needs a little fix. That's where volunteer tinkerers come in. They make it work again and give it to people in need.
-
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at BIMCO, the global shipping association, about what it might mean to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
-
Plans to develop a luxury resort that has links to Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have prompted a growing protest movement against Albania's government.
-
Jazz legend and anti-apartheid icon Abdullah Ibrahim has died at the age of 91. He leaves behind a global contribution to jazz music.
-
NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with ecologist Justin Stewart about mapping the complex network of fungi connecting the Earth's plants.
-
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Kelsey Pfendler, who is rowing solo from California to Hawaii. She is attempting to become the first American woman to do so.
-
President Trump said the next stage of negotiations with Iran should be easier than the first as he continues to tout the recent agreement between the two countries at the G7 summit in France.
-
For some high school mountain bike races, varsity girls race shorter distances than boys. One 16-year-old athlete in Utah is trying to change that.
-
In an era of partisan gerrymandering, Colorado's 8th Congressional District remains a toss-up. Voters, many unaffiliated, have a variety of opinions on what type of candidate they want this November.