Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR, by Lisa Napoli* (Abrams, 2021, $28 HB, 352pp) Review by Skye Anderson
Would you read a book with the title Susan? How about Linda? or Susan and Linda? or Nina - does that ring a bell? or Susan and Linda and Nina? I bet you got it at Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie though! Even if the title looked like this: susan, linda, nina & cokie.
Or, does this little exercise bring you back to "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice"?
Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie is the extraordinary story of the "founding mothers" of NPR (National Public Radio)! Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nine Totenberg and Cokie Roberts were on the radio for decades and not just 'on the radio' but on NPR and not just 'on' but helping to birth that iconic piece of oral history.
If you don't recall all four women, that's OK: I only remember three of the names even though I am an avid member of my local public radio station and 'grew up' with all of the founding mothers.
A Long Book of Recent Radio History, Replete with Gossipy History
At 352 pages, this is a long book about four enterprising young women whom we all know and listen to on a daily basis. We invite them into our homes.We may not recognize their faces but know their voices well.
Author Lisa Napoli deals with everything. Starting with cancer and going on to plagiarism and sexual harassment with a discussion of the financial woes of NPR in 1983. And if, at the end, you still get the four founders mixed up, that's OK, too!
We begin at the beginning with a chapter on the background of each of the women, then how they met over a few years, how hard they worked as the Women's Movement was in its infancy, how little they made (salary-wise) and what they are offered for a speech nowadays. Along the way, the author digresses onto threads of what is happening in the world at the time. All that makes for a fascinating few evenings of reading.
*complete with a timeline
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