NPR

I’ll admit it. I’m a super, big-time, gigantic geek when it comes to National Public Radio. I listen to it in the car, and I subscribe to three podcasts that I listen to every day during my commute: American Public Media’s The Story, Fresh Air and This American Life. If Terri Gross or Ira Glass retire (these are serious concerns of mine) or quit, I honestly am not sure how my life will unfold.

Future husband. All we do is talk news, gossip about Chicago muckety mucks and drink wine. Lost of wine and talking and kissing. 

If I could choose one person to freeze time for, it would be TGross. I can't even handle when she's on vacation for  a week. 

Seventy-five percent of why I listen to NPR is because I think it’s one of the most trusted news sources out there. The other 25 percent is because listening to soothing voices while on the train or bus really makes the trek to and from Chicago more bearable.

My soothing voice fixation started when I lived in North Carolina. The superintendent of the school district I covered had his own TV show on public access. He would interview people within the district about their jobs. The camerawork was somewhat mystical, appearing as if there were a film over the lens. And his voice could put a colicky baby to sleep. His lips would smack ever so lightly and he would get some spittle on his tongue. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I download a new episode of The Story and Fresh Air every day and a new one of This American Life every week. Most of them, I listen and delete. But there are a handful I’ve saved on my iPod to listen to during train naps, particularly because the voices are so soothing. Or sometimes because the subject matter is so interesting, I think I’ll want to hear it again. Here’s a rundown (get ready, it’s random):

•Gail Lumet Buckley. This is Lena Horne’s daughter, who appeared on Fresh Air to talk about a book she wrote about her mother. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126805290.

•Gary Shteyngart. He’s an author who was on Fresh Air promoting his new book “Super Sad True Love Story.” http://www.npr.org/2011/05/13/136240501/gary-shteyngart-a-love-story-in-a-sad-future.

•Robert and Dana Baer. Married couple who used to work for the CIA. They were on Fresh Air promoting their book, “The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story” (a book I highly recommend reading). Robert also wrote the book in which the movie “Syriana” is based and George Clooney played him. http://www.npr.org/2011/03/07/134330700/a-covert-affair-when-cia-agents-fall-in-love.

•David Dow. Author of “The Autobiography of an Execution.” Dow is a death penalty defense lawyer. www.npr.org/2010/02/08/123491414/20-years-of-defending-death-row-inmates.

•Michelle Williams. You may know her from “Dawson’s Creek,” but in this instance, she was discussing a TV movie she was in titled “Meek’s Cutoff.” And she gets super awkward talking about Heath Ledger. http://www.npr.org/2011/04/14/135206694/going-west-the-making-of-meeks-cutoff.

•Jess Goddell. A former Marine promoting her book on what it’s like to work in a military mortuary. http://www.npr.org/2011/06/21/137304590/death-and-after-in-iraq-memoir-of-a-mortuary.

•Jose Antonio Vargas. This is the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker reporter who outed himself as an illegal immigrant in an article for the magazine. A pretty amazing story since he was able to get around the country with a fake ID and work as a journalist for The Washington Post and the New Yorker, among other big name publications. http://www.npr.org/2011/07/07/137648605/a-journalist-comes-out-as-an-illegal-immigrant.

•David Kennedy. A criminologist promoting his book on techniques used to get drugs off the street in various communities and how drugs wreak havoc on towns. http://www.npr.org/2012/11/09/164732917/interrupting-violence-with-the-message-dont-shoot.

•Barry Blitt. New Yorker cartoonist, who’s drawn such iconic images as the Obama’s fist bumping while wearing terrorist gear. http://www.npr.org/2012/02/20/146996406/new-yorker-cartoonist-imagines-washington-at-7.

•Oliver Sacks. The neurologist and author discussing his latest book, “Hallucinations.” And about how he used to trip out on acid and other drugs to see how his brain and body would react. http://www.npr.org/2012/11/06/164360724/oliver-sacks-exploring-how-hallucinations-happen.

•Barbara Streisand. No words. One of my favorites. http://www.npr.org/2012/12/17/166966172/guilt-trip-streisand-on-songs-films-and-family.

•Dianne Dwyer Modestini. This one has become a new favorite to listen to. Modestini was asked to clean and restore a painting, only to discover it was an original Leonardo Da Vinci. https://thestory.org/archive/20121228_The_Story__Discovering_Leonardo.mp3/view.

•Old Boys Network. This episode was on This American Life, which each week has a theme for which they come up with stories about. This one was about a hospital in Kermit, Texas, where the nurses tried to get rid of this doctor they felt was conducting malpractice. They ended up being clotheslined by local law enforcement, who was in cahoots with each other and the doctor.

•Breakups. I only listen to the last half of this episode of This American Life. They plan an interview from an 8-year-old, conducted on NPR about 20 years prior. The little girl had written the mayor of New York City a letter about her parents’ divorce, asking him to help. She was interviewed in present day and asked to reflect on that time and how much she’s changed and learned. The second part I listen to is a divorce lawyer discussing clients fighting over kids and assets and how most of them never reconcile.

Conventions: I looked for the last podcast I thought I had saved but I guess I deleted it. Which is OK, I guess, because it makes me cry every time I listen to it. It was a This American Life episode and one of the segments was about this couple who met at a convention. Love at first sight type of meeting. The world stops type of meeting.

They have a fast love affair, and fast-forward to a year or so later, and they’re both traveling to California to attend a Grateful Dead concert. Both had been battling the flu and were still getting over it. She heads home on a flight before him, and they have one of those epic goodbyes at the airport. She falls asleep on the plane and when the flight attendant went to wake her after they landed, she couldn’t. She was dead. The flu had attacked her heart and basically ate away at it. And NOW, this guy flies as much as he can because he feels closer to her when he’s in the air. Cue to me sobbing on the train when I first heard this story.