NPR's "On Being"

Little sweetheart, I’m sure I’ve told you about a program on NPR that I often listen to. It’s called On Being. It’s hosted by a woman named Krista Tippett who had a career I think in the diplomatic corps before changing direction and getting an advanced degree in Divinity and the starting this radio show with  her editor and producer and co-founder, Trent Gilliss.

It’s really interesting. There’s usually one guest for the entire hour, someone from the arts, sometimes - a poet or novelist or musician - sometimes someone from the world of politics or journalism, sometimes someone from academia or of a religious order. And much of the discussion is about matters of faith and life and the nature of existence. That maybe sounds a bit grand but it’s not. It’s very intimate and revealing as well as being enlightening and thoughtful.

About two years ago, I actually met and spoke with Krista when she was here giving at talk at St John the Divine. I told her about you and gave her Of Love and Loss and she signed a copy of her book for your mom.

Since then, I’ve kept in touch with Trent, fitfully, sending updates - especially news of Electric Hymnal and a copy of it after its release. I was just writing him again a couple weeks ago when he wrote back to tell me that he’s stepping down from On Being. He put me in touch with a couple of his colleagues and I wrote to them.

One of them, Mariah Helgeson  - a senior producer - wrote back to say it was great hearing from us and that she’d first heard about the band when we were featured on the On Being blog. What? Yeah.

Apparently, one of the digital producers wrote a little piece about you and I and the group when we released our Christmas album in 2015. Incredibly, I didn’t ever see it at the time. The link is below.

Isn’t that amazing, little sweetheart? I know how much you like NPR. And your mom and my mom! Hey, you’re on the radio again, little sweetheart. You’re on National Public Radio. With all my love forever.

https://onbeing.org/blog/reimagining-a-christmas-classic/