Talk of the Nation
 |
|
| Genre | News, interview, call-in |
|---|---|
| Running time | 120 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Syndicates | NPR |
| Hosted by |
John Hockenberry (1991–1993) Ray Suarez (1993–2000) Juan Williams (2000–2001) Neal Conan (2001–2013) Ira Flatow (Science Friday) (1991–2013) |
| Executive producer(s) | Leith Bishop, Sue Goodwin |
| Air dates | November 1991 to June 27, 2013 |
| Website | npr.org/programs/totn/ |
Talk of the Nation (TOTN) was an American talk radio program based in Washington D.C., produced by National Public Radio (NPR) and was broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. It focused on current events and controversial issues.
The show began broadcasting in November 1991. It was hosted by Neal Conan from late 2001 to June 27, 2013, the program's last day on air. Each episode featured guests discussing current affairs. Past regular hosts have included John Hockenberry, Ray Suarez, and Juan Williams. On Fridays Ira Flatow hosted Science Friday, with discussion topics from science and technology. The program invited listeners to pose questions for the guest host or hosts by telephone or e-mail.
On March 29, 2013, NPR announced that it would cease production of TOTN at the end of June, replacing it with an expanded version of Here and Now, an NPR/WBUR co-production.
Science Friday continued as an independent show.
TOTN began with a look ahead to the upcoming topics. Then the regular five-minute NPR newscast occurred. After the newscast, the show generally spent from 30 minutes to the entire show discussing the main topic. If discussion on that topic petered, or if the guests had to leave, then shorter news interviews similar to those found on the NPR news-magazines of five to ten minutes aired. Sometimes these shorter segments took calls, but often they did not. More controversial issues may have had guests and take calls the entire hour.
One hour's topics did not carry into the next hour. This is because many stations carried only one hour of the program. In addition, the host delivered a concluding "This is Talk of the Nation from NPR News" as a cue to stations that wish to cut away to local programming before the scheduled break.
To coordinate the choice of interviewees across all NPR programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Tell Me More, NPR set up a " list" system around 2005, whereby the first show to declare interest in a particular guest can "reserve" that person.
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