The Diane Rehm Show

There is good news this week for the lovers of intelligent talk on the radio. Diane Rehn is back on the air. She was out last week. We were told she was recovering from pneumonia which was a frightening thing to hear. But now she is back.
Who is Diane Rehm? She is the host of The Diane Rehm Show which originates weekday morning from WAMU (American University Radio) in Washington D.C. and is syndicated on some NPR stations including WNYE-FM 91.5 in New York from 10 am until noon.
There are a lot of interview programs on Public Radio, but where most of the others have adapted the magazine format in which they will only cover a subject for 20 or sometimes around 35 minutes, The Diane Rehm Show takes a more leisurely and in-depth approach of sticking to one subject for the full hour. The subject does not need to be trite on up to the minute to be worthy of discussion. Today's show had an hour long discussion on Flaubert's Madame Bovery.
Of course the element that makes the program great is Diane Rehm herself. She is not a young woman and brings a lifetime of experience to the work she does. She suffers from some sort of voice ailment that makes her speak a little more slowly than most people on the radio, and this is welcome. It was funny hearing her some years back in discussion with Mister Rogers, two slow talkers. And yet she can be quite tough. I remember her with Henry Kissinger. She was smart and tough with him, asking him things that no others have had the guts to.
The guests are mostly the ones on the circuit at the moment, out selling the new book, but she is just so much better, smarter and more feeling than the other hosts, presenters, on American radio.
Recent standout programs have been her visits with Art Buchwald at his death bed in a hospice, and later when he didn't die on schedule instead leaving the hospice and writing another book before he passed away. They talked about the issues involved with dying in a direct and forthright manner, a rarity on USA media. There are many others. Such as Ellen Burstyn who was on promoting the publication of her autobiography.
Please visit the site for The Diane Rehm Show. She has all you need there, streaming, podcasts, archives, etc. If you don't know her already, you will meet an exciting new radio friend.