Photo: eduard koller

Photo: eduard koller

An archive of Andrei Codrescu's segments at NPR

Andrei Codrescu has been a commentator on All Things Considered since 1983. He is an homme-de-lettres whose novels, essays and poetry have been infiltrating the American psyche since he emigrated from his native Romania to Detroit in 1965.

I originally thought that I might select a few commentaries from my regular contributions to NPR's All Things Considered from the more than three decades (1983-2016) I opined, played, and raged in brief essays. This turned out to be psychologically wrenching plus impossible, so I am offering instead a link to the many pieces digitized in the NPR archive. There are many essays from the analog days that haven't made it into the archive, but some of them may be found in print in a number of published collections: "A Craving for Swan," (1986) and "Raised by Puppets Only to be Killed by Research." There are also audio recordings in "Plato Sucks" (Dove Audio). My editors at NPR have kindly offered "to keep the door open," should I find speaking to 26 million people interesting again. When I started in 1983 there were only three or six million listeners, so who wouldn't like to talk to 9 times as many? A lot of people, I'm sure, but at this point the form feels exhausted. Everyone opines on the internet, satire rules the republic, ignorance is a cabinet post,and the world is generally either opiated or overspecialized. Poetry can do a better job. Not only that, but poetry will be the new currency as the default currencies melt like the glaciers. You can't pay for rutabagas with poetry yet, but it won't be long.

 

NPR: All Things Considered - complete archive

WNYC's Radiolab  - Adding Memory

Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me – January 14, 2006