It was many years ago...
3 years ago
It was supposed to be an anonymous interview for background information on a radioactive town in Kyrgystan where I had been living… I got in trouble with the Peace Corps for doing it. Oops.
How to be interviewed on NPR
It made me
Giddy 
"Weird hearing yourself on the radio"
How I did it: I was interviewed on "Marketplace" about my company Fundable (http://www.fundable.com).
It was kind of surreal getting contacted by a producer. It was even more exciting recording the interview in the local studio.
The interview ended up turning into a good segment... mainly because of the story and nothing to do with me, although I do admit I enjoyed hearing it later because I like NPR and it was cool be featured.
And even though at the time it didn't get us any real business, when you're a young entrepreneur, a national radio spot goes a long way towards assuaging your family's concerns about your entrepreneurial lifestyle. Phone calls with relatives went from "so... are you looking for a REAL job yet??" to "how's your awesome company doing?" Things have only been getting better since. But I shudder to think how I would have survived that first year of running my own company without that interview. Having the support of people around me changed everything.
Lessons & tips: A lot of NPR's content is actually from sister channels like APR so consider doing something noteworthy to get their attention if you can't get on NPR directly.
Resources:
Fundable - http://www.fundable.com/ It helped that I started this company... so they had a good reason to interview me
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/10/10/PM200510108.html The interview is still online here if you want to hear the 2005 version of me being interviewed
People doing this are also doing these things:
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RuthG is going to treat self-care as if it were a paying job
If you'd like to listen
3 years ago
to some interesting conversation about Colombia’s indigenous & Afrodescendant people, go here & click on the “listen” button for May 8. As I’ve done several times in the past year, about 10 days ago I accompanied a Colombian human rights advocate to the Chicago Public Radio studio & was invited to chime in toward the end of the interview. The producer had really well-researched questions & gave us the whole hour—unprecedented in my recollection (usually Worldview’s daily hour is divided up into 2-4 segments on related topics). It was a great privilege to help make this interview happen! It aired today.
Untitled
3 years ago
I was interviewed in April 2006 for a segment on the Great Lakes Radio Consortium…but I’d like to be interviewed on Morning Edition or All Things Considered. Or read an essay on either show.
Untitled
3 years ago
I was interviewed for a segment on synesthesia in 1988. It was a positive experience. The interviewer did his homework and asked questions that would be interesting to the audience. The local public radio station staff couldn’t have been more accommodating. My advice is to possess an anomaly that other people might be interested in if they only knew it existed.
Antiwar Interview
4 years ago
I was interviewed March 19, 2005 at an antiwar demonstration I helped organize outside of Ft. Bragg, NC. The main participants were military family members and veterans, including Iraq vets.
HobokenMartha wants a "Who's Da Manny?" t-shirt
The word was “gump,” which my mother invented some time ago to define the amount of food that was more than a scoop, but less than a lump.
RuthG is going to treat self-care as if it were a paying job
the Worldview show
4 years ago
It’s produced in Chicago & syndicated, but I don’t know where else it airs. Really great, thoughtful show about international affairs. My interviews have had to do with—where else? Colombia!
www.chicagopublicradio.org
Well, technically I was a guest...
4 years ago
...on Science Friday. It wasn’t just somebody interviewing me personally; there were three of us, I think, scattered around the country talking to Ira about the issues surrounding computer spyware. Still, it was a great experience. I got to sit in a comfortable studio at KUOW here in Seattle. The folks were friendly and the sound quality was vastly better than radio segments I’ve done previously by telephone—so I’d highly recommend opting for the studio in a situation like this.
