This book is their history, and the author does a beautiful job to parallel these journalists’ individual stories and struggles with the historic events in their news reporting. Little did I know as I tuned in to Morning Edition and All Things Considered daily that I was listening to history being made – and I don’t mean just the history these four journalists reported on. The narrative is interspersed with the tales of powerful politicians, gender inequality and the changing face of journalism.Īdmittedly, I’m a long-time NPR fan girl ever since I discovered WAMU, the NPR affiliate in DC, when I was a young Hill staffer in the early 1980s. There are stories that illustrate their support for each other, their love for each other’s families and their genuine friendship. The author also tells the human side of their friendship spanning almost 50 years. The narrative of how these women reported the news overlays with the stories of how they questioned the broadcast establishment and managed high-power careers while juggling marriages and child rearing – none of which were typical for women in the early ‘70s.
The author, Lisa Napoli, lays out these journalists’ diverse upbringings at the beginning of the book with a biographical account of each that foreshadows their ultimate intersection at NPR. Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts built the backbone of the early National Public Radio while they also whacked away at the broadcast industry’s glass ceiling. This book is the story of four women from vastly different backgrounds who converged on a fledgling radio network in DC in the mid-1970s. This is the eighth in a series of summer “Blink Book Reviews” by Reba Hull Campbell
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