In the last year, there have been a fair number of full-length albums that, while not necessarily concept albums, take the listener on a sonic journey.

Summer is awards season in newsrooms around the country, a time when several prominent news organizations recognize the best journalism produced in the previous year. Here at JPR, we submit stories that we believe reflect our best work, not to pat ourselves on the back, but to see how our work stacks up against our peers. These awards are judged by accomplished journalists, communication professionals and academics so recognition is very meaningful to both reporters and newsroom leaders.

As AI increasingly permeates all facets of modern life, we will be bombarded with new challenges at the same time we’re reeling from the challenges that have resulted from widespread adoption of smartphones and the proliferation of social media and online gaming that have, collectively, handicapped our youth.

In an attempt to add conservative viewpoints to its news coverage, NBC recently announced that former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair, Ronna McDaniel, would join the network as a regular commentator. And then it fired her less than a week after her first appearance.

This summer JPR welcomes James Kelley, our sixth intern in the program. James joins JPR from Oregon State University where he was the city editor of OSU’s student-led publication, the Daily Barometer and where he hosted a radio show on KBVR FM. JPR News Director Erik Neumann spoke with James, who will be arriving in Ashland this June.

A recent episode of Underground History highlighted one archaeologist’s effort to share the wonders of our National Park System in a new way: not through words, but with LEGO vignettes.

By now, you have probably heard that I will be retiring as the host of First Concert at the end of June. It has been an amazing experience for me to discover and share with you so much beautiful music that I was unfamiliar with and enlarge the catalog of classical music here at JPR.

In early February an email arrived from NPR announcing Linda Wertheimer’s retirement. Wertheimer has been an NPR icon for over five decades and, along with Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg, and the late Cokie Roberts, was crowned one of NPR’s “founding mothers” in the 2021 bestseller Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli.