Chris Lydon

Chris (at) radioopensource (dot) org
Christopher Lydon stumbled out of the media storm into the pleasures of smart talk radio about a decade ago, and he intends to keep talking, and listening, forever. He was born hungry into a big family of Boston Irish strivers (not so unlike Mary McGrath's family) and he's stayed hungry: for literature (Russians, Victorians, Transcendentalists, Roth-Bellow-Updike); for the music of Brahms, Ellington and Chucho Valdes and his own piano time; for spiritual study in the Hebrew-Christian bible and Gospel singing at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston; for family life, and gardening and exotic travel. In the background now are too many years in straight journalism, covering city and state politics for the Boston Globe and presidential campaigns (McGovern, Humphrey, Reagan, Carter et al.) for the New York Times, anchoring "The Ten O'Clock News" at WGBH-TV in Boston, and founding "The Connection" with Mary McGrath at WBUR. Chris Lydon had run for mayor of Boston in 1993 -- a spur-of-the-moment stab at making a difference, or perhaps just surprising himself. In 1994, it turned out, the surprise that made the difference was radio. In the new millenium the onset of blogging, podcasting and the myriad extensions of the Internet expanded all Chris Lydon's horizons and the resonance of Emerson's essay "Circles," a Lydon standby: "Life is a series of surprises. We do not guess today the mood, the pleasure, the power of tomorrow, when we are building up our being.... Now for the first time seem I to know any thing rightly. The simplest words, -- we do not know what they mean except when we love and aspire."

Whose Words These Are (21): Afaa Michael Weaver on Haiti

Recorded
Mon, March 15

This “Year of India” (5): … and the chronic crisis of Pakistan

Recorded
Fri, March 12

Thomas Y. Levin: “surveillent narcissism” and other digital doubts

Recorded
Thu, March 11

This “Year of India” (4): The NY Times’ Man in Bombay

Recorded
Fri, March 05

Tom Gleason’s Liberal Education: Memoir with Music

Recorded
Tue, March 02

Yehudi Wyner’s life in music: a composer with piano hands

Recorded
Wed, February 24

Ghana Speaks (V): The Radio Voices of Cape Coast

Recorded
Fri, February 12

Ghana Speaks (IV): … and Koo Nimo plays guitar and sings

Recorded
Thu, February 11

Ghana Speaking (III): Kofi Sam’s Model of African Self-Sufficiency

Recorded
Wed, February 10

Ghana Speaking (II): Village Living in Kwabeng

Recorded
Tue, February 09