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The request is for an article on Radio talk shows worth listening to. But I listen to a whole station all day long. It has a lot of good information and has what has been called driveway moments' more than once a day and every day. So if you want talk shows covering anything under the sun you need to listen to your local public radio station. National public radio has produced several good shows but the Wisconsin public radio people are up there when it comes to talk shows.

In the morning there are early shows covering politics and then a show that covers interesting subjects from baseball to weird (put in your state) books to the history of Lincoln, Kennedy, Adams, and his wife.

During the midday my favorite show and host is Larry Mieler. He covers hunting, environmental issues, gardening, fishing, orchids, in other words everything. On weekends he hosts a nationally heard show called"Calling All Pets" with Dr. Patricia McConnell. He is a good speaker and interviewer and has many good guests that return time and again. Besides Dr. McConnell he interviews a Dr Shakashiri about science and curriculum, several master gardeners, a Dentist, two physio-therapists, our train commissioner, a building contractor, and an expert on Native Americans. There are bug specialists, and farmers. The slow food movement gets coverage as well. If it's fun and interesting it's on Larry's show.

Following the fun is one of the oldest shows on public radio today. It's called "Chapter a day" and is read by several different personalities. My favorite is Jim Fleming especially when he reads mysteries. The man has a great voice and uses it for the pleasure of the audience.

Then things get a little serious with "Talk of the Nation" with Neil Conan and the show is NPR's show about what's going on around the nation. That's usually politics but not always. There have been shows like the one a couple weeks ago when the earthquake in China happened. The scheduled show was tossed out and two NPR reporters turned to reporting the disaster as best they could with aftershocks rumbling under their feet and anguished parents standing around waiting for their children to be declared dead. I was proud of them for their sensitivity towards the distraught people. They asked some questions and when they were asked to back away they did. They were then approached by people who sincerely wanted to talk about their worries and concerns. One reporter even allowed the nation to hear her own anguish at seeing the devastation around her.

The shows continue with another NPR program "On point" Then later in the evening a special treat for those that didn't hear some of the local programming there is a rerun of one or two of them before the next show. It is a money show and I don't really know if it has a name I've heard because my life gets a little hectic about then but the host is Ky Risdall and the show covers some interesting and educational sound bites that I pick up on sometimes.
Later in the evening and late night is the Canadian Broadcasting period and that leads into The BBC. I am rarely up beyond that but I think it takes listeners up to the morning broadcast and the cycle begins again.

No matter where you are in the world you can get NPR and WPR if you have a computer. Just type in WPR.org and the world will open up to you. You can pick a show or listen to them all. And just see if you don't one time at least sit in your car to hear the last of a story because it is told in a compelling and interesting manner.

Learn more about this author, Ann Dennis.
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