Bill Burton: I'm joined by a voice you’ve gotten to know quite well over the years as the host of Morning Edition, Steve Inskeep. He came to Kentucky to interview Gov. Andy Beshear, and is broadcasting from our studios today. Steve, welcome back to Louisville. It's good to see you again.
Steve Inskeep: Good to see you. Don't tell me about a familiar voice. Your voice is amazing. It's great to hear it, and I'm glad to be here.
BB: Let's talk about what brought you to the Commonwealth. You talked with Gov. Andy Beshear. And Beshear, like a lot of politicians, will choose his words very carefully when he's speaking to a member of the media. What sense did you get from him, though, about just how serious he is to run for President?
SI: I think he's serious. He didn't say that he's running. He said he said he was going to get through the next year of leading the National Governors Association, then talk to his family and figure it out. But I think he's being taken seriously. He is not the highest profile Democratic governor thinking about running for president. That might be more likely someone like Gavin Newsom, but he is interesting, which is one of the reasons we're here, because he is a Democrat who has won elections in a red state. We can talk a lot about why that was, but I think that's also another reason that he chooses his words carefully. He's threading a needle here, trying to make sure that he can appeal to different kinds of voters. And it's a challenge, and it's an important challenge for any political party.
BB: Something you and I are dealing with, and all of our listeners are dealing with, is the dramatic change to the public radio landscape. The era of not receiving federal funding officially began October 1, but we've been preparing for this for quite a few months. Immediately after Congress passed the rescission, we went into an emergency drive mode and were able to recoup much of that money. But what's happening at the national level with NPR?
SI: NPR did not receive as much direct federal support as many local stations do, and so NPR is in a very strong position, I think. And the main thing is to make sure that the system as a whole remains healthy. As you know very well, this is a very strong station, very healthy station. I've heard really good things while visiting here, and many stations are very strong. There are some stations that are in less populated areas, more rural areas, that relied more on the federal subsidy, and they're going to need more help. And so there is work to do, but what I hear is a determination to go on. One of the strengths of the public media system is that federal tax money was never the main source of support for what happens here. You are. People who listen are the main source of support, and people are coming through. And I think that the system also needs to be a little bit more entrepreneurial, a little bit more aggressive, build a little bit more audience. But that's coming too from what I have heard, the ratings for public media are up drastically this year. People are tuning in. People are relying on what we do.
BB: So what could some of those changes be for NPR?
SI: I think that it's step by step, but one of them is represented by this interview with Gov. Beshear. It is what I call an all platform interview, which gets it to a little bit bigger audience. It's on the radio. You heard it on the radio this morning. It's also a special podcast drop that we were just recording in the other studio. It is a video which is a lot of fun to do and gets out on YouTube and the NPR app and a lot of different platforms. And this reaches people where they are, millions of Americans, again, increasing numbers of Americans are listening to this radio program, but a lot of people get the news off of YouTube. A lot of people get the news in different ways, and we want to be everywhere with them, with smart programming. And so this is a thing that we're doing more and more.
BB: That is Steve Inskeep, the longtime host of Morning Edition. Steve, a pleasure to see you in the building, and thanks so much for your time.
SI: Same. Thank you.
