photo credit: Victor Jeffreys As one of the hosts of NPR's flagship program, All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro has a voice that's instantly recognizable to many radio listeners in the United States. Since 2015, Ari has shared heartwarming and heart-wrenching stories on the show, which is one of the most listened-to news programs in the country. In 2020, the format expanded with Consider This, a 15-minute, six-times-weekly podcast-also hosted by Ari.
But journalism is just his day job.
Ari is also a singer, performer, and speaker. He moonlights as a vocalist with the band Pink Martini, and joined forces with actor Alan Cumming for a stage show called Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret. Now, the award-winning reporter and former White House correspondent is adding author to his resume.
The North Dakota native's memoir, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories From a Life Spent Listening, hits shelves this week. In the book, Ari not only details his experiences reporting stories around the world, but also reflects on his upbringing in Portland, Oregon.
Ari created a playlist exclusively for Spotify that's the perfect accompaniment to his memoir. From The B-52's to the New York Philharmonic, the curation is as varied as the tales that come to life on his pages. We caught up with the host-performer-author to learn more about the inspiration for his book, and the ideas behind the playlist.
What made you decide to write a memoir? Covering the news every day sometimes feels like sprinting on a treadmill, where if you pause to look at the hot guy walking by, you will fall on the floor. And so, I've never been a person who nostalgically looks back at my favorite conversations and stories I've told. But I realized that after more than 20 years as a journalist, some of those stories, and some of those people, have sort of snagged on me as they flew by in the current, and changed the person I am-not just as a journalist, not just a storyteller, but as a human.
In a way, this book is a memoir told through the stories of others. It covers a really wide range, from going on Air Force One with the president to being in warzones to singing with a band at the Hollywood Bowl. But, ultimately, I think of the book as kind of an answer to a question that I get from friends a lot, which is How do you stay optimistic in the face of everything? And the answer is the stories that are in these chapters.
How did your experience as a journalist impact your story? Being a journalist has certainly attuned me to the finer details, so I feel like I can take someone along and tell a story that hopefully transports them and sticks with them. But the thing that made it really challenging is-as a journalist-stories are not supposed to be about me. I'm never supposed to be the focus.
So switching gears and telling stories that are fundamentally about me was unfamiliar and scary and foreign and definitely a learning curve. And as I look back at the drafts of these chapters and the way they evolved, that's the biggest change that I see: learning how to write about myself in a way that doesn't feel like a betrayal to who I am as a journalist.
Can you share a story from your book? I have to tell you about the first time I ever sang with a band. For my debut performance, I was a singer with a band called Pink Martini, a little orchestra from Portland, Oregon, with more than a dozen members. In 2009, they asked if I would record a song for an album they were working on. After, the band leader, Thomas Lauderdale, said, Well we need to find a time for you to perform this live with us. So why don't you come to the Hollywood Bowl?
Now, the Hollywood Bowl seats 18,000 people. But what made it the most terrifying was not the size of the audience. It's that backstage, before you walk out in front of those thousands of cheering people, you see all these huge, framed, black-and-white photos of the legends who have performed there over the decades. There's Aretha Franklin; there's The Beatles; there's Judy Garland-all pictured on the stage you are about to stand on. And then the time comes, and you walk out in the footsteps of those giants and the spotlight follows your path.
It is so exhilarating because as a radio reporter, it doesn't matter how many millions of people might be listening to any given story I do. It's a very intimate conversation between me and the one person who happens to be hearing it. But with a live performance, everybody is sharing that experience collectively, at the same time. There is something so electric about live music because it only ever happens once in that particular way. And so, to be a part of that is a thrill unlike anything I've ever experienced in journalism.
What was the experience like reading your story aloud for your audiobook? First of all, I loved recording my audiobook because my comfort zone is telling stories. That's what I do every day, and so, in some ways, recording the audiobook felt much more easy, comfortable, and familiar than writing the book. But it's exhausting to speak aloud for hours on end. Even though I host a two-hour daily news program, I'm not talking for most of it. I read an introduction to a reporter's piece and then I sit quietly for four minutes. Or if I'm doing an interview, I ask someone a question and then sit quietly while they answer. By the end of the day of audiobook recording, I could barely talk to my husband. I have so much admiration for people who do this professionally.
You created a musical playlist for your memoir. How did you pick the songs? Above all, I wanted the playlist to feel optimistic and joyful because that's what I want people to walk away from the book feeling. Even though the book takes you to warzones and refugee crises, the book is
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photo credit: Victor Jeffreys As one of the hosts of NPR's flagship program, All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro has a voice that's instantly recognizable to many radio listeners in the United States. Since 2015, Ari has shared heartwarming and heart-wrenching stories on the show, which is one of the most listened-to news programs in the country. In 2020, the format expanded with Consider This, a 15-minute, six-times-weekly podcast-also hosted by Ari.
