Fifty years and a lot of firsts: The legacy of NPR founding mother Linda Wertheimer

One of NPR’s founding mothers, Linda Wertheimer, is leaving the mothership, as we public radio nerds like to call NPR. Wertheimer is a senior national correspondent and her five-decade career marks a lot of firsts – she was the first director for All Things Considered when it debuted in 1971. Five years later, she became the first woman to anchor an election night as presidential candidate Democrat Jimmy Carter beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.Her political prowess and reporting chops then took her deeper into the halls of power as the first person to broadcast live from inside the chambers of the U.S. Senate “and the men at first, you know, they might call her little lady,” said author Lisa Napoli. “And she would say, ‘hey, big Senator.’ And she'd playfully push back at them and, you know, she showed she knew her stuff. And that's really, in the end, what mattered and what got them the acceptance." Napoli is the author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of NPR's Founding Mothers. In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole spoke with her in 2021, as NPR was celebrating its 50th anniversary. We’re listening back to that conversation today on the heels of Wertheimer’s announcement.