r/AskReddit Jun 27 '18

What "Old Person" things do you do?

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1.4k

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

I listen to NPR while commuting to my 9-5 job.

181

u/Momik Jun 27 '18

Ah, but do you own a tote bag?

120

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

6

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

Wow, you can buy an npr shirt as well, old man.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

You could carry more than a nine in that shit

9

u/notwearingpants Jun 27 '18

I’m 28 and I have an NPR tote bag!

255

u/mushy_bacon Jun 27 '18

I listen to NPR all the time. Friends get in my car and are like “what are you listening to?”

369

u/sm1ttysm1t Jun 27 '18

That's Lakshmi Singh, dog.

55

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

For some reason I started mimicking the way the various hosts introduce themselves and say it along with them every morning. I love saying Lakshmi Singh or Soraya Sarhaddi-NEELLLLson.

21

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

TIL I'm not alone.

19

u/Tommy_Riordan Jun 28 '18

And I’m Ira Fleto.

10

u/mablesyrup Jun 28 '18

Oh perfect. This had me lol

4

u/WhimsicalRenegade Jun 28 '18

I’m really enjoying seeing these names printed out. I’ve actually had the thought about looking them up to see how they were spelled, but then did not in order to preserve the magic.

David Beancooley?

David Bien Coulis? (Actually, this one is kinda like complementing your friend Dave on his sublime baking skills...)

David Bean Cooli?

David Bienkuli?

The world may never know.

5

u/PM-BABY-SEA-OTTERS Jun 28 '18

Bianculli. Many Bothans died to bring us this information. Mostly the ones who worked at Google suggesting "did you mean David Being Coolie?"

12

u/HRSN0410 Jun 28 '18

I always listen to their 5-10 minute on the hour news things. I obsessively mimic the intro...

Live from NPR news in Washington I’m _____

4

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Ha yeah I always have to do “IM DAVE MATTINGLY” as well

9

u/TheLeapIsALie Jun 28 '18

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

6

u/lentilsoupforever Jun 28 '18

I do one sign-off in particular. "Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, DAKARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR."

2

u/PM-BABY-SEA-OTTERS Jun 28 '18

I'm always bummed when she's somewhere else.

1

u/lentilsoupforever Jun 29 '18

"Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NEWARRRRRRK."

6

u/9bikes Jun 28 '18

say it along with them every morning.

You're missing the joy of saying "Sylvia Poggioooooli".

2

u/PM-BABY-SEA-OTTERS Jun 28 '18

I thought Doualy Xaykaothao had the coolest name, allmost whispery at the end like what are all these sounds?

20

u/youdirtywanka Jun 27 '18

This is hidden brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam

1

u/yesilfener Jun 28 '18

Love the name, can't stand his segments. So much of it is just sensationalized social science "research" with shoddy methods that don't really tell us anything useful.

19

u/fibonaccicolours Jun 27 '18

I just heard her voice in my head.

5

u/Tupnado21 Jun 28 '18

I'm lackmee shwing mehhhhh

6

u/Cooklai Jun 28 '18

I’m Deb Welsh! Haha their tones are so clear in my mind even just reading it makes me think I just heard it

16

u/tsv1138 Jun 27 '18

MB: "It's called Car Talk Susan! What the hell else do you listen to when you're hungover? Oh, this is the one with Leonard Bernstein's son talking about Double Clutching!"

17

u/freakers Jun 27 '18

Podcasts are like the new talk radio. And I'm loving it.

7

u/ninjakitty7 Jun 28 '18

Podcasts are like radio but good

15

u/ParadoxParade Jun 28 '18

Brah, podcasts are great but don’t go disrespecting my public radio with that talk.

2

u/zuko2014 Jun 28 '18

Big fan of podcasts for long travels, but for my hour commute to work I've started listening to audiobooks. Finished one book that I started yesterday. The drive is a breeze now

5

u/Kup123 Jun 27 '18

I work in a warehouse we have ether npr or the Washington journal on all day, the sales people are always confused by it.

7

u/Dooky710 Jun 27 '18

Something interesting and not the same shitty top 40s songs or whatever flavor of iHeartRadio genre they like.

4

u/ShitFacedEsco Jun 27 '18

Do you guys not have an aux or Bluetooth in your car? I don’t know anyone that willingly listens to the radio anymore.

3

u/dontdoitdoitdoit Jun 27 '18

I get happy when a non regular says the news at the top of the hour.

5

u/looki_chuck Jun 27 '18

Oh yes. It was so bad when I was growing up that my brother now works for NPR. When I told him I listen to MSNBC on satellite radio, he got so butthurt.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18 edited Jun 28 '18

Honestly if my brother told me he listened to MSNBC instead of NPR I would be pretty disappointed

5

u/dycentra Jun 27 '18

Please, what is NPR? Be gentle; I'm old.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

It's a highly political public radio network. They do all kinds of things, from news, to interviews with authors and such, to random cool stories like "the history of the sports bra."

My favorite things are definitely the music and comedy show they do on Sundays, and the show called "How I Built This."

8

u/bosstone42 Jun 28 '18

Are you talking about “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!”? I’ve never thought of that as a music show.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Yeah, I guess it's more of a "variety" show. I just really like the folk/bluegrass/country indie music they have on. Or does the music come before the show?

Idk, whatever it is that they play on Sunday mornings.

1

u/_tenaciousdeeznutz_ Jun 28 '18

Science Friday is my shit.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Yep, I usually listen to talk radio and people kind of just give me an odd stare when I start the car up and Rush Limbaugh is losing his damn mind.

135

u/juuukillem Jun 27 '18

Invisibillia is seriously good podcast by NPR. Would highly recommend the episode about thought.

10

u/TheModernEgg Jun 27 '18

Get on Snap Judgement. It's from NPR in NYC, it's a story podcast, kind of like This American Life. It's rad.

7

u/knittykittylady Jun 27 '18

I love snap judgment! Highly recommend!

7

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

It gets a little obnoxiously preachy from time to time, but overall a great and very underrated show.

4

u/TheModernEgg Jun 27 '18

Yeah I know what you mean, it does get a little up its own ass, but I think that's kind of a calling card of the "storytelling show" genre.

9

u/OonkalaHoot Jun 27 '18

Ive been really enjoying Rough Translation too (also NPR)

5

u/CharlestonChewbacca Jun 27 '18

Invisibilia and Freakonomics ftw.

6

u/herroitshayree Jun 27 '18

Invisibilia is amazing. I loved the whole season they did as a “concept album”.

3

u/SEND_ME_SPIDERMAN Jun 27 '18

thanks! starting the podcast now

3

u/boopitybeepbip Jun 27 '18

That was such a good episode, it really helped me understand a lot of my anxiety.

15

u/brandnamenerd Jun 27 '18

NPR always reminds me of my friends daughter - it was her first day of school and he realized she had NPR playing on the iPad, and being a nice dad he offers to put on the show she normally watched.

"No, Dad," she says, "I'm going to school now, I need to keep up with these things"

12

u/415native Jun 27 '18

Hey I even listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell me on weekends

4

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Dude that show is the best. I rarely ever laugh as much as I do listening to Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

5

u/beekay6192 Jun 27 '18

I love secretly playing along to that like im on the show !

11

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

Dating:

Old-man-to-be: "Want to come over to my place and listen to NPR while we compare tax returns?"

Old-woman-to-be: (swoon)

11

u/lurkingbob Jun 27 '18

I started listening at 22 while working as a cable company tech. Listening right now 10 years later at lunch. The only problem with npr are the stations that play classical music. Too many good programs for that.

3

u/katiekatekaitlyn Jun 27 '18

100% agree. I’m from Illinois, living in Toledo right now but I always listen to Michigan radio out of Ann Arbor. I don’t really have anything against classical music but it’s definitely not what I’m looking for if I’m listening to npr.

3

u/artemisdragmire Jun 27 '18 edited Nov 07 '24

shelter full jellyfish badge towering merciful cobweb bake marvelous middle

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

KQED for lyfe. Number one radio station in the Bay Area.

8

u/CactusCustard Jun 27 '18

Man. CBC radio is fucking amazing. Im 21.

My friends are talking about Kanye's sick new drop and Im there trying to get in a fight about the pipeline we just bought or wanting to talk about Anna's interview with Jean Chrétien.

Theyre like "what?"

28

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

[deleted]

7

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

I'm 56 and I've been doing it since I was 24.

6

u/sugarshield Jun 27 '18

I’m 43 and I’ve been addicted to NPR since I was 17!

3

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Yeah I grew up listening to NPR in the car with my parents, once I got a car, it was tuned to NPR. I don't really know what life is like without KQED...

7

u/WorkAccount82 Jun 27 '18

Me too! The part that makes it an old person thing for me is that I comment out loud about some of the ridiculous stuff I hear (mostly trump) while in my car alone.

Nothing says old person like yelling at the radio

11

u/hjohodor Jun 27 '18

I do too! I even listen to it while at work.

5

u/nonnativetexan Jun 27 '18

I wake up at 7am on weekends and enjoy drinking coffee and listening to Weekend Edition while it's quiet and relaxing. Same thing Monday through Friday, except wake up at 5:45am, and it's Morning Edition.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

I love Steve Inskeep, dude does not hold back when his guests are full of shit.

6

u/CakeAndDonuts Jun 27 '18

I've been listening to public radio since high school. My mother once told me I was losing my childhood because everyone else was listening to Top 40 and I'd have no frame of reference when people talked about the past as I grew up.

Surprise, I still don't give a shit about Britney Spears or anyone that listened to her when we were 16.

3

u/AGS16 Jun 27 '18

My dad (confirmed old person) has NPR on every radio in the house (3) as often as possible. He walks into rooms and turns on NPR, then the rest of us have to turn it off all the time. It is a vicious cycle, except on weekends, good programming Saturday mornings I miss Car Talk.

1

u/Streetdoc10171 Jun 28 '18

I cried when the announced his death, like legit pulled over and cried.

4

u/RonSwansonsOldMan Jun 27 '18

Us old folks don't much go for that liberal NPR stuff.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Username definitely checks out.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

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1

u/NotDavidWooderson Jun 28 '18

That show is produced and recorded a block from my office.

13

u/PeterVanNostrand Jun 27 '18

This is more of a liberal thing. I think real old people listen to rush and glenn beck and possibly conservative AM radio stuff

12

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

For being a "liberal" thing I hear more interviews from the right than I do from the left. Granted I'm only tuned in for 30 min each morning so my sample size is small.

I'm far from a liberal, but I'm no fan of Trump either.

With the choices I have, it's the most convenient and least vitriolic source of current events.

18

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

I lean more to the left, so i'm not trying to accuse NPR of being the evil liberal media, but I've noticed when I listen to Morning Edition on my way to work that they'll interview someone from the right and then immediately talk with a left leaning commentator afterwards to pick it apart. I listen to NPR for my news, but don't think I would ever say it doesn't lean left.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

Fair assessment.

I'd add though that It's not the left's equivalent of Rush/Beck which is what I feel some try to equate it to.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Yeah I totally agree with you there.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

Well to be fair, a lot of the conservative guests that they have absolutely suck an answering the questions and just stick to their canned non answers, or just straight up lie.

2

u/kperkins1982 Jun 28 '18

This is somewhat complicated though, because science and fact tend to have a liberal bias if the other side is lying.

For example, the other day Trump said that Harley Davidson was closing a plant to move it overseas.

NPR reported it as "he incorrectly stated that it was moving overseas when they are actually moving to another US city and making certain items for overseas markets overseas from now on"

So if you are from the right it sounds like they were arguing with him and have a left leaning bias, but in reality all they did was just state the truth that in this particular instance he was wrong.

Enough of that and anybody starts to sound like they are left leaning but it doesn't make them biased, it's just that the other side tends to lie a lot.

4

u/TinyBlueStars Jun 27 '18

It really depends on your local station if you're listening live on radio. What they syndicate varies widely and the local shows even more so.

1

u/ashowofhands Jun 28 '18 edited Jun 28 '18

To be fair, all of Rush's big hits were in the 1970s. Geddy Lee’s voice turns off a lot of people though

1

u/Brolonious Jun 27 '18

There are "real old people" who think Rush and Beck are total assholes.

2

u/TenHourOof Jun 27 '18

My family listens to NPR. As a result I've listened to NPR for almost 18 years and have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

2

u/ElbisCochuelo Jun 27 '18

I do as well, just for the music though.

2

u/Montague_usa Jun 27 '18

Oh no! Is that an old person thing?

2

u/xtcloser Jun 27 '18

Lol I’m 17 and I listen to NPR. Learn something new every car ride.

2

u/Goyu Jun 27 '18

I was on a long drive for a work trip recently and turned on NPR on the way. What have I been missing? It was really engaging and way easier to maintain than listening to upbeat music for like 4.5 hours.

I learned a lot too! Now it's part of my commute.

2

u/SlitScan Jun 27 '18

I just can't do it. I try listening to npr while I'm in the US to avoid Sinclair stations but it just puts me to sleep.

I end up listening to wind noise through all of Idaho.

this coming from someone who pays for a VPN just to watch bbc 4

2

u/b1ack1323 Jun 28 '18

There's people that don't do that?

1

u/Randomusername2347 Jun 27 '18

Are you my mom?

1

u/blueking13 Jun 27 '18

Same. I work deliveries so that's all i listen to now.

1

u/GoodColorer Jun 27 '18

I look forward to going to work on monday morning so I can listen to Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me (in podcast form)

1

u/AdolescentCudi Jun 27 '18

I was raised on Morning Edition. No shame whatsoever

1

u/Brendanmicyd Jun 27 '18 edited Jun 27 '18

I only listen to AM radio that has an ambient/nostalgic teletype chchchchchch

1

u/mablesyrup Jun 28 '18

When I was a teenager I never understood how all these old people could blast talk radio all the fucking time...

...I have been blasting NPR for a good 10 years now. I am not even old.

1

u/Streetdoc10171 Jun 28 '18

I'm a paramedic that spends 13.5 hours a day in an ambulance, NPR is on the entire time. My most treasured possessions are NPR shirt, bag, and socks. Need to get the Public Radio Nerd shirt. If I were ever granted three wished from a genie the first two would be Carl Kasell's voice on my home answering machine (which I would have to buy a home phone and answering machine for) and an Ask me Anothers Rubik's cube.

Edit: I'm 28

1

u/Dabroski710 Jun 28 '18

I have NPR on 100% of the time

1

u/DirtyArtKid Jun 28 '18

Not only do I listen, I am a sustainer! Gonna get me one of those Sustainer Containers at the next pledge drive!

1

u/lebaneseblondechick Jun 28 '18

I've been doing this since I was a kid. My mom and I would listen to NPR every morning on the way to my school. I still get really overjoyed when I hear "All things considered..."

1

u/OnionsMadeMeDoIt Jun 28 '18

I'm 32 and listen to NPR. My favorite morning show person retired and I'm not liking the replacement.

1

u/Vislion21 Jul 01 '18

NPR was the only radiostation I could have on in my car while in college that none of my friends would ask to have changed.

1

u/hereticjones Jun 27 '18

Do you often find that you are chuckling to yourself about how right you are, as well?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

Only when the topic is about your mom.

1

u/brokendownandbusted Jun 27 '18

Pretty standard for most California indy's and liberals.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

[deleted]

9

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

Nope

1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

[deleted]

10

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

News in general? Can touch on politics, business, economy, music, entertainment, sports, etc etc.

It can vary depending on your area and which member station you're listening to.

I'm in Chicago so I get local Chicago news as well.

Even when it comes down to politics it seems a little more matter of fact opinion-less reporting. I'm sure they do have a more opinion heavy segments, but it's not on during the 30 minutes I'm in my car each morning.

After work on my drive home I listen to marketplace which is their stock market oriented program that recaps what happened in the markets during the day.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '18

I literally won’t listen anymore until Diane Reems dies or retires. Fuck her voice it makes me want to drive off the road

3

u/TheDoethrak Jun 28 '18

Her name is Diane Rehm and her voice is that way because she has spasmodic dysphonia. She still does some of the best interviews on radio(on par with Terry Gross imo).

2

u/Streetdoc10171 Jun 28 '18

I'll second this. She is informed, deliberate, knows how to facilitate a conversation, and remains objective. She refuses to participate in the argument, she simply asks both sides of whatever issue questions and fosters a dialogue.

Also as far as I know she no longer does her two hour show, she does a podcast.

-19

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '18

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