Talk of the Nation

*Talk of the Nation*
Genre	News, interview, call-in
Running time	120 min
Country	USA
Languages	English
Hosts	Neal Conan; Ira Flatow
Air dates	since November 1991
Website	npr.org/programs/totn/

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Talk of the Nation is a talk radio program based in the United States, produced by National Public Radio, and is broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Its focus is current events and controversial issues.

The show began broadcasting in November 1991. It has been hosted by Neal Conan since late 2001. Each episode includes special guests involved in the topics discussed on that day. Past regular hosts have included John Hockenberry, Ira Glass, Ray Suarez, and Juan Williams. Each Friday Ira Flatow hosts Science Friday, with discussion topics from science and technology. The program invites listeners to pose questions for the guest host or hosts by telephone or e-mail.

In September 2010, Talk of the Nation was broadcast on 328 public radio stations, and had a weekly audience of 3.2 million and an AQH Share of 605,700.^[1]

[edit] Format

The show begins with a look ahead to the upcoming topics. Then the regular five-minute NPR newscast occurs. After the newscast, the show generally spends from 30 minutes to the entire show discussing the main topic. If discussion on that topic peters out, or if the guests have to leave, then shorter news interviews similar to those found on the NPR newsmagazines of five to ten minutes air. Sometimes these shorter segments take calls, but often they do not. More controversial issues may have guests and take calls the entire hour.

One hour's topics do not carry into the next hour. This is because many stations carry only one hour of the program. In addition, the host will deliver a concluding "This is Talk of the Nation from NPR News" as a cue to stations that wish to cut away to local programming before the scheduled break.

To coordinate the choice of interview partners in cultural coverage between TOTN and other NPR shows (as of 2010: Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Tell Me More), NPR set up a "dibs list" system around 2005, whereby the first show to declare interest in a particular guest can "reserve" that person.^[1]