Histories, biographies, and behind-the-scenes narratives about the news biz typically idolize swaggering, chain-smoking, tough-talking dudes who tower over testimonies with testosterone-infused personalities. But with Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie , Napoli honors not the dog-eat-dog variety of journalist, but the fortitude of sisterhood, of women supporting each other.”
"NPR gave a voice to women in news before many other news outlets, and NPR's founding mothers used their powerful voices to tell the stories that explained and changed people's lives. Lisa Napoli impressively chronicles how these four pioneers paved the way for women journalists everywhere."
author of The Good Girls Revolt - Lynn Povich
Lisa Napoli’s can’t-miss account of four female journalistic titans who banded together in the nonprofit radio organization’s early days.”
"[Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie] illuminates the terrifying, thrilling energy of NPR as start-up....The book is a lesson in how the fringe project of one generation becomes the mainstream of the next....Napoli portrays the network’s endearingly experimental, chaotic beginning."
The New York Times Book Review
"Lisa Napoli's Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie is an intimate and beautifully told tale of the extraordinary coming together of four women who would help shape a network, the news business, and each other's lives. I feel immensely grateful to these women for all they have done for NPR and for women in journalism and also incredibly proud to work alongside them."
Napoli chronicles not just the camaraderie of Stamberg, Wertheimer, Totenberg and Roberts, but their commitment to help the careers of younger women who aspired to follow them. The founding mothers, in word and deed, offer a powerful lesson on what can happen when we carry as we climb.
"[Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie] illuminates the terrifying, thrilling energy of NPR as start-up....The book is a lesson in how the fringe project of one generation becomes the mainstream of the next....Napoli portrays the network’s endearingly experimental, chaotic beginning."
—The New York Times Book Review “Napoli chronicles not just the camaraderie of Stamberg, Wertheimer, Totenberg and Roberts, but their commitment to help the careers of younger women who aspired to follow them. The founding mothers, in word and deed, offer a powerful lesson on what can happen when we carry as we climb.”—The Washington Post “Histories, biographies, and behind-the-scenes narratives about the news biz typically idolize swaggering, chain-smoking, tough-talking dudes who tower over testimonies with testosterone-infused personalities. But with Susan, Linda, Nina Cokie , Napoli honors not the dog-eat-dog variety of journalist, but the fortitude of sisterhood, of women supporting each other.”—Oprah Daily "Lisa Napoli's Susan, Linda, Nina Cokie is an intimate and beautifully told tale of the extraordinary coming together of four women who would help shape a network, the news business, and each other's lives. I feel immensely grateful to these women for all they have done for NPR and for women in journalism and also incredibly proud to work alongside them."—Stacey Vanek Smith "NPR gave a voice to women in news before many other news outlets, and NPR's founding mothers used their powerful voices to tell the stories that explained and changed people's lives. Lisa Napoli impressively chronicles how these four pioneers paved the way for women journalists everywhere."—Lynn Povich , author of The Good Girls Revolt “Public radio fans will treasure this book.”—Brian Stelter “Napoli narrates the origin stories of NPR’s female journalistic superheroes … a history filled with so many powerful moments and fascinating details about journalism, perseverance, and gender bias.”—Kirkus Reviews "Readers are left with inspiring insights into the pathbreaking work of these four women, but more importantly with a sense of how the status of some women and the role of the media have both changed in the last 50 years."—Library Journal “Napoli has written an eye-opening, often funny, sometimes horrifying story that includes madcap escapades, thrilling scoops, and misogynistic misadventures.”—AudioFile “Lisa Napoli’s can’t-miss account of four female journalistic titans who banded together in the nonprofit radio organization’s early days.”—Harper's Bazaar
04/01/2021
Journalist and author Napoli (Up All Night ) weaves a fascinating, highly readable account of the women of National Public Radio. Written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of NPR's launch, this book is however much more than the group biography its title proclaims it to be. Veteran and pioneering journalists Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts are the central players in the narrative, but this book also presents a nostalgic retrospective of the major political, social, and cultural events that helped shape that alternative media. While telling the story of both NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Napoli traces the career paths of these four women against the backdrop of key historical events: the civil rights movement, the idealism of the Great Society, the emergence of Ms . magazine, and the heady days of feminist activism. Readers are left with inspiring insights into the pathbreaking work of these four women, but more importantly with a sense of how the status of some women and the role of the media have both changed in the last 50 years. VERDICT Readers interested in feminism, women's history, and biography will be rewarded with a great story that deserves to be widely known.—Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ
Lisa Napoli delivers her absorbing and informative biography of the “founding mothers” of National Public Radio with attractive energy and enthusiasm. While not a professional narrator, Napoli is an experienced radio and television journalist as well as author; her clarity, thoughtful pacing, and engaged narration suit the audiobook well. Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts came from disparate backgrounds, yet their shared passion for accurate, vivid storytelling and truth-telling, and their humor and stubbornness, largely made NPR’s news programs the powerhouses they are today. Napoli has written an eye-opening, often funny, sometimes horrifying story that includes madcap escapades, thrilling scoops, and misogynistic misadventures. It leaves listeners profoundly grateful that these four tireless, tough, witty, kind women persevered to give us NPR. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
2021-01-27 How four of the most important women journalists of the past five decades ended up together at the then-fledgling National Public Radio.
In this natural follow-up to Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News (2020), Napoli narrates the origin stories of NPR’s female journalistic superheroes: Susan Stamberg and Linda Wertheimer, who launched the network’s groundbreaking, signature show All Things Considered ; preeminent legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, an expert on the Supreme Court; and pioneering political journalist Cokie Roberts. Though their early paths differed, they joined forces at NPR, overqualified and underpaid due to the widespread gender discrimination of the day. At the time, writes the author, “there were no jobs for women or the company already ‘had its woman.’…Even women with degrees from elite schools, it seemed, attended secretarial courses after graduation in order to equip themselves for the working world.” The quartet banded together (their area of the newsroom was nicknamed the “Fallopian Jungle”) to push for change for women and minorities. “Regarding hiring and union matters and management issues,” writes Napoli, “they did not hold back….They weren’t women in power—though, had they wished, they could likely have seized it—they were women of power.” Though they sound like journalism’s Justice League, the author doesn’t provide adequate documentation of them springing into action together, and she dwells more on their struggles than their successes. She wraps up the primary narrative with NPR’s near bankruptcy in the 1980s even though the “founding mothers” had little to do with either causing or solving the network’s financial woes. In a history filled with so many powerful moments and fascinating details about journalism, perseverance, and gender bias, Napoli could have chosen a higher note for her conclusion.
A flawed yet well-researched deep dive into the careers of the journalists who helped make NPR a household name.