Lost & Found Sound: Remembering Noah Adams

About this episode

Noah Adams, the longtime host of NPR’s All Things Considered, died on October 16 at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was 84. A postman’s son from Kentucky, Noah was the host of ATC for some 18 years. His quiet Appalachian baritone, the warmth of his voice, his curiosity and empathy for the lives of working people was a part of the fabric of public radio for decades. Noah’s wife Neenah Ellis, whom he met when she was a producer on All Things Considered and who was station manager at WYSO, the community radio station in Yellow Springs, where the two have lived for some 20 years, said this about Noah: “He was looking for who was yearning, who was in pain, who needed help out in the country.” With Deborah Amos and James Reston Jr, Noah produced one of the most important, powerful radio documentaries of the 20th century: “Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown” about Jim Jones and the mass cult suicide and murder in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. Nikki and I heard the story when we were just beginning our nearly 40-year collaboration with NPR and it opened our eyes to the power of the medium and the possibilities of scorching storytelling through sound and archival audio.  At the turn