Remembering pop songwriter Neil Sedaka

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“This is fresh air. I'm David B. and Koolie.”

Neil Sedaka, the singer and songwriter who's recording and performing career stretch from the 1950s to the current decade, died last week. He was 86 years old. Neil Sedaka was born in Brighton Beach in 1939 and displayed his musical talent early on.

His mother bought him his first piano at age 7, and at age 9, he got a child prodigy scholarship

at Juliard and was hand-selected by classical pianist Arthur Rubenstein to perform on live radio. But Sedaka was drawn elsewhere. Another young kid interested in pop music, Neil Diamond,

“lived across the street from him. His girlfriend in high school, Carole Klein,”

turned out to be a pretty good songwriter too, once she broke up with Sedaka and renamed herself Carole King. By then, young Neil had teamed with another budding songwriter,

Howard Greenfield, who wrote lyrics to Neil's music. Their first break and first hit came in

1958 when Connie Francis was looking for a song to appeal to teenagers. Neil Sedaka was only 19 at the time, and she loved the song's innocence. Stupid Cupid became a top 20 hit for her. Connie Francis later had an even bigger hit with another of their songs "Where the Boys are."

“Neil scored his own hit, a top 10 on Billboard, the next year with Ocarole.”

And even though the lyrics were written by Greenfield, the message for Neil Sedaka was personal, he was singing about his ex-girlfriend, Carole King. Sedaka scored another top 10 hit with calendar girl in 1960.

Breaking up as hard to do in 1962 was his first number one hit. But after the British invasion arrived

in music tastes changed, Neil Sedaka vanished from the charts for more than a decade. Then, in 1975, he enjoyed a major renaissance. Elton John signed him to his record label, and Sedaka had two number one hits that year. One was a soft ballad, laughter in the rain. And the other was bad blood, a duet without an MC. That same year, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who had written their first hit songs together

back in the '50s, collaborated again on a song that became a number one hit for the Captain in Taneal, love will keep us together. If you listen closely to the end of that song, the Captain in Taneal snuck in a quick tribute, singing Sedaka's back, followed by applause. The current century delivered no new hits, but Neil Sedaka remained active. In 2009, he released

a children's album, featuring playful revised lyrics to his most famous songs. The collection was called "Waking Up Is Hard To Do" and included the novelty numbers where the toys are and lunch will keep us together. His original songs and his own story were featured in a

a studio city restaurant popping up monthly for intimate Sunday performances. Today, we'll remember Neil Sedaka by listening to an interview Terry Gross conducted with him in 2007. Now, when you were in your teens or just out of them, you had a knack for writing songs that would appeal to teenagers. Maybe particularly to teenage girls because the songs often had the message they wanted to hear, like they're growing up and becoming very desirable. Did you think

“about that consciously? Did you think of yourself as writing songs for teens?”

Well, we were the teenagers of New York coming from the Brille Building School of Songwriting, and yes, we were writing for the teenage market, the early lyrics or collaboration with Howard Greenfield, who was a marvelous lyricist and who could concise, it was almost the art of writing of three-minute songs, and we could tell a whole story in three minutes. Happy birthday sweet 16 from the beginning to the end. This is a little novelette. Did you always start with a

lyrical hook as well as a musical one? I always wrote the melody first, and I would prepare

two or three melodies for how he and play him that day, and whatever mood he might be, and he would choose one of those, and then it was a given take. If the lyrics didn't fit, I would change a melody or a motif, and then he might change some things to accommodate me. It was a very close collaboration. No, were you in the Brille Building or the building near the Brille

“then, that's our 16-19? So that wasn't the Brille Building or the one next to it?”

Yes, but we refer to it as the New Brille Building, the young young writers, as opposed to the Irving Seasers in 1650, the old rise across the street. See, this is like the Rock and Roll 10 Pen Alley Building, as was to the Tin Pen Alley Tin Pen Alley Building. Exactly. So this is an office building where a lot of young songwriters were working under contract churning out songs. Who else was writing there when you were there?

I'm always asked, people have fascinated with the Brille Building. I brought Carol King who I was

dating in high school. How we greenfield and I were the first writers to be signed to old in music at the Brille Building, and then I brought Carol King and Jerry Garfin. The others were a Barry Mann and Cynthia Wilde, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Neil Diamond came for a time, Paul Simon. It was a very illustrious group, and it was excellent training. We came into an office, a cubicle. It was a tiny office from 10 in the morning till five in the afternoon, five days

a week, and we wrote songs for a living. And it was, you know, one day you could come up with nothing, but the next day you were able to piece it together. We all competitive with each other or friendly. Well, you know, competition is good, and creativity. You bounce off other creative people.

“I think people are inspired by other musicians. So it was a good atmosphere. And at the end of the”

day, all of us would go into Al Neven's office and play the songs. And they would say which artists are coming up for sessions, whether it be the righteous brothers or the chiffons or so many groups. And the best song won out. Most of the song writers there were writing for other singers. And you wrote songs that other singers recorded, but you wrote a lot of songs that you recorded yourself. Were you originally hired to write for other people? I came in as a writer

the first six months. And my two of my songs were recorded, Connie Francis did stupid and before that Atlantic records, Ahmed Erdigan and Jerry Wexla took my songs and recorded them with Clyde McFadder and Le Verne Baker. But about six months or a year into the contract, I was 19. And I had a great desire to record my own songs. And I was brought into RCA Victor. Steve Sholes, who was the top A&R man, he had just brought Elvis Presley from Sun Records to RCA.

And I auditioned for him with a song called The Diary and he signed me to a five-year contract. And Terry I was very fortunate between 1958 and 1963 to the shock of my family after studying

at the Julie Odd. I sold 40 million records in the five years. So I did, I was very happy about that

but you know, I bought her a ring stole, so she was very, very happy after that.

“We're listening to Terry's 2007 interview with songwriter and singer Neil Sedaka. He died last week”

at the age of 86. Terry asked him about the syllables he sang in his songs, which became his trademark. How did it become a trademark? And how did you figure out what syllables to use, whether it should be well or well or do be do be? Well, it started early in the career and it was kind of of someone singing along of perhaps they were just getting into the song and they didn't get into the lyric yet. So they were going down, do, do, do, down, down before they began the actual song.

And it was, how did I choose the syllables? The most important thing in songwriting was the

marriage of words and music and the syllables had to fit the particular melody. And I was very

“keen on that marriage of lyrics or syllables, set to music. Was the first song you did that on?”

I think it was all Carol, I did double voice, but breaking up is an interesting song because I think I'm the only artist who has recorded his song twice. I did it first as a rock and roll song in 1962 and then I re-recorded breaking up as hard to do 15 years later as a slow, gen mill song. And by the way, both of them were huge successes. What made you decide to do a slower and more adult version of the song in 1975? Let me watch a great singer who had a hit call since I fell

for you. It was a friend and asked if I had any follow-up to since I fell for you. And I was

“feeling around at the piano one day and discovered that breaking up is hard to do worked as a slow”

song and I presented it to him. He loved it and recorded it as a ballad and it was an R&B hit and then I would do it as a non-core in my concerts. And the audience reaction was so good that I decided to re-record it as a ballad. And you make some changes on it. It's not just a simple slower. The chords are really different. Well of course it's a more sophisticated and when you have a ballad hit it's a career move. It's a much better career vehicle. And when you're doing it as a jazz piece

automatically change some of the chords to make them sound like a standard, like you're listening to a dyno-washington record. Okay so let's hear Neil Sedak is two versions of his song

breaking up is hard to do. The first from 1962, the second from 1975, both versions are featured

on his new CD, the definitive collection of Neil Sedak. You know then I'll be blue, because breaking up is hard to do. Be there one way. You're held me tight and it just made me fall all through the night. And we've been through breaking up is hard to do. Now of course you know in American Idol a few years ago Rubin did a slow version of breaking up

is hard to do and play of course recorded solitaire and you were a judge, a guest judge. What kind of advice do they ask you? Did they give you before being a judge? Did they tell you to be nice or to take the gloves off and be tough? Well you know I wanted to be tough but my son said that

you know there are 30 million people watching. Be careful of what you say and you know

I think that it's a very difficult these kids are on in front of millions and millions of people.

be a celebrity judge. I said oh there are so many people trying to get on and my publishes

“called and said perhaps if you called personally to the show you have a better chance and I picked”

up the telephone spoke to a Susan Slema on the staff I said hi this is Neil Sadaka I watched the show I'd love to be on as a celebrity judge and she said are you kidding? Who is this? I said no it's Neil Sadaka he said she said sit there we're having a meeting she called me back in an hour and said you'll be on in two weeks and the five finalists will be singing all Neil Sadaka songs I was over the moon. What did what impacted it have on your career? The catalog went through the roof

all of the old records started to sell Amazon.com was ringing off the walls and soletive I

“clay was one of the biggest I think the second biggest seller of that year. We were talking”

about how you grew up playing classical music and how your mother early on would have preferred that you play classical music in those early days were you torn into directions pop versus classical. No I was a very serious piano student I started playing at age eight at nine I entered the prep school of the Julead when it was on a hundred and twenty fifth street and clam on Avenue I studied with the great Edgar Roberts and when I was 13 I discovered that I could write songs I wasn't

very popular in school I wasn't a joke and wasn't one of the one of the popular kids playing Chopin and Bach so I was fascinated by the reaction I got I was invited to all of the teenage parties and that was a very big deal in those days if you can play your own songs or hits of the day so it was a two-fold actually a two-fold study of songwriting and going to Julead every Saturday and then I went to the college Julead college studied with the Del Marcus and when I was 19 I

had to make a decision which direction to go and you know the money is I'm being from a very poor family my father was a taxi driver in Brooklyn for 30 years and worked very hard

“and I think every teenager wanted to be a rock and roll star that you know that would be”

very exciting to any kid of that age so I did pursue it but I never dropped the classical music

because I I still basically love it and those are my roots in an autobiography that you wrote a few years ago you write about a song Mr Moon that you wrote when you were in high school and that you performed in high school but the principal didn't like the song he said he described it as having been a little risque for for school I was dining here how it went well I was a freshman at Lincoln High School and as I said not one of the popular kids and I had started writing

rock and roll it was the beginning of rock and roll and I wrote a song called Mr Moon and sang it

at one of the ballet who shows in the auditorium and there was to be two performances the first

performance the kids started to jump and dance and bump and grind and it was a it was a sensation except when Abraham last the principal called me into his office and said you know Neil we can't have that kind of behavior we'd like you to do something else another kind of song for the second performance and there was a petition signed by the students that they wanted Neil to do Mr Moon again and we won and I did it again it was not a dirty song in any way but it was kind of

a bump and grind you know that old rock and roll tempo which was very new at the time did you do a few bars of it? oh my goodness I was 16 Mr Moon got your love back to me sound very very fragile now very timid Neil Sedaka speaking to Terry Gross in 2007

Paranoid style and Justin Chang reviews hoppers the new Pixar movie I'm David being cool and this is

“fresh air this is fresh air I'm David being coolie we're remembering Neil Sedaka the singer and”

songwriter who died last week at age 86 he co-wrote his first hit song when he was 19 and even before that

in high school he was busy composing pop songs when Terry spoke with him in 2007 she asked him about his high school years which he wrote about in his memoir yeah you know you write in in that memoir you write by first grade I was known as the school's city I perhaps is walking and gesturing in a masculine fashion in front of the mirror so it may maybe think you were probably picked on a lot yes that was one of the reasons that I wanted to be recognized I wanted to

please people I think in many instances artists who begin as you know are neglected and are made

fun of I think that they pursue these careers to be noticed to be accepted and to be revered so I showed those football players yeah well did it make yourself conscious when you started

“performing about whether you should look more macho as a performer I studied in front of a mirror”

I had a sister Ronnie who I adored and she was my hero she was 18 months older beautiful popular and you know I had to stand in front of a mirror I'll be totally honest with you and

learn how to move in a more macho way how to carry my books how to it was it was a metamorphosis

you know I think in that era every teenager was standing in front of a mirror and some people were learning to dance in front of a mirror some people were pretending they were singing into a microphone in front of a mirror another people were just trying to figure out how to fix their hair or look better but I think like every boy and girl is standing in front of a mirror then yes but I must correct you I didn't use the word "sissy" I used the word "affeminin"

because I was raised by six women we were believe in an out 11 people in a two-bedroom apartment in Brighton Beach my mother my sister my five aunts and my grandmother so these are the people who I emulated so it was a marvelous upbringing because I was spoiled by all these women a few years ago you recorded an album of Yiddish songs called Brighton Beach Memories you grew up in Brighton Beach yes um with these songs that you grew up hearing

yes my mother played the Barry sister's records these were the great old standards via Heinz Alethcaine Shane Vidilavona my Yiddishamama I heard them at Barmitzvis and weddings and family picnics and I decided at this stage of my career that I wanted to do things not for my own heart for my own spirit not particularly looking for a commerciality and I got some wonderful reaction I did an all Yiddish concert at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago for the folks being

Jewish theater in New York and it wound up to to be a very exciting very exciting album I I performed with a few plasma groups in California and Chicago the cosmetics and it was my roots

“and I'm very proud of where I came from I think you know you have to remember where you came from”

and this was very special I want to play a track from the album let me ask you to choose one of your favorites I'd love to hear Yiddishyama I do it half an English and half in Yiddish and it reminds me of my mother who passed away last year Eleanor Sedaka who lived to 89 she lived a great life but it's um I think it was originally done by Sophie Tucker years ago and it's a very moving very emotional song well let's hear Niel Sedaka's recording of my Yiddishyama from his album Brighton Beach

memories I Yiddishyama I skip nirpets at nirvets I Yiddishyama I've a baby bit a vencey fan

Nam di roth oi lem habu in vasa un fae voti gelafin fadirkin

“as Niel Sedaka from his album Brighton Beach memories that came out a few years ago”

no earlier we heard two different versions of your song breaking up is hard to do one of one from the early sixties one from the mid seventies one did your string of hits in the sixties

and people always say that for the American pop songwriters there and singers their careers

were really interrupted or ended by the British invasion is that too simplistic or do you think that's an accurate description that's an accurate description Terry there was also a natural progression of five years of hits the avali brothers county frances fat domino brendalee we all uh didn't have more than five years but as he said the British invasion the great Beatles and Rolling Stones came I wanted to write that that style and I did write that

style but my public wouldn't accept it and the record company wouldn't accept it so for eleven years I took a back seat took stock of myself raised a family I had my two children and wrote for a publishing firm and had some great artists record my songs and he Williams Johnny Mathis Peggy Lee Shirley Bassie but you know once you get a taste of being in front of the

public you never get over that and it was eleven years later in nineteen around 1974 75

actually that I lived in England I moved my wife and children to England because in England they respected the the original rock and roll as an America and it was there that I met Elton John who was starting a record company rocket records in America and he was a big fan of my early records and he knew that I was recording with a group called the Tency Seas in Stockportingland Marvelous group at the time and I made two albums with them and both of them were successes

“in the UK and Elton said you know I think I could launch you again in America and I said”

well that would be remarkable Elton had me record the album called Siddac as back

which was a remarkable comeback for me and I always thank Elton for that was laughter in the rain on

the yes yeah that was a really big hit for you well after eleven years to have a number one record was was a remarkable comeback and level keep us together was on and the immigrant and that's when the music takes me I was very proud of the collection so how much are you how much are you still writing songs now I write once a twice a year I wrote some new songs that I'm working on for children's album I actually rewrote since I have three new grandchildren my son and his wife

“got after me and said you know your pop and nail now you have to write some children songs so”

I came up the idea of changing the lyrics to some of my original hits so I did waking up as hard to do I did wear the toys are don't trip over your toys put them away neatly and so perhaps I'll be pop a nail on television who knows I'm trying to think of a really torchy version of where the toys are what's really been a pleasure talking with you thank you so much same here cherry and it's a wonderful program congratulations continue its success Neil Sedaka speaking to Terry

Gross in 2007 the co-composer of where the boys are breaking up is hard to do and love will keep us together died last week at age 86 lunch we'll keep us together there's no meal that's better just give me a fork and a spoon

tummy look in the fridge and let lunch keep us together

“high goals mac and cheese french fries and ketchup all drowned when the others say this”

don't fool still chowing it down I will I will I will I will coming up can Tucker reviews known associates the latest album by the paranoid style this is fresh air this is fresh air the paranoid style is a Washington DC based rock band led by Elizabeth Nelson whose dance clever

lyrics have marked her as a superior pop music composer Nelson's writing also is appeared in print

in publications like the New York Times and the Atlantic and in liner notes for historical

“reissues of acts such as Bob Dylan and the replacements the paranoid styles new album is called”

known associates and rock critic can Tucker says it's the band's most rocking record yet all the ways gathered in your heart all the name structures and hammers sign rugers and heart

all the rage when you don't even know where to stop and start from the heart

that voice you hear flatly declarative rye and verbose belongs to Elizabeth Nelson lead singer and chief songwriter for the paranoid style five albums into their career the band exudes

“a cocky confidence in its ability to use rock songs as vehicles for both social commentary”

and personal angst on shut up in deal Nelson deploys a sarcastic country music melody to usher you into a tough lyric about the cynical compromises people make to succeed in life hey they're pay only do you like to wage or do you like it in minor and do you like it in major they're going to make you an offer they're going to give you a paper they're going to call you a doctor you're going to owe them a favor take it as a dinner and get a check for the

meal everybody loves it when your baby shut up the deal shut up the deal shut up the deal from the tension between the guitars garage rock or roughness and Nelson's chatterbox eloquence on the song a barrier to entry the band steals the hook from the rivier is 1963 surf music smash california sun as Nelson sings about the kinds of limits music snobs and cultural gatekeepers try to impose on our ideas of pop greatness

a way to serve the land to change the record through the century it's a barrier to entry the terms are binding you had bad luck the gears are grinding you refuse to get stuck you know what guy named Bruce you know a guy named Henry still picks Sonic he with its a barrier to entry speaking of thumbing her nose at music snobs in a recent piece she wrote for the literary magazine southwest review Nelson says Linda Ronstatt's 1977 cover of the Rolling Stone's

Tumbling dice is quote my favorite recording of my favorite song of all time she makes a case for Ronstatt as a great singer of rock and roll a notion with which I could not disagree more. Ronstatt a great pop ballad singer yes indeed a great rocker come on but Nelson is such a provocative critic that I happily entertain her arguments in this same essay she says her

it's a dog's breakfast

“taking a cue from Nelson on Ronstatt it occurs to me that there's a case to be made for”

Elizabeth Nelson as the best rock lyricist of this moment her range of subject matter is prodigious

her technical command of imagery and form is impeccable even when she's breaking the rules by cramming more words into a line that it would seem able to bear take for example the joyfully rushed cadences of white wine whatever a manic romp or what Nelson calls a pure brawl that invokes everything from rocks in music to Jean-Luc Goddard talking at a school that got a government's text to you answer see which is gonna happen this.

Bye! Bye! Whatever! You can have some wine, you can work in folks of art.

Beautiful freshness, the expression of their art. Baby what's your name is that even your main I don't know if I'm virgin yet or virgin yet plain? Why? Why? Why? Whatever. You're a little bit's Audrey, you're a little bit's heart, you're a little bit

“country, a little jungle, you can't stop. Why? Why? Why?”

Anyone? No one associates is the paranoid style's most hard rock and record even as a

Elizabeth Nelson extends the reach of her influence. Seems like everyone's got a podcast,

but Nelson's also called "Nona Societs" shows her to be a fine interrogator of fellow musicians and writers. Nelson and the paranoid style are the most persuasive argument I know for the ongoing vitality of rock and roll. Can Tucker reviewed "Nona Societs" by the paranoid style. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews the new Pixar film "Hoppers". This is "Fresh Air". This is "Fresh Air".

“Our film critic Justin Chang says the new animated film "Hoppers" is the strongest Pixar movie in”

years. It's a science fiction comedy about a college student who wanted to protect the local wildlife and stumbles on an extremely high-tech way to do it. The movie opens in theaters this week and features the voices of Piper Curtis, Bobby Moynihan, and John Hamm. Here is Justin's review. We're long past the days when the Pixar brand was a reliable indicator of quality. When every other year or so would bring a new masterwork on the level of the Incredibles,

Ratatouille, and Wally. In recent years, the Disney-owned animation studio has succumbed to sequel lightest. I didn't much care for Inside Out, too, or the Toy Story spin-off light ear, and even ostensible originals like soul and elemental have felt like high-concept disappointments. So it's a relief as well as a pleasure to recommend Pixar's wildly entertaining new movie "Hoppers" without reservation. Directed by Daniel Chang, from a script by Jesse Andrews, this eco-themed sci-fi

farce may not be vintage or all-time great Pixar, but its unhinged comic delirium is by far the liveliest thing to emerge from the company in years. The movie stars Piper Curtis as the voice of Mabel Tanaka, a plucky 19-year-old college missfit, an environmental activist who lives in the woodsy suburban town of Beaverton. Mabel is more of an animal lover than a people person. She inherited a love of nature from her leg grandmother, and she wants nothing more than a

protector-favorite place, a forest-glaid. The town's popular mayor, Cherry, amusingly voiced by John Hamm, is trying to ram a highway through the area, but to Mabel's alarm, the busy beavers who made the blade a haven for local wildlife have inexplicably vanished, and they seem to have

Mabel's stumbles on a high-tech experiment that's being conducted by her biology professor, Dr. Sam, voiced by Kathy Nejimi. At first glance, Mabel mistakenly assumes they're experimenting on a real-life beaver.

"We just need to be careful, this technology must never fall into the wrong hands."

"What is real?" "Mabel, don't you say what you're experimenting on animals?"

“"I'll handle her." "Metches, no. I don't know what you think you saw, but I think you saw."”

"Oh, you people are sitting." "No, no, no, then there's a simple explanation." "What are you talking to him?" Mabel, you're holding a robot. "What?" Dr. Sam calls the program "Hoppers" because it allows a single human mind to enter, or hop, into the body of a robot animal, which can then pass itself off as an actual animal,

and communicate with real creatures in the wild. Against Dr. Sam's wishes,

Mabel hops into the robot beaver, and makes her way deep into the forest, where she hopes to convince a real beaver to return to the blade, and bring all the other animals back with it. What Mabel discovers in the forest, though, is not at all what she expected.

“She encounters a community that includes birds, bunnies, raccoons, a very grumpy bear,”

and of course other beavers, including the friendly, somewhat naive beaver king, George, endearingly voiced by Bobby Moynihan. The movie takes the idea of the animal kingdom quite literally. The enormous vocal ensemble includes the late Isaiah Whitlock Jr., as a royal goose, and Merrill Streep, as the most imperious monarch butterfly imaginable.

George has no idea that Mabel isn't a real beaver, and he quickly takes a liking to her, even though her efforts to learn why the animals left the blade have a way of getting her and everyone into hot water. None of this may sound too odd, especially coming just a few months after Zootopia 2. But hoppers is just getting started. The movie gets funnier, stranger, and more

“surreal as it goes along. The mind-bending body-swapping premise has obvious shades of avatar,”

which Andrews is script knowingly shouts out early on. There are also references to classic horror films like The Birds and Jaws, and for good reason. Hoppers asks the question, "What would happen if animals were fully aware of what humans have done to the planet, and suddenly in a position to do something about it?" In the final stretch, the film almost becomes a body-snatcher movie, with a level of creepiness that may scare the youngest in the audience, though my nine-year-old

laughed far more than she screamed. I laughed a lot too. Hoppers is full of funny throw-away lines,

and odd-ball non-sequitors that I expect out here a hundred more times when it finally makes its way

into our streaming rotation. The movie occasionally flirts with darkness, but even Pixar's daring can only go so far. And its environmental advocacy ultimately lands on an unobjectionable message about how humans and animals can coexist. That may sound conventional, but it's borne out beautifully by maple and George's unlikely friendship, which happily continues even after maple is no longer a beaver. There's something fitting about that. For Pixar, Hoppers is nothing short of a return

to form. Justin Chang is a film critic at the New Yorker. He reviewed the new film Hoppers. On Monday's show, the hidden history of Blackface and how amateur minstrel shows featuring white people in Blackface permeated American culture in the north and the south. Even President Roosevelt was a fan. We talk with Ray Lynn Barnes, author of Darkology. I hope you can join us.

To keep up with what's on the show and yet highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at NPR Fresh Air. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/thisisfreshair. We're rolling out new videos with in-studio guests behind the scenes shorts and iconic interviews from the archive. Fresh Air's executive producer is Sam Brigger. Our senior producer today is Roberta Sharak. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering

support by Joyce Labourman, Julian Hurt's film and Charlie Kyre. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Philis Meyers and Marie Balvinato, Lauren Crenzel, Theresa Madden,

Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. For Terry Gross and Tanya Mosley, I'm David B. and Coolie.