On May 3, 1971, at 5 p.m., All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations.
In the years since, almost everything about the program has changed, from the hosts, producers, editors and reporters to the length of the program, the equipment used and even the audience.
However there is one thing that remains the same: each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, insightful features on the quirky and the mainstream in arts and life, music and entertainment, all brought alive through sound.
All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Every weekday the two-hour show is hosted by Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, Mary Louise Kelly and Ailsa Chang. In 1977, ATC expanded to seven days a week with a one-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.
Audie Cornish | 
Ari Shapiro | 
Mary Louise Kelly |
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Ailsa Chang |
Photos by Stephen Voss/NPR
During each broadcast, stories and reports come to listeners from NPR reporters and correspondents based throughout the United States and the world. The hosts interview newsmakers and contribute their own reporting. Rounding out the mix are the disparate voices of a variety of commentators, including Sports Commentator Stefen Fatsis, and Political Columnists David Brooks and E.J. Dionne.
All Things Considered has earned many of journalism's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Overseas Press Club Award.
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Posadas are part of a centuries-long tradition that recreates Mary and Joseph's search for a place where the baby Jesus could be born. But in Mexico City, they have become just a reason to party.
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NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with actor Timothee Chalamet and director James Mangold about their new movie "A Complete Unknown."
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Some residents of Strafford, Vt., are trying to preserve their general store by buying it and hiring an operator with a promise to keep it local.
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Film director Barry Jenkins draws a Wild Card question and talks about where he'd go to feel safe as a child.
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Loneliness is a modern, cross generational plague. And some people, are looking to an old German tradition for a tried and true remedy.
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In her new book The Serviceberry, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer argues that humans would be wise to learn from the circular economies of reciprocity and abundance that play out in natural ecosystems.