Noah Adams, a journalist who was the longtime host of the NPR news program “All Things Considered” and was known for his gentle voice and genuine curiosity, has died. He was 84 years old.
Adams died at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on October 16, according to NPR. The cause was complications from a benign brain tumor removed eight years ago, his wife and longtime NPR news producer Neenah Ellis told the New York Times.
Adams, who hosted the weekday edition of “All Things Considered” for 18 years, helped cover major news events and compiled segments from his travels around the country, often speaking to ordinary people in small rural towns.
“He never liked talking to people who he knew had pre-programmed what he was going to say,” Melissa Block, a former “All Things Considered” host who previously worked as a producer for Adams, said on the NPR episode announcing his death. “He really wanted people who spoke from the heart, with conviction and sincerity.”
Born Sept. 15, 1942, in Ashland, Ky., Adams joined NPR in the mid-1970s after working a variety of jobs in and around his hometown, including DJing and construction. A college dropout, Adams was inspired to start working in public radio after being introduced to “All Things Considered” as a listener.
He was introduced to the program by a colleague shortly after it first aired in 1971. He told The Times in 2002 that when he first heard the program he remembered thinking, “This sounds good, they want me to listen, I’m smart enough to listen.”
After working at the University of Kentucky’s public radio station, she applied for a job at NPR. In 1975, she was hired as a production assistant on “All Things Considered”, then became the show’s weekend co-host in 1978. It switched to a weekday show in 1982.
Susan Stamberg, who was Adams’ “All Things Considered” co-host from 1982 to 1987 and died last year, described him as “the most real, uncontrived voice in broadcasting” in the foreword to her 1992 book about her work on the show.
“This belief shines through in the words he writes and in the quiet and very powerful way he speaks,” he wrote, according to the Current. “A quiet, careful man, a craftsman at his craft, his seriousness is tempered by a twinkle in his eye, an occasional goofy grin, and the daffodils he’ll bring to the studio on a particularly tense or stuffy day.”
When Adams left his position as host of “All Things Considered” for the second and final time in 2002, he said the camaraderie and one-on-one interviews with his colleagues were among the things he would miss.
These interviews were “a kind of conversation,” which often turned into “a very quiet and very slow conversation.” [that] It can’t be achieved with anything other than radio,” he told The Times.
Adams’ signature audio work includes the 1981 radio documentary “Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown,” as well as a series of interviews with Tom DeBaggio, who lives with Alzheimer’s disease, and an interview with 8-year-old Betsy Walter, whose parents are divorced. Adams wrote a number of books, including “Piano Lessons: Music, Love, and True Adventures” and “Flyers: On the Trail of Wilbur and Orville Wright,” which chronicle Adams’ quest to learn to play the piano in his 50s.
“He’s got a writer’s eye, and I think you hear that when he’s on the air,” Adams’ “All Things Considered” co-host Robert Siegel said in 2002. “And it takes audio very seriously. When you combine text with audio, you can create extraordinary radio.”