Her name is legendary among the listeners of NPR, but after more than thirty years on air radio host Diane Rehm has announced her retirement. Luckily for her listeners, however, the 2016 Presidential Election has enough pull to prolong her broadcasts through to the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. Nonetheless, a year is too little time to let Rehm's presence in American society continue on without acknowledging its influence.
Since beginning her career in radio in 1973 as an assistant producer for NPR affiliate station WAMU 88.5 in Washington D.C., Rehm has since gone on to become the inquisitive voice of her own show started in 1979, which soon took the title of its host 5 years later. From Barack Obama to Mr. Rogers himself, guests interviewed for her segments have faced critical questions and have been induced to tell comical anecdotes within a single twenty minute parlay.
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Even though Diane Rehm has been recognized for her impact on the radio and news industry many times over, receiving the prestigious Peabody Award in 2009 and the National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2013, I only stumbled upon her a few years ago while in the car with my mom. Her voice seemed to struggle through the speakers as my mom turned on the NPR station of our jeep's seriusxm radio, and I ignorantly asked what was the matter with her. Initially a distraction to me, her strained voice quickly became part of Rehm's hypnotic draw as she asked her guests poignant and endearing questions; a diagnosis of spasmodic dysphonia in 1998 threatened the continuation of her career, but Rehm has since sought out treatment to strengthen her voice all while bringing her neurological condition to light, and as a result her show has continued undeterred by this one-time looming shadow. As I became more obsessed with NPR, Rehm's unique voice no longer sounded wearied and fragile, but determined and optimisitc; her spirit of longevity and enthusiasm carried along the radio waves and her voice has become a welcome, even exciting, sound to hear at ten in the morning each day.
Though respected by and large like any public figure Rehm is not without some aspect of controversy. After seeing her husband, who wished to avoid prolonged suffering from his advanced deterioration brought on by Parkinson's disease, unable to legally receive aid to quickly bring about his impending death, Rehm became an advocate for Right-to-Die legislation. Though she had promised her husband John that when he felt the time had come, she would help him escape his pain, she was warned that Maryland law viewed such actions as illegal. Rather than come to his nearing death quickly and without delay, John was forced to speed the process in the only way he personally could, by refusing food and drink. Though he was able to hasten his death, his ten days of starvation on top of the effects of his disease impacted his wife greatly; "I am not talking about people who are desperate, who are miserable and lonely. I am talking about people who have lived their lives and are satisfied...I think we ought to be able to create that space for ourselves where we can choose to die with dignity and with the aid of a physician." Assisted dying, which indeed differs from assisted suicide, is supported by the majority of the United States population, but those opposed are adamantly so and thus Diane Rehm's stance pulled her into more critical limelight than much of her career had faced previously.
Nevertheless, Diane Rehm must be respected for her consistency in opinions and her ability to openly listen to both sides of a controversy or issue. Though she may push opinions with which she disagrees, she does so equally with those she does believe because her end objective is clear: to find the evidence behind the viewpoint. Listeners calling in to ask additional questions of Rehm's guests prove that the breadth of her influence spans multiple generations, but it is clear that her most devoted demographic comes in the form of the baby-boomer generation. With just shy of a year left to hear the spunky 79-year old take on current issues, politics, and the latest great novels alike, the younger extent of our population would do itself a service taking some of its time away from the latest Real Housewives' episodes in order to tune in to the Diane Rehm show; after all, it will only take a few moments to become her fan for life.
