I love some good meta. I wrote a dialogue-heavy short story about writing dialogue-driven short stories. Mark C. Marino wrote this excllent MPR-style essay about the formulaic endings of NPR stories, which are designed to leave you feeling smarter but emptier, so that you return to fill your pledge-drive mug with another dose of First World Problems angst.

And although I cannot answer that question, one thing is for certain: unless it’s de-funded in some future wave of Congressional backlash against public media, NPR will continue to have the final word in broad-spectrum news coverage. And it won’t be easy. Mark C. Marino, Medium.com