Neal Conan

Neal Joseph Conan III (November 26, 1949 – August 10, 2021) was an American radio journalist, producer, editor, and correspondent. He worked for National Public Radio for more than 36 years^[1] and was the senior host of its talk show Talk of the Nation.^[2] Conan hosted Talk of the Nation from 2001 to June 27, 2013, when the program was discontinued; with the discontinuation, NPR announced that Conan would depart the network.^[3]

Neal Conan
Conan in 2012
Born	Neal Joseph Conan III (1949-11-26)November 26, 1949 Beirut, Lebanon
Died	August 10, 2021(2021-08-10) (aged 71) Hawi, Hawaii, U.S.
Occupation	Journalist
Notable credit(s)	All Things Considered Talk of the Nation
Spouses	Liane Hansen ​ ​ (m. 1982; div. 2011)​ Gretel Ehrlich ​ (m. 2019)​
Children	2

Early life

Conan was born in Beirut, Lebanon,^[1][2][4] on November 26, 1949.^[5] His father, Neal Jr., worked as a physician and headed the medical center at the American University of Beirut; his mother, Theodora (Blake), was a housewife. His family relocated to Saudi Arabia when Conan was a child, before moving to New Jersey and Manhattan. He studied at Loomis Chaffee School and Riverdale Country School.^[5]

Career

Conan entered the field of radio broadcasting at age 17, volunteering at Pacifica Radio station WBAI-FM in New York City. He then worked at public radio station WRVR-FM, where he met Robert Siegel. At 27, Conan joined National Public Radio. Conan's initial assignment for NPR was as a producer of All Things Considered. Later, he covered the White House, the Pentagon, and the Department of State for the network.^[6]

During the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi Republican Guard detained Conan for a week.^[1][7] He and Chris Hedges of The New York Times were reporting on a Shi'a rebellion centered in Basra, Iraq.^[8] For five years, Conan hosted Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR News.^[9]

In 2000, Conan took a break from his work as a broadcaster to serve as the stadium play-by-play baseball announcer for Aberdeen Arsenal. A year later, he published Play by Play: Baseball, Radio and Life in the Last Chance League, which described his experience.^[10] On September 10, 2001, Conan began his work as host of Talk of the Nation.^[11][12] In 2008, investigative reporter James Ridgeway covered the Democratic primary elections for Mother Jones—in one episode, Mike Gravel was filmed in New Hampshire during a phone interview with Conan for Talk of the Nation.^[13]

NPR announced that it was ending the 12-year run of Talk of the Nation on March 29, 2013, stating that Conan would "step away from the rigors of daily journalism."^[14] On February 12, 2014, an interview aired on KUAZ 89.1, Tucson, Arizona's NPR affiliate,^[15] during which Conan explained that ending Talk of the Nation was not a decision he was involved in or agreed with, citing its status as one of NPR's most popular shows.^[16] He went on to join Hawaii Public Radio as a news analyst on June 8, 2014.^[1] He produced a thrice-weekly series called Pacific News Minute between November 30, 2017, and October 31, 2019.^[17]

In January 2017, Conan launched a radio show and podcast entitled Truth, Politics, and Power, which focused on the first presidency of Donald Trump. Conan interviewed experts weekly about a different issue arising from the 2016 election and the president's administration.^{[18][non-primary source needed][19]}

Personal life

In 1982, Conan married Liane Hansen, a long-time host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. Together, they had two children: Connor and Casey. Hansen briefly co-hosted Talk of the Nation with Conan.^[20] While on a farewell tour of NPR stations, Hansen revealed in April 2011 that she and Conan were divorcing.^[21] Conan was later in a domestic partnership with American travel writer, poet, and essayist Gretel Ehrlich, who survived him at his death.^[5] They married in 2019.

Conan moved to Hawi, Hawaii after he left NPR and farmed macadamia nuts on 5.5 acres of land.^[1] He enjoyed scuba diving after he settled in Hawaii.^[22]

Conan was a friend of comics writer Chris Claremont. As a result, he was featured a number of times as a sympathetic journalist in stories Claremont wrote for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, such as the 1988 X-Men storyline "The Fall of the Mutants".^[23][24] which often featured real life NPR engineer Manoli Wetherell as his cameraman.^[25]

Conan died on August 10, 2021, on his farm in Hāwī, Hawaii, as a result of glioblastoma, according to his son Connor.^[26][5] He was 71, having been diagnosed with a glioblastoma on his 70th birthday in November 2019.^[27]

Awards

• Major Armstrong Award^[2]
• 3 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards^[2]
• George Foster Peabody Award^[2]

During his time at All Things Considered, it won many awards as well, including the Washington Journalism Review's Best in the Business Award.^[2]

Publications

• Conan, Neal (2002). Play by Play: Baseball, Radio, and Life in the Last Chance League (First ed.). New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-609-60871-1.