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2020 presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was first mentioned by NPR in 1991, when she was interviewed on All Things Considered for a story about people filing for bankruptcy during the economic recession. At the time, Warren was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of one the largest studies ever done on bankruptcy.

"We have to rebuild our infrastructure to deal with climate change that is bearing down upon us. The urgency of the moment on climate change cannot be overstated. It's upon us and we need to make change and make change fast.” 

-Elizabeth Warren, from Morning Edition's Election 2020: Opening Arguments series.

Photo: American academic (and future US Senator) Professor Elizabeth Warren teaches a class at University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early 1990s. NPR first mentioned Warren in 1991.

Credit: Photo by Leif Skoogfors/Corbis via Getty Images

2020 presidential candidate Kamala Harris was first mentioned by NPR in a 2003 Morning Edition broadcast. She had just defeated two-term San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, making her the first woman, African American and South Asian to serve as that county’s district attorney. She would later go on to serve as Attorney General of California, and then become a U.S. Senator.

“I disagree with any policy that would turn America's back on people who are fleeing harm. I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for.” 

-Kamala Harris, from Morning Edition's Election 2020: Opening Arguments series.

Photo: Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Kamala Harris at the Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, California on March 28, 1997. NPR first mentioned Harris in 2003.

Credit: Mary F. Calvert/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images

2020 presidential candidate and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar was first mentioned by NPR in a 2003 Morning Edition story titled “Police Departments Consider Videotaping Interrogations.” Klobuchar was Hennepin County's top prosecutor at the time. She states that "[Videotaping interrogations]...helps us to convict the guilty, and just as importantly it helps us to make sure that we are charging the right person."

Amy Klobuchar, from Morning Edition's “Election 2020: Opening Arguments” series --

“...When you look at my record I have stood up on so many progressive issues, whether it is choice, whether it is the environment, whether it is standing up for immigrants and against racial injustice. But there are moments where we can find common ground.”

Photo: Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Amy Klobuchar speaks during a 2006 debate on NBC's "Meet the Press." NPR first mentioned Klobuchar in 2003.

Credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press

2020 presidential candidate and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker was first mentioned by NPR in 2002. Talk of the Nation host Neal Conan spoke with New York Times reporter Andrew Jacobs about Booker when he was a mayoral candidate in Newark. Jacobs describes Booker as “ ... Very much sort of an activist, sort of media friendly kind of guy who knows how to do things to get the cameras coming. I mean, he's, you know, camped out in a trailer for five months on the street, went on a hunger strike to get more police protection for a housing project, and, you know, his style is much more sort of modern, you could say.” Booker lost the 2002 race but went on to win the second time he ran in 2006.

Cory Booker from NPR Morning Edition’s “Election 2020: Opening Arguments” series:

"We are a nation of conscience, and I found partners on the other side of the aisle who agree with me on these issues. And we can build from there. In fact, when I first came to the Senate, people laughed. I had people telling me, 'There's no way you're going to get a comprehensive criminal justice reform bill done.'”

Photo: Cory Booker campaigns in Newark mayoral race in 2006 for the second time after narrowly losing in 2002. NPR first covered his campaign in 2002.

Credit: Spencer Platt /Getty Images

When All Things Considered launched in 1971, NPR brought a "new and different" sound to radio. This new sound featured the creative energy and electrosonic compositions of Donald Voegeli, a musician and composer at the University of Wisconsin. The university received funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to compose music for both public television and radio. At the time, audio experimentation in electronic sound was on the rise, and Don took on this project with his synthesizer. Using a Putney, Don did some composing and the first iteration of the All Things Considered theme was born.

In this 1974 interview with Don, Susan Stamberg tells him, “You are really the man who has given us our sound.”

Curious about the history of International Women’s Day?

NPR RAD found this Weekend Edition piece from 1992 in which Karen Nussbaum traces the holiday’s origins to the early 20th century women’s labor movement and reflects on the legacy of the horrific 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

NPR is partnering with the Radio Preservation Task Force to save America’s radio heritage!

The RAD team is presenting at the RPTF conference with reps from Library of Congress, University of Maryland, Smithsonian, American Archives of Public Broadcasting and media scholars from all over the country. NPR RADsters will share gems from the archives of NPR and explain how our work helps to preserve NPR history and provide access for future generations.