Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep
Marfa Public RadioMarfa Public Radio is literally never asleep. It operates 24/7 (except when lightning strikes) and there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to make this happen– fundraising, compliance, protocols, emergency response, maintenance…the list goes on and on.
Do you lay awake wondering what FCC compliance entails? Ever wondered what NPR's code of journalistic ethics involves for the newsroom?
We may never be able to explain what it takes to operate the station, but we can put you to sleep trying to.
For this fall membership drive we bring you Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep. It's a sleep podcast wherein we read you the boring documents essential to our jobs, in the hopes we might lull you into slumber.
We do actually hope that you fall asleep listening to this, but when you wake up, help us continue to read our boring documents and keep Marfa Public Radio awake by donating to the station at marfapublicradio.org/donate.
Produced by Zoe Kurland and Christopher Dyer. Our executive producer is Elise Pepple.
Marfa Public Radio is literally never asleep. It operates 24/7 (except when lightning strikes) and there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to make this happen– fundraising, compliance, protocols, emergency response, maintenance…the list goes on and on.
Do you lay awake wondering what FCC compliance entails? Ever wondered what NPR's code of journalistic ethics involves for the newsroom?
We may never be able to explain what it takes to operate the station, but we can put you to sleep trying to.
For this fall membership drive we bring you Marfa Public Radio Puts You to Sleep. It's a sleep podcast wherein we read you the boring documents essential to our jobs, in the hopes we might lull you into slumber.
We do actually hope that you fall asleep listening to this, but when you wake up, help us continue to read our boring documents and keep Marfa Public Radio awake by donating to the station at marfapublicradio.org/donate.
Produced by Zoe Kurland and Christopher Dyer. Our executive producer is Elise Pepple.
The Rescissions Act of 2025 read by Zoe
Imagine, you’re sitting in a small radio station in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert in Far West Texas. The air is dry and still. You’ve spent the day reporting on a long county commissioner’s meeting. Maybe you’ve edited a story about the local herbarium and its keepers. Maybe you sat in the host chair for Morning Edition and All Things Considered, reporting the weather. Perhaps, on this day, you trundled your truck up a mountain to the Marfa Public Radio tower. It’s quiet up there.
Looking out from the top of this mountain, you can see everything. You stand for a moment, let it all sink in, visualize that signal sailing through the clear blue sky. Airwaves, airborne.
And then it hits you. That signal is at risk. It could be snatched right out of the sky. Congress has just passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, H.R.4, eliminating all federal funding for public media. At Marfa Public Radio, this means one third of our budget is disappearing. For now, everything's still humming, machinery whirring, tower broadcasting.
But it occurs to you: if people don’t step up their financial support of this listener-funded station in this crucial moment for the future of public media — the gentle humming and whirring of the broadcast equipment could cease. It also occurs to you that people can quite easily donate at marfapublicradio.org/donate or by calling the station at 1-800-893-5787.
As you await the listeners’ calls - you begin to wonder, what is the Rescissions Act of 2025, really?
In this episode, Senior Producer Zoe Kurland reads the Rescissions Act of 2025 and the senate and house votes that passed it.
This episode of Marfa Public Radio Puts You To Sleep was written, produced, and hosted by Zoe Kurland.