Tamar Charney

Interim Managing Editor, NPR One

Tamar Charney is the managing editor for NPR One.

I’m one of those people who is perfectly content to sit alone in a restaurant, observing the people around me. It’s no surprise I became a journalist because I enjoying wondering what other people's lives are about.I’ve been a public radio jack of all trades — DJ, newscaster, arts reporter, talk show producer, and for almost a decade I ran Michigan Radio’s on-air, online, and news strategy and operations. Currently, I'm the managing editor for NPR One, which is a new way to listen to public radio news and podcasts from stations, networks like PRI, and producers you've never heard of before, but will love!Fun fact: I’ve done voiceovers for funeral homes, truck engine repair training modules and even a cartoon hepatitis virus — yes, you read that right.I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, before the city was full of hipsters, moved to Michigan for school and I stay here because I fell in love with snow, the Great Lakes, and the stories there are to tell about this area.


"Selfie"

We want politicians to be consistent and ‘authentic’ but we, ourselves, ‘contain multitudes.’ Even our iPhones know that.

Arts

When her iPhone didn’t recognize her, she recognized something in herself and all of us. Tamar Charney writes.

A "little house on the prairie" on the coffee table

The game of life starts with childhood toys

Arts
Stranger Things

Her muse isn’t elusive. It’s intrusive. And precious.

Culture
Listening to music you don't understand

The joy of listening to music you don’t understand

Culture
Grabbing the car keys

Lost your car keys? Earrings? Here’s an explanation.

Belief
Main Streets look all the same

Why are more and more Main Streets looking more alike?

Development

Like teenagers with identical long straight hair, leggings and UGGs, all our main streets are conforming to the same ideal of perfect smalltown America. This is no accident.

Finding home up in the air

From 35,000 feet up, ‘a way to trick a homesick brain to where our hearts are’

Technology

We’re cocooned. We’re far away. We’re headed home. And we flip through our photos of ourselves and our loved ones in anticipation. Narcissistic? How about human?

The joys of an Icelandic keyboard? The Viking tales and the musician Bjork, here accepting her artist of the year award at the Webby Awards in New York in 2012.

Emojis? I prefer my Icelandic keyboard.

Culture

I’m addicted to the weird characters that call to mind Bjork and Vikings. Those Ð and Þ’s. Characters unique to the land of fire and ice.

Tamar Charney's Rolodex.

What’s a Rolodex? And should she keep it?

Media

For a journalist, your Rolodex once equaled your sources — and your sources equaled your ability to do your job. But what about now?

Construction is seen on a new housing development along the riverfront in Detroit, Michigan, December 9, 2015. A year after the city exited the biggest-ever US municipal bankruptcy, a plan to demolish half of its nearly 80,000 blighted or deteriorating st

Detroit still has its scars — but there are signs showing a city on the mend

Development

Let’s be honest, there’s something to those scenes of decay in Detroit that captures the imagination of photographers and viewers alike. They speak to a cautionary tale about a beautiful industrial powerhouse laid to ruin by the slow disaster that was globalism, racism, corruption and neglect. But despite these lingering images, things are changing and more is improving than just the murder rate.