Consider This from NPR - Goodbye, Ari Shapiro

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

After 25 years at NPR and 10 years hosting All Things Considered and the last few years hosting Consider This, Ari Shapiro is moving on to his next adventure.We’re saying bye.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at [e-mail] episode was produced by Connor Donevan, Matt Ozug, Mia Venkat, Mallory Yu and Alejandra Marquez Janse.It was edited by Ashley Brown.Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, consider this listeners. You're probably wondering why you're hearing me instead of one of your hosts. This is Matt Ozug, by the way. I'm a producer who helps make this podcast, and also its broadcast cousin, All Things Considered. Well, today, our news is about one of those hosts, Ari Shapiro. After 25 years at NPR, and 10 years hosting All Things Considered, and the last few years hosting this podcast, Ari is moving on to his next adventure. So I've been thinking a lot about the work he and we have done. Ari and I have worked together all around the world, reporting from a temple at dawn. It's a little before 5 in the morning. And from the top of a wind turbine. I am staring down hundreds of feet.

Wow. And I'm always struggling to keep up. Ari walks fast, talks fast, writes and reads fast. But the story I will always associate with him is the first one we did together in Toledo, Ohio. We interviewed some college-age guys living together in a group house. Three of them were recent graduates from the University of Toledo. Mohamed Rafai is a butcher from Syria. They had just taken in a Syrian refugee.

My name is Muhammad. Muhammad Rafai has big, dark eyes, black hair, and a shy smile. Are these the only people who call you Mo? That was in 2015. Nobody else calls me that, he says. Ari kept in touch with Mo. He brought listeners updates on most. his life. Yes, yes, yes. I'm so glad I am now American citizen. It's true that Ari works fast,

but he circles back to check in on people. I called Mo to let him know today. Friday was Ari's last day. Mo had just gotten off work. Hey, hello, I'm so sorry. I miss your call and I miss your message. I can say hi for Ali. I love Ali. He's a good guy. Consider this. Ari Shapiro is wrapping up a quarter century at NPR, and we're saying goodbye. From NPR, I'm Matt Ozug. This message comes from NPR sponsor, SAP Conquer. Latora Jackson, senior manager of finance projects at Atrecure, shares how SAP Concur solutions helped them automate outdated procedures so employees, could focus on purposeful work. Literally, employees would receive a mailed invoice from our suppliers,

put it in an approval folder, and walk it around to about three different desks. The great thing with concur invoice, it provides automatic workflow. The AI technology for the invoice reading has made it seamless and almost touchless for our accounts payable team to be more efficient in what they're doing. We're now able to have team building. and decision-making input from that team that we normally didn't have the time to receive before. So it was almost like a retraining of the brain on job functionality and opportunities that they have here at Atracure. Visit concur.com to learn more.

It's Consider This from NPR. I think it's time to hand things back over to your on-air talent. we're going to share a piece more or less straight from the radio. This is the last story of the last hour of Ari Shapiro's last day on all things considered. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. I'm Elsie Chang. I'm Juana Summers. And I'm Scott Detrow.

Can I start by asking, did the rest of you ever hear the story? Did he tell you about how he got rejected when he first applied to NPR as an intern? I have heard the story. Seems like it turned out okay for that guy, though. I guess so. So, and the time that we have left on today's show. we wanted to take a moment to remember just a small sample of the many, many memorable all things considered moments that Ari brought to us and to you over the years. Right. Because being the overachiever that he is, Ari has covered the White House. He has reported from the United Kingdom. He has reported from all across the country for NPR before ever joining this show.

And he always had a knack, no matter what the beat was, no matter what the assignment was, for finding people who might not always have had an easy way to speak truth to power. One of Ari's first trips as a host brought him to Tennessee back in 2015. That state had begun charging women with a crime if they gave birth to a baby with a drug dependency. Many stories on that law at the time rarely included the voices of mothers. Aris did. Finally, she was in her third trimester, getting ready to give birth to a little girl. What finally broke me was I was 31 weeks. I had tied off to hit myself and I put my arm on my stomach and she kicked my arm off.

And that broke me. Hey, Hart. Over the years, Ari also interviewed so many writers and artists and musicians. Some of them were big names, decades-long careers. Think Kylie Minogue. How do you keep finding new ways to write a song about First Love or about the joy being on a dance floor, about these themes that you've been recording for decades?

Yeah, I ask myself the same question, like, How I was thinking about all of the mentions of stars and starfields and gal. Like, I keep going back to that. Ari also talk to others who were just starting their careers, like this conversation with Renee Rapp. I'm quite aggressive and I'm quite delusional. That's a potent combination. Yeah. That laugh.

Ari has always championed bringing your whole self to the air. You hear that in just about every interview he does. It's the vibes. What a person of your generation would call vibes. Are very physical, very sweaty. Yes. I hope it's okay for me to say this. Kind of horny.

That's a little sometimes. She called him Chagall. It's Chagall. Okay, don't get all Ari Shapiro. Shocker, this album. Since you brought it up, you have a pilot's license, too. Yeah, but luckily for people in the air, I don't use it. Still.

I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But the question I kept having was, how did this get made? I have the office right next door to Ari's, and today it's empty. But for years, he decorated its space with art and all of these mementos from his travels, as well as books whose authors he'd interviewed. Oh, and the letters. Don't forget the letters, the fan mail, which includes the critiques. Oh, yeah. Anytime a listener wrote in with some strong reaction to say some grammatical choice Ari had used on air, he would gleefully tape the letter to his office window for everyone to read. What mattered most to Ari was the connection. He connected

powerfully with listeners and with guests. So we wanted to hear from some of the people whose lives already entered multiple times as a host and see where they are today. I'm Lisa Winton, and I am the owner, CEO of Winton Machine. We had our first conversation during COVID when I was trying to articulate the struggles of a small manufacturer to an audience that everyone, was kind of focused on just the toilet paper shortages. Many of factors across the country are having trouble filling positions. Why is that? Because there is a huge skills gap in this country.

Wow. He stands out because he listens deeply and he asks thoughtful questions. As an entrepreneur and as a business owner, I'm super excited for him to see what that next adventure is. My name is Janaya McDonald. When I first met Ari, we were in the height of the Flint water crisis. What I tell you about that water is poison. Ari reached out wanting to just come and experience a day and a life of what it looked like here. I started my chicken off this morning with about eight bottles of water to start to throw it out.

I really felt like Ari gave me the voice of the Flint residents. We all had the same struggle of not trusting water. The recipes have a new ingredient these days. I've been doing it so long. I kind of know how many bottles of water it takes for each pan. That was one of the first things I remember telling him is that they're going to forget about us. The next story is going to come along and the Flint water crisis will get swept under the rug and Ari made sure that that did not happen ever since.

Now her boys are 8 and 12. Can I give you a hug? Yes. I just want to thank you guys for coming into my home and allowing me to be a voice. And for that, I'm grateful. Best wishes, Ari. And I hope you can feel me squeezing you right now. Oh, that is so beautiful.

I want to squeeze you right now, Ari. We're going to miss you. I'm going to have. so much more to say to my colleagues when we raise a glass in just a moment, but for my last word, I want to talk to you, whether you are in your kitchen or your car walking your dog or at the gym, your most valuable resource is your time. And I'm so grateful that you spent your time with me. And even as I say goodbye, NPR is not going anywhere. All things considered is not going anywhere. So as I wrap up my last show with these co-hosts that I love here in the studio with

me, Elsa, Juana, Scott, let's say it. Thank you for listening to all things considered from NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and Cs apply. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories, stories about policing, or politics, country music, hockey, sex, of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers.

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