MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
I'm Ailsa Chang.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
I'm Juana Summers.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
And I'm Scott Detrow.
KELLY: Guys, we are about to have an empty chair in the studio, Ari - Ari Shapiro, who has been holding...
CHANG: I know.
KELLY: ...That chair down for longer than any of us. But as we know, he announced last month, Ari is leaving as a host of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED after 10 years and more than 25 years with the network.
Can I start by asking, did the rest of you ever (laughter) - did you ever hear the story - did he tell you about how he got rejected when he first applied to NPR as an intern?
SUMMERS: I have heard the story. Seems like it turned out OK for that guy, though.
CHANG: I guess so (laughter).
SUMMERS: So in 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.
CHANG: 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.
DETROW: 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.
SUMMERS: 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.
KELLY: Many stories on that law at the time rarely included the voices of mothers. Ari's did.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Finally, she was in her third trimester, getting ready to give birth to a little girl.
JESSICA ROBERTS: 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. It hurt (crying).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: Over the years, Ari also interviewed so many writers and artists and musicians.
KELLY: Some of them were big names, decadeslong careers. Think Kylie Minogue.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: How do you keep finding new ways to write a song about first love or about the joy of being on a dance floor - about these themes that you've been recording for decades?
KYLIE MINOGUE: Yeah. I ask myself the same question - like, how? I was thinking about all of the mentions of stars and star fields and - like, I keep going back to that.
ARI SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUPERNOVA")
MINOGUE: (Singing) Baby, all I need...
SUMMERS: Ari also talked to others who were just starting their careers, like this conversation with Renee Rapp.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
RENEE RAPP: I'm quite aggressive, and I'm quite delusional.
ARI SHAPIRO: (Laughter) That's a potent combination.
RAPP: Yeah (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO WELL")
RAPP: (Singing) I get so sick...
KELLY: That laugh - Ari has always championed bringing your whole self to the air. You hear that in just about every interview he does.
ARI SHAPIRO: It's the vibes. What a person of your generation would call vibes.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
ARI SHAPIRO: Are very physical and very sweaty.
BIG FREEDIA: Yes.
ARI SHAPIRO: Hope it's OK for me to say this - kind of horny (laughter).
BIG FREEDIA: A little sometimes, you know?
ARI SHAPIRO: Does she call him Chagall? It's Chagall.
MIA VENKAT: OK, don't get all Ari Shapiro with this.
ARI SHAPIRO: Shocker, this album is...
Since you brought it up, you have a pilot's license, too.
INA GARTEN: Yeah. But luckily for people in the air, I don't use it.
(LAUGHTER)
ARI SHAPIRO: Still...
I don't want you to take this the wrong way...
ANDREW RANNELLS: OK.
ARI SHAPIRO: ...But the question I kept having was, how did this get made?
(LAUGHTER)
SUMMERS: 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.
CHANG: Oh, and the letters. Don't forget the letters, the fan mail, which includes the critiques.
SUMMERS: Oh, yeah.
CHANG: 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.
DETROW: What mattered most to Ari was the connection. He connected powerfully with listeners and with guests.
KELLY: So we wanted to hear from some of the people whose lives Ari entered multiple times as a host and see where they are today.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LISA WINTON: 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
WINTON: Manufacturers across the country are having trouble filling positions.
ARI SHAPIRO: Why is that?
WINTON: Because there is a huge skills gap in this country.
ARI SHAPIRO: Wow.
WINTON: 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MATT OZUG, BYLINE: Hey, this is producer Matt Ozug. Ari and I have worked together all around the world, reporting from a temple at dawn...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: It's a little before 5 in the morning.
OZUG: ...And from the top of a wind turbine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: I am staring down hundreds of feet. Wow.
OZUG: 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: Three of them are recent graduates from the University of Toledo. Mohammed Refai (ph) is a butcher from Syria.
OZUG: They had just taken in a Syrian refugee.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MOHAMMED REFAI: My name is Mohammed.
ARI SHAPIRO: Mohammed Refai has big, dark eyes, black hair and a shy smile.
Are these the only people who call you Moh (ph)?
OZUG: That was in 2015.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: Nobody else calls me that, he says.
(LAUGHTER)
OZUG: Ari kept in touch with Moh. He brought listeners updates on Moh's life.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
REFAI: Yes, yes, yes. I'm so glad I am now American citizen.
OZUG: When I called Moh to let him know that today is Ari's last day, Moh had just gotten off work.
REFAI: Hey, hello. I'm so sorry I missed your call and I missed your message. I can say hi for Ari. I love Ari. He's a good guy.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
OZUG: It is true that Ari works fast, but he also circles back. And he checks in on people like Moh.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JENEYAH MCDONALD: My name is Jeneyah McDonald. When I first met Ari, we were in the height of the Flint water crisis.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MCDONALD: What did I tell you about that water?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It's poison.
MCDONALD: It's poison (laughter).
Ari reached out, wanting to just come and experience a day in the life of what it looked like here.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MCDONALD: I started my chicken off this morning with about eight bottles of water to start to thaw 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: The recipes have a new ingredient these days.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER POURING)
MCDONALD: 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ARI SHAPIRO: Ever since - now her boys are 8 and 12.
Can I give you a hug?
MCDONALD: Yes (screaming).
(LAUGHTER)
MCDONALD: 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.
CHANG: Aw.
ARI SHAPIRO: Oh, that was so beautiful.
CHANG: I want to squeeze you right now, Ari.
SUMMERS: We're going to miss you.
ARI SHAPIRO: 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 - Ailsa, Juana, Scott, let's say it.
ARI SHAPIRO, AILSA CHANG, JUANA SUMMERS AND SCOTT DETROW: Thank you for listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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