NPR listening parties popping up nationwide, including Chattanooga

Macy Licht and her brother-in-law Chris Heintz hosted an NPR listening party in her living room. They chose the podcast "What Is Beauty?" to play on her phone for 20 of their friends, followed by 90 minutes of discussion after.

By Barry Courter January 29, 2016 5 min read

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Snark, trendy and kinda pretentiousNPR listening parties popping up nationwide, including Chattanooga

Macy Licht sits in her living room and holds the phone she and 20 of her friends listened to recently during a NPR podcast listening party. Licht's dog, Zazu, is lower left.

To host a NPR listening party

\NPR has a how-to listening kit at http://d3or2bw326s2y4.cloudfront.net/uploads/listening_party/pdf/568319796e707243f8010000/d1116a74-9507-49a9-be3b-c56ec2234bba.pdfor:bit.ly/NPRListeningKit

Chewing, even with the latest in trendy foods, can be difficult with your tongue stuck in your cheek. Talking also can be tough.

At least that’s what Macy Licht and her brother-in-law Chris Heintz discovered during the National Public Radio listening party the two hosted at Licht’s house earlier this month. The two had bought all the foodie items they could think of like wine, craft beers, hummus, gourmet cheeses and “weird” chips.

“When we went to the grocery store, we looked for the most obscure things with names that you couldn’t pronounce,” Licht says. They forgot the kale chips, however, and nothing says trendy, or pretentious, like kale. And the invitation, after all, invited guests to enjoy a “Very Pretentious NPR Listening Party.”

The listening parties, part of NPR’s “Generation Listen,” first cropped up in last year when an NPR team drove cross-country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., introducing the idea to “young, curious people,” according to a video on the group’s Facebook page. During the trip, the team hosted listening parties in nine cities, including Birmingham, Atlanta, Winston-Salem, Washington, D.C., and Oxford, Miss.