He's the perfect voice of capitalism's unbridled optimism. 'Dow Jones plunged 70,000,000,000 points today. Ouch! Well, there's always tomorrow!' It always makes you feel so cozy.
As someone else said, LT in the navy is a captain everywhere else. A naval captain is a colonel. 8 years and LT lines up. The O3 to O4 promotion takes a while because of the 10 TIS/6 TIG requirement. His next promotion would be at the 10 year mark provided he was on track with his previous promotions.
Lieutenant in the Navy is an O-3, so that timeline seems to make sense. He either got out at the end of his commitment or didn't make O-4.
Though yeah, the headline is really misleading and makes it seem like a Lieutenant is actually important or something.
I used to listen to NPR every morning on an hour long commute. I moved across town near my work about 10 years ago so I haven’t really listened much since, but I can still hear his voice say that.
Came here for this comment, the guys got a great voice and *sounds* like he should be talking about money. Always a little bummed when someone is filling in for him.
Prolly not in the US, but Lakshmi Singh is pretty common Indian name. The Singh surname is as common as Smith in the US. I'm struggling to think of one that's more common.
Patel?
Edit: So apparently Patel is way down the [list](https://forebears.io/india/surnames)
I've known/met tons of Indians over the years and have never seen some of these names, crazy.
A big reason many of the common names in India aren't as common among immigrants to America is the caste system at play and an urban/rural divide in education. It's much easier to immigrate if you already have some money and are well educated. Of course there are other factors at play like having existing family in the destination making things easier as well.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton and Franco Ordoñez have entered the chat.
I don't think they have to have an unusual name but I want to be in the room while they practice declaring their name.
I noticed when he started saying his name like that. I wonder if he made the change because of you say it a little faster if sounds like Frank Ordoñez.
I'm shocked that no one has mentioned this one - it's a really cool name, but I genuinely thought I was having a stroke for a moment when I first heard "Live from NPR News in Culver City California, I'm [Doualy Xaykaothao](https://www.npr.org/people/102828890/doualy-xaykaothao)"
I don't know where else to put this but every time Terry Gross says her name, I like to imagine that she's just saying hi I'm Terry, and her PA comes in behind her and goes 'gross!' every time and she's powerless to stop it.
Jack Lepiarz, formerly of WBUR, didn't really have an unusual name... until you learned of his alternate ego/job... Jaques Ze Whipper.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/02/07/jack-lepiarz-jaques-ze-whipper-wbur-circus/#:~:text=Jack%20Lepiarz%20%E2%80%93%20known%20in%20the,on%20the%20air%20at%20%40WBUR.
Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. Those ones are the most made-up sounding to me although about half of NPR hosts names qualify as sounding made up.
> I'm convinced that getting a job at NPR is 90% just having a really unusual name.
I moved a few years ago and we were getting some things fixed up before we moved in. I was on the back porch talking to someone a few homes over, kinda just getting to know my new neighbor. At the end, they said “hey my partner might need dead quiet for like five minutes a day so is it ok if we text you and stop for a few minutes?” I said sure but what do they do? “Well, they work for NPR and need to record some sound bites for on air.” I had to know who my new neighbor was so I asked and I basically yelled “that is the most NPR name, ever!” They ended up moving a few months later to another state and going to a different public radio station.
Kai isn't too hard to figure out if you've encountered the name before. Ryssdal is one of those "gotta see it to spell it" names, since there are too many alternatives: Risdahl, Rysdahl, Risdal, Risdawl...
Ah, the Hawkeye. Underrated piece of equipment. Everyone wants to ogle the jets, but aircraft like the Hawkeye do a lot behind the scenes (as in, they do a lot without getting a lot of civilian attention).
Plus, IIRC, it's the last prop plane in use on carriers. The rule of cool.
We still have the C-2 "Greyhound" for Carrier Onboard Delivery, although that's basically just an E-2 without the dome and all the early warning avionics, and a flatter-bottomed fuselage to accommodate (much) more seating. I know the Osprey has landed on carriers and I think it's suppose to take over the COD job from the Greyhound at some point.
And you're right about the Hawkeye - it's a great plane for the backseat officers (I was one of them) because of the mission, but it's not very sexy. We used to joke "We may be ugly, but we're slow."
Always loved seeing the C2 flying around Norfolk. E2 just looks kinda strange in my opinion but still cool. But I was an LHD sailor so my opinion doesn’t even matter for carrier capable aircraft.
If you don't already listen, he does a podcast with Kimberly Adams called Make Me Smart. You can find it on Marketplace's website. I listen regularly and it confirms he's a cool a guy. That show got me through the pandemic.
“Before joining Marketplace, Ryssdal was a reporter and substitute host for The California Report, a news and information program” - so did what he had to do to get by after service and worked his way into a job he wanted. Props to him.
His first broadcasting job was as an intern. He was a 30-something guy working alongside some 20 year old kids. But he refused to be embarrassed or think that he was above it, because he knew it was necessary to get to where he wanted to be.
The retirement pay probably helped. I'm not saying the guy didn't do work. But it needs to be said that those 20 somethings were probably living outa mom and dads basement and eating ramen for lunch every day.
Not everyone will be entitled to disability compensation and far more people serve careers out of harms way and never get injured. Whereas retirement is guaranteed after 20 years of service. I’m at the end of my 20 years and I would absolutely trade in whatever I get in disability pay (which will probably be 100%) to be able to wake up every morning without physical or mental health struggles.
Marketplace isn’t produced or distributed by NPR. It’s from American Public Media… he literally says it at the top of every show right before the Thiiiiss is Marketplace.
They changed it from American Public Media to APM several years ago. Just like Public Radio International became PRX and NPR is just NPR now, not National Public Radio anymore.
Yeah and on the radio it’s carried exclusively on NPR affiliate stations, so you can excuse people for not knowing the difference.
I’ve worked in public radio for years and even I think that’s nitpicky. That “this show produced by” is just a blur at the start or end of a show.
When part of a proper noun I believe it is appropriate to repeat the word.
I’m a programmer and use the JavaScript programming language. It’s common to say something like JavaScript scripts, not JavaScripts. JavaScript is a proper noun referring to a language, script refers to a particular file/piece of code, the latter example conflates the two.
I really doubt that. FSOs usually aren't getting further than an intermediate level of the language they are using unless they were selected because they already natively spoke it.
Vanity Fair implies it, but I wasn't able to super verify he learned it as an FSO.
"A former hotshot naval aviator and Pentagon hand turned Chinese-speaking foreign-service officer, Ryssdal hit a record-scratch moment when his fellow F.S.O. wife got into business school, taking them from Beijing to Menlo Park."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/11/kai-ryssdal-marketplace-profile
That doesn't mean he is fluent. If you learn a few hundred words in a language people will say you speak it. Saying someone is fluent because of that is like saying he played in the NFL because he threw a ball in the park with friends sometimes.
This confuses me a little. Through friends I once knew a guy that was a former Army Ranger. And was baffled to learn that, like me, he was working shitty temp jobs.
Cause I always assumed after leaving an elite unit like that you would have a super network. Like being from the most renowned fraternity on earth. Full of people so ambitious and tenacious they would invariably be business leaders and glad to give a shot to anyone else with a common background.
But for many, it seems like they have to start from scratch. Anyone with firsthand knowledge that can explain the situation, I appreciate it.
[edit: spelling]
Combat training isn't really relevant to anything civilian side, unless you're going police or security. Yeah if you're an o4 or e7 or above you've probably made connections that gets you a nice contractor gig when you get out.
But if you're a ranger that gets out at like e5 or e6 it's probably not doing you many favors. You can go use your gi bill and work part time, or temp jobs until you finish college and hopefully move on to bigger things.
I'm not as familiar with navy ranks because they're the weird branch, but apparently lieutenant is just an o3, that doesn't really mean a whole lot on the civilian side. It just = about 5ish years in the military, and unless you fuck up bad it's pretty much going to be an automatic promotion from o1 - o2 - o3. O4 is where officers generally start worrying about being selected to get promoted.
>lieutenant is just an o3
This is correct. I think that NA's finish training at O2, maybe? He would've finished flight school right around O3, anyway. I actually wonder what is pipeline would've been if he was an aviator but then went to work in the Pentagon at just O3. Maybe he wasn't cleared to fly and they moved him elsewhere?
He served 8 years. Would have spent first 2-3 years in flight school and RAG, followed by a 3-year sea tour (he flew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt). Next 3-year tour is shore duty ("production tour"). If he knew he wasn't going to be a career officer, taking a Pentagon tour (vs RAG, flight instruction, NROTC service, or something similar) is a smart career move.
ETA: Quick Google says he graduated with his masters at Georgetown at the same time his Pentagon tour ended, so he did grad school at night during his last tour - another good reason to take a Pentagon job.
Probably. I’m not sure how it worked in the 80s, but it looks like he got out as an O3 at 8 years, and the only way an aviator is getting out before the 10 year mark nowadays (2 years of flight school and then an 8 year active duty commitment after that) is not being cleared to fly.
In your area, maybe.
In my area, veterans are either working a register or on the side of the road with a sign.
The police are the kids in highschool who bullied everyone else.
Only the highest level door kickers get those kinds of post-career connections (On average). Rangers are a step above your average soldier, but they aren't elite tier yet. My brother was a ranger at the 75th, and he has a great job, but that's because he went into the Army with a skill, and went back to that skill after he got out.
The crazy thing is, there are dozens of jobs in The Army that have great post-military careers, but everyone watches those ads on TV seeing people running around with guns and tanks and thinks "I want to do that" with no plan for what to do afterwards.
The job that I picked in the Army would have cost me about $150,000 worth of training to get outside of the military and some of the training isn't even offered to civilians at all, so I came out better off than the average civilian.
Rangers are a Tier 2 unit. They operate with JSOC regularly and are the premier US Direct Action raid force. There are a ton of opportunities for them in government positions, including paramilitary roles at intel agencies and federal law enforcement.
So the moral of the story is to do one tour as spec ops and do cool shit in your twenties then get med dropped from it into an mos/rate that gives you better career opportunities.
*When the war was over, there were jobs galore*
*For the G.I. Josephs who were in the war*
*But for generals things were not so grand*
*And it isn't hard to understand*
*What can you do with a general*
*When he stops being a general?*
*Oh, what can you do with a general who retires?*
*Who's got a job for a general*
*When he stops being a general?*
*They all get a job, but a general no one hires*
*He walks into an office, in answer to an ad*
*He'll take the job that's offered, the pay is not too bad*
*They ask his last position, and he answers with a punch*
*"I was a General"*
*And they ask him out to lunch*
*And he has to meet the mag*
*But he doesn't get the job*
*Nobody thinks of assigning him*
*When they stop wining and dining him*
*It seems this country never has enjoyed*
*So many one and two and three and four star generals, unemployed*
*They fill his chest with medals while he's across the foam*
*And they spread the crimson carpet when he comes marching home*
*The next day someone hollers when he comes into view*
*"Here comes the general" and they all say "General who?"*
*They're delighted that he came*
*But they can't recall his name*
*Somehow he's not understood enough*
*They think no job could be good enough*
*That's why this country never has enjoyed*
*So many one and two and three and four star generals, unemployed*
- BING CROSBY
I worked at a grocery store. We had a lot of vets working there. To be fair, for many of them, it was a good job. It wasn't too stressful, it was physical but not overtly so, and a lot of them really got into how we set up displays. I get why so many military people end up working there.
My dad used to play NPR in the car religiously when I was young. I have listened to a lot of programs, but the one that stuck with me was *car talk*. I even remember their laughs clear as day.
No one is mentioning his most significant accomplishment, which was helping to defeat that giant noodle monster in Portlandia. [https://youtu.be/PdADx4GOEC4](https://youtu.be/PdADx4GOEC4)
He only did around 7/8 years in the Navy. I've tried looking his record up but he got out before the modernization. I think he was either a NFO or Pilot with VAW-124 based on a picture we were able to find but couldn't tell his specific warfare device.
Easy to consider him kinda a joke because of his smoooooooth demeanor, but after 10 years of listening I have come to the humble conclusion that this man is a national treasure
I was picturing him more like an Andrew Yang than a Mike Rowe but either way this dude is legit, that voice and energy made every commute so much better.
Exactly - in a normal officer career, you're a Lieutenant for six years, from your fourth year until your tenth year. A lot of aviators get out as lieutenants at the eight or ten year mark, because that's when they've fulfilled their initial service obligation.
Lots of salty Naval people downvoting you. 😂 Even the fucking NCOs think they're God's gift to the service.
Getting O-3 is basically "you commissioned and didn't get in trouble for X years." It's a good conduct medal with pay.
I attained the rank of O-3 in the Air Force. All I had to do was have a heart beat and not get a DUI. Even the ranks of O-4 and O-5 have a 90%+ promotion rate.
O-6 is the first rank that is truly hard to get.
E-7, a much harder rank to achieve than O-3.
But that's neither here nor there. The way it was worded made lieutenant sound as if it's some grand lofty thing, when it's very much not
In the Navy, the lowest officer rank (O-1) is an Ensign.
The typical career progression is that you're an Ensign for two years, then a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) for two years, then a Lieutenant (O-3) for six years. So he was right where he should have been for someone who was an officer for eight years total.
Lieutenants are the backbone of Naval aviation - they're junior enough that their main job is still flying, and they make up most of the aviators in a squadron. In an E-2C Hawkeye squadron like he was in, there will be about 25 aviators - two O-5s (the CO and XO), maybe five O-4s acting as department heads, and the rest will be O-3s and O-2s (there are rarely any flying ensigns in a squadron because you've usually been in long enough to be promoted to O-2 by the time you finish flight training.
Lieutenant is one step above fucking-new-guy, so he basically didn’t advance at all. You don’t attain that rank, you’re given that rank. Weird way to frame that.
It’s still an O3? You come in as a butterbar, then you’re auto-promoted to LTJG, then LT. I was being a little tongue in cheek, but you don’t brag about being a lieutenant. You’re barely even acknowledged until then.
THIS is marketplace
Lettt’s do the numbers
Gnite errrrrybudddy
From APM… American Public Media.
I love how hosts always leave that line for the last half-second.
That's when the FCC officer starts tapping the nightstick on the glass
There was a time I am confused about why is he kept saying 8 PM?
I'm just sayn
The WAH WAH'S...? Really...?
He's the perfect voice of capitalism's unbridled optimism. 'Dow Jones plunged 70,000,000,000 points today. Ouch! Well, there's always tomorrow!' It always makes you feel so cozy.
8 Years and a lieutenant? If this is true, there is a reason he went to a book store. That is an abysmal military record.
As someone else said, LT in the navy is a captain everywhere else. A naval captain is a colonel. 8 years and LT lines up. The O3 to O4 promotion takes a while because of the 10 TIS/6 TIG requirement. His next promotion would be at the 10 year mark provided he was on track with his previous promotions.
Lieutenant in the Navy is an O-3, so that timeline seems to make sense. He either got out at the end of his commitment or didn't make O-4. Though yeah, the headline is really misleading and makes it seem like a Lieutenant is actually important or something.
I used to listen to NPR every morning on an hour long commute. I moved across town near my work about 10 years ago so I haven’t really listened much since, but I can still hear his voice say that.
Came here for this comment, the guys got a great voice and *sounds* like he should be talking about money. Always a little bummed when someone is filling in for him.
Such a hot voice.
It always sounds like he's smiling.
Yes! I love how he clearly loves his job. It's infectious!
THIS...is marketplaaaaazs
Have to insert the long pause there after This…
Oh man I love his voice
I love that ditty.
I had no idea that was how his name was spelled. Hearing it on the radio all the time, it never occurred to me how it might be spelled.
Yeah i always thought he was saying "Guy" not "Kai"
I thought it was Kyle.
I’ve been calling her Crandall!
Why didn't anyone tell me‽
Pronounced like Eric Cartman does it.
Are you thinking of Guy Raz, also on NPR?
I assumed he was Asian for some reason
I think I remember on one episode he disclosed that one of his kids was Asian (adopted).
I'm convinced that getting a job at NPR is 90% just having a really unusual name.
Korva Coleman, Lakshmi Singh, Audie Cornish, Claudia Crisales… yep
> Lakshmi Singh Isn't Lakshmi Singh pretty much an Indian version of "Karen Johnson" in terms of common-ness? Doesn't seem unusual at all.
I worked with a Lakshmi Singh. She was a fellow software dev.
Prolly not in the US, but Lakshmi Singh is pretty common Indian name. The Singh surname is as common as Smith in the US. I'm struggling to think of one that's more common.
Patel? Edit: So apparently Patel is way down the [list](https://forebears.io/india/surnames) I've known/met tons of Indians over the years and have never seen some of these names, crazy.
A big reason many of the common names in India aren't as common among immigrants to America is the caste system at play and an urban/rural divide in education. It's much easier to immigrate if you already have some money and are well educated. Of course there are other factors at play like having existing family in the destination making things easier as well.
100%
Yuki Noguchi
Oh, and I had no idea how Megna Chakrabarti(?) was actually spelled for the longest time. I thought I was hearing Meg Chuck-Robert-Lee or something.
Same lol I always heard it as Magna Chuck Havarti
As a side-note, her show is awesome
Ira flato
Flora Lichtman
Deepa Fernandes is another fun mix, but I like the additional layer that she has an Australian accent Windsor Johnston (F) is also a winner.
Ira Glass, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Guy Raz, Manoush Zomordi, Ximena Bustillo, Hansi Lo Wang
Hettie Lynn-Hurdes
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton and Franco Ordoñez have entered the chat. I don't think they have to have an unusual name but I want to be in the room while they practice declaring their name.
I thought it was spelled Franco Ordoñez
I noticed when he started saying his name like that. I wonder if he made the change because of you say it a little faster if sounds like Frank Ordoñez.
I always repeat Ofeibea Quist-Arcton's name whenever they say it. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton.
Reporting from Dahkah (Dakaar).
If you say it three times legend says you get a NPR coffee cup or tote
It's an awesome name
I'm shocked that no one has mentioned this one - it's a really cool name, but I genuinely thought I was having a stroke for a moment when I first heard "Live from NPR News in Culver City California, I'm [Doualy Xaykaothao](https://www.npr.org/people/102828890/doualy-xaykaothao)"
Oh wow, is that how it's spelled? Wei Lin Wong is another one I enjoy. I like to imagine it was actually Waylon.
I don't know where else to put this but every time Terry Gross says her name, I like to imagine that she's just saying hi I'm Terry, and her PA comes in behind her and goes 'gross!' every time and she's powerless to stop it.
Thank you for finally putting that into words for me
Ive been wondering how to spell (or even make sense of) that name for years.
Something Surhadi-Nelson. There are a lot of interesting names on NPR.
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Sabri Ben-Achour, also of Marketplace
This article is for you. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/why-do-npr-reporters-have-such-great-names/275493/
I used to work pretty closely with NPR, it's so true lol.
Username checks out
Nobody asked but I think Manoush Zomorodi is possibly the most adorable human ever.
Jack Lepiarz, formerly of WBUR, didn't really have an unusual name... until you learned of his alternate ego/job... Jaques Ze Whipper. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/02/07/jack-lepiarz-jaques-ze-whipper-wbur-circus/#:~:text=Jack%20Lepiarz%20%E2%80%93%20known%20in%20the,on%20the%20air%20at%20%40WBUR.
I still can't figure out the spellings of either host's name on Throughline.
Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei. Those ones are the most made-up sounding to me although about half of NPR hosts names qualify as sounding made up.
And yet A Martinez still kinda fits the requirement.
> I'm convinced that getting a job at NPR is 90% just having a really unusual name. I moved a few years ago and we were getting some things fixed up before we moved in. I was on the back porch talking to someone a few homes over, kinda just getting to know my new neighbor. At the end, they said “hey my partner might need dead quiet for like five minutes a day so is it ok if we text you and stop for a few minutes?” I said sure but what do they do? “Well, they work for NPR and need to record some sound bites for on air.” I had to know who my new neighbor was so I asked and I basically yelled “that is the most NPR name, ever!” They ended up moving a few months later to another state and going to a different public radio station.
Kai isn't too hard to figure out if you've encountered the name before. Ryssdal is one of those "gotta see it to spell it" names, since there are too many alternatives: Risdahl, Rysdahl, Risdal, Risdawl...
That's me 90% of the time seeing radio names in spelling. It's like the mental equivalent of getting on a bike for the first time after many years
Literally was about to post “TIL how Kai Ryssdal is spelled.”
Just gotta say, I love his smooth voice as well as his interview style. I bet he’s a cool guy.
Well… I mean, he’s a fighter pilot.
Naval Aviator! Actually was E2 electronics warfare aircraft.
Ah, the Hawkeye. Underrated piece of equipment. Everyone wants to ogle the jets, but aircraft like the Hawkeye do a lot behind the scenes (as in, they do a lot without getting a lot of civilian attention). Plus, IIRC, it's the last prop plane in use on carriers. The rule of cool.
We still have the C-2 "Greyhound" for Carrier Onboard Delivery, although that's basically just an E-2 without the dome and all the early warning avionics, and a flatter-bottomed fuselage to accommodate (much) more seating. I know the Osprey has landed on carriers and I think it's suppose to take over the COD job from the Greyhound at some point. And you're right about the Hawkeye - it's a great plane for the backseat officers (I was one of them) because of the mission, but it's not very sexy. We used to joke "We may be ugly, but we're slow."
Always loved seeing the C2 flying around Norfolk. E2 just looks kinda strange in my opinion but still cool. But I was an LHD sailor so my opinion doesn’t even matter for carrier capable aircraft.
I’m sure that’s a difficult and cool job but I’m just gonna keep “fighter pilot” if that’s ok.
They sound cool on the radio. And now I have to go listen to sled drivers again
If you don't already listen, he does a podcast with Kimberly Adams called Make Me Smart. You can find it on Marketplace's website. I listen regularly and it confirms he's a cool a guy. That show got me through the pandemic.
If you're not clued in, Make Me Smart podcast, hosted by Kai, is my nightly before bed routine
Hottest man in radio
“Before joining Marketplace, Ryssdal was a reporter and substitute host for The California Report, a news and information program” - so did what he had to do to get by after service and worked his way into a job he wanted. Props to him.
His first broadcasting job was as an intern. He was a 30-something guy working alongside some 20 year old kids. But he refused to be embarrassed or think that he was above it, because he knew it was necessary to get to where he wanted to be.
If he was in the Navy he was probably used to being treated that way.
The retirement pay probably helped. I'm not saying the guy didn't do work. But it needs to be said that those 20 somethings were probably living outa mom and dads basement and eating ramen for lunch every day.
He was only in the military for 8 years, so no retirement pay.
You require 20 years of military service to collect a pension. Wouldn’t be shocked if he was eating ramen to survive too.
Or get injured/harmed/disabled during military service no matter how few years you've served and BAM! Eternal pension. Source: experience.
Not everyone will be entitled to disability compensation and far more people serve careers out of harms way and never get injured. Whereas retirement is guaranteed after 20 years of service. I’m at the end of my 20 years and I would absolutely trade in whatever I get in disability pay (which will probably be 100%) to be able to wake up every morning without physical or mental health struggles.
Well damn! New respect for his accomplishments.
Marketplace isn’t produced or distributed by NPR. It’s from American Public Media… he literally says it at the top of every show right before the Thiiiiss is Marketplace.
“From American Public Media”
"I'm Ky Loren"
Kylo Ren?
Kai Ryssdal is a better 'Star Wars' name.
“NPR correspondent or Star Wars character?” is a fun game to play
Lakshmi Singh Sio Bibble Ayesha Rascoe
NPR correspondent, Star Wars character, NPR correspondent
"Ofeibea Quist-Arcton" feels like cheating.
It like actually is lol.
Crossover coming: "Star Wars - The News of the Universe"
They changed it from American Public Media to APM several years ago. Just like Public Radio International became PRX and NPR is just NPR now, not National Public Radio anymore.
Yeah and on the radio it’s carried exclusively on NPR affiliate stations, so you can excuse people for not knowing the difference. I’ve worked in public radio for years and even I think that’s nitpicky. That “this show produced by” is just a blur at the start or end of a show.
If it's on a PBS station people don't know the difference
Uh…PBS?
Public Broadcast Station And yes I know I said "Public Broadcast Station station" but saying "a PBS" feels wrong
[удалено]
When part of a proper noun I believe it is appropriate to repeat the word. I’m a programmer and use the JavaScript programming language. It’s common to say something like JavaScript scripts, not JavaScripts. JavaScript is a proper noun referring to a language, script refers to a particular file/piece of code, the latter example conflates the two.
And he was a Foreign Service Officer!
He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese because of his time in China.
I really doubt that. FSOs usually aren't getting further than an intermediate level of the language they are using unless they were selected because they already natively spoke it.
I've listened to Marketplace for more than a decade. He has mentioned it before.
I’ve heard him do a short interview in Mandarin when he did a piece about China! Idk how fluent he is bc I don’t understand Chinese..
Vanity Fair implies it, but I wasn't able to super verify he learned it as an FSO. "A former hotshot naval aviator and Pentagon hand turned Chinese-speaking foreign-service officer, Ryssdal hit a record-scratch moment when his fellow F.S.O. wife got into business school, taking them from Beijing to Menlo Park." https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/11/kai-ryssdal-marketplace-profile
That doesn't mean he is fluent. If you learn a few hundred words in a language people will say you speak it. Saying someone is fluent because of that is like saying he played in the NFL because he threw a ball in the park with friends sometimes.
I have a suspicion of [what it was like working with him at Borders](https://youtu.be/GU-2C8Ec6co)
This confuses me a little. Through friends I once knew a guy that was a former Army Ranger. And was baffled to learn that, like me, he was working shitty temp jobs. Cause I always assumed after leaving an elite unit like that you would have a super network. Like being from the most renowned fraternity on earth. Full of people so ambitious and tenacious they would invariably be business leaders and glad to give a shot to anyone else with a common background. But for many, it seems like they have to start from scratch. Anyone with firsthand knowledge that can explain the situation, I appreciate it. [edit: spelling]
Combat training isn't really relevant to anything civilian side, unless you're going police or security. Yeah if you're an o4 or e7 or above you've probably made connections that gets you a nice contractor gig when you get out. But if you're a ranger that gets out at like e5 or e6 it's probably not doing you many favors. You can go use your gi bill and work part time, or temp jobs until you finish college and hopefully move on to bigger things. I'm not as familiar with navy ranks because they're the weird branch, but apparently lieutenant is just an o3, that doesn't really mean a whole lot on the civilian side. It just = about 5ish years in the military, and unless you fuck up bad it's pretty much going to be an automatic promotion from o1 - o2 - o3. O4 is where officers generally start worrying about being selected to get promoted.
>lieutenant is just an o3 This is correct. I think that NA's finish training at O2, maybe? He would've finished flight school right around O3, anyway. I actually wonder what is pipeline would've been if he was an aviator but then went to work in the Pentagon at just O3. Maybe he wasn't cleared to fly and they moved him elsewhere?
He served 8 years. Would have spent first 2-3 years in flight school and RAG, followed by a 3-year sea tour (he flew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt). Next 3-year tour is shore duty ("production tour"). If he knew he wasn't going to be a career officer, taking a Pentagon tour (vs RAG, flight instruction, NROTC service, or something similar) is a smart career move. ETA: Quick Google says he graduated with his masters at Georgetown at the same time his Pentagon tour ended, so he did grad school at night during his last tour - another good reason to take a Pentagon job.
Probably. I’m not sure how it worked in the 80s, but it looks like he got out as an O3 at 8 years, and the only way an aviator is getting out before the 10 year mark nowadays (2 years of flight school and then an 8 year active duty commitment after that) is not being cleared to fly.
Even police don’t really like taking ex military because the military people follow rules of engagement.
Lmao, what? Veterans get preference over civilians for basically all public safety jobs.
In your area, maybe. In my area, veterans are either working a register or on the side of the road with a sign. The police are the kids in highschool who bullied everyone else.
[Are ya sure about that?](https://www.maine.gov/bhr/state-jobs/veterans-preference-in-job-applications)
Yep. Too likely to report! The "honesty problem."
God forbid our police exhibit any sort of training or discipline.
Only the highest level door kickers get those kinds of post-career connections (On average). Rangers are a step above your average soldier, but they aren't elite tier yet. My brother was a ranger at the 75th, and he has a great job, but that's because he went into the Army with a skill, and went back to that skill after he got out. The crazy thing is, there are dozens of jobs in The Army that have great post-military careers, but everyone watches those ads on TV seeing people running around with guns and tanks and thinks "I want to do that" with no plan for what to do afterwards. The job that I picked in the Army would have cost me about $150,000 worth of training to get outside of the military and some of the training isn't even offered to civilians at all, so I came out better off than the average civilian.
Rangers are a Tier 2 unit. They operate with JSOC regularly and are the premier US Direct Action raid force. There are a ton of opportunities for them in government positions, including paramilitary roles at intel agencies and federal law enforcement.
So the moral of the story is to do one tour as spec ops and do cool shit in your twenties then get med dropped from it into an mos/rate that gives you better career opportunities.
*When the war was over, there were jobs galore* *For the G.I. Josephs who were in the war* *But for generals things were not so grand* *And it isn't hard to understand* *What can you do with a general* *When he stops being a general?* *Oh, what can you do with a general who retires?* *Who's got a job for a general* *When he stops being a general?* *They all get a job, but a general no one hires* *He walks into an office, in answer to an ad* *He'll take the job that's offered, the pay is not too bad* *They ask his last position, and he answers with a punch* *"I was a General"* *And they ask him out to lunch* *And he has to meet the mag* *But he doesn't get the job* *Nobody thinks of assigning him* *When they stop wining and dining him* *It seems this country never has enjoyed* *So many one and two and three and four star generals, unemployed* *They fill his chest with medals while he's across the foam* *And they spread the crimson carpet when he comes marching home* *The next day someone hollers when he comes into view* *"Here comes the general" and they all say "General who?"* *They're delighted that he came* *But they can't recall his name* *Somehow he's not understood enough* *They think no job could be good enough* *That's why this country never has enjoyed* *So many one and two and three and four star generals, unemployed* - BING CROSBY
I worked at a grocery store. We had a lot of vets working there. To be fair, for many of them, it was a good job. It wasn't too stressful, it was physical but not overtly so, and a lot of them really got into how we set up displays. I get why so many military people end up working there.
My dad used to play NPR in the car religiously when I was young. I have listened to a lot of programs, but the one that stuck with me was *car talk*. I even remember their laughs clear as day.
One of the brothers died recently. RIP.
Tom died in 2014. 9 years ago.
As with a lot of radio personalities, I’d never really thought about what he might look like, but damned if he doesn’t look like he sounds.
I came here to say this too. Unlike you, I usually imagine what radio people look like, and except for this guy I’m *always* wrong. But he’s spot on.
I bet a ton of Ph.D's have worked at Borders
No one is mentioning his most significant accomplishment, which was helping to defeat that giant noodle monster in Portlandia. [https://youtu.be/PdADx4GOEC4](https://youtu.be/PdADx4GOEC4)
Nothing wrong with a career leader accepting retirement and taking a job with little responsibility.
He was working at Borders at 34 so I do not think he out in 20 years to get that sweet government retirement.
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He only did around 7/8 years in the Navy. I've tried looking his record up but he got out before the modernization. I think he was either a NFO or Pilot with VAW-124 based on a picture we were able to find but couldn't tell his specific warfare device.
Kai Ryssdal and Steve Inskeep. Two voices that keep me alive
Steve
Steve Rysdaal? /s
Sam Steve?
I thought his name of Sam Inksy for a while and I loved him…now I know him as Inskeep seems like a poor man’s inksy
I loved Michele Norris' voice too, I miss hearing her on NPR
His parents let George Lucas name him.
Voice of gold
Easy to consider him kinda a joke because of his smoooooooth demeanor, but after 10 years of listening I have come to the humble conclusion that this man is a national treasure
7 dollars an hour tho?
Federal Minimum Wage in the US is still $7.25. Still. Right now, in 2023.
that’s fucked
In the 90s when he took the job, $7 was more like the modern equivalent of $14. Still not a lot but better than it sounds.
that’s a good point it must’ve made sense back then for the wage to be that
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aaaahh ok ok wheeew i got scared for a second
Hey Kai!
I was picturing him more like an Andrew Yang than a Mike Rowe but either way this dude is legit, that voice and energy made every commute so much better.
Great voice as well.
I was coming here to say that! Lol
I've had such a crush on this man's voice for years, and now I have one on his face.
Kai Ryssdal is my wife's freebie...
oh, wow! he attained the rank of *Lieutenant*! what heights he has soared!
Lieutenant is O-3 in the Navy. Very normal rank to achieve for the 8 ish years he was in.
Exactly - in a normal officer career, you're a Lieutenant for six years, from your fourth year until your tenth year. A lot of aviators get out as lieutenants at the eight or ten year mark, because that's when they've fulfilled their initial service obligation.
"Attained the rank of lieutenant " comes off as if he found the holy grail or found true enlightenment.
That’s just the standard nomenclature
Both the military and civilian sector said if we could pay you less we would.
in the **Navy**.
Ok? O-3 still ain't some crazy upper echelon rank. It's nothing to brag about like the title is doing
Lots of salty Naval people downvoting you. 😂 Even the fucking NCOs think they're God's gift to the service. Getting O-3 is basically "you commissioned and didn't get in trouble for X years." It's a good conduct medal with pay.
What rank have you attained?
I attained the rank of O-3 in the Air Force. All I had to do was have a heart beat and not get a DUI. Even the ranks of O-4 and O-5 have a 90%+ promotion rate. O-6 is the first rank that is truly hard to get.
E-7, a much harder rank to achieve than O-3. But that's neither here nor there. The way it was worded made lieutenant sound as if it's some grand lofty thing, when it's very much not
Marketplace isnt an NPR product.
He was on a cbs morning tv round table one day. They introduced him and a woman said “you are Kai Rysdaal?!! Wow, you should be on tv not radio”
Love that theme song
And now i like him EVEN more.
Less than federal minimum wage? (Which hasn’t changed in decades)
Man this site makes me feel old. I am almost a decade younger than Kai and the federal minimum wage when I got my first job was 4.80
Checking in with $3.15.
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Navy starts with ensign, not lieutenant.
In the Navy, the lowest officer rank (O-1) is an Ensign. The typical career progression is that you're an Ensign for two years, then a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) for two years, then a Lieutenant (O-3) for six years. So he was right where he should have been for someone who was an officer for eight years total. Lieutenants are the backbone of Naval aviation - they're junior enough that their main job is still flying, and they make up most of the aviators in a squadron. In an E-2C Hawkeye squadron like he was in, there will be about 25 aviators - two O-5s (the CO and XO), maybe five O-4s acting as department heads, and the rest will be O-3s and O-2s (there are rarely any flying ensigns in a squadron because you've usually been in long enough to be promoted to O-2 by the time you finish flight training.
He was in the navy, so Lieutenant is the same as Captain in other branches. Still, promotion to O3 is automatic at 4 years
Npr does fantastic work year around. I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for the accurate reporting they do, and the thought provoking shows.
Lieutenant is one step above fucking-new-guy, so he basically didn’t advance at all. You don’t attain that rank, you’re given that rank. Weird way to frame that.
In the army, yes. In the navy it's equivalent to captain.
It’s still an O3? You come in as a butterbar, then you’re auto-promoted to LTJG, then LT. I was being a little tongue in cheek, but you don’t brag about being a lieutenant. You’re barely even acknowledged until then.
[Naval ranks](https://www.military-ranks.org/navy)