In this live episode of Life in Seven Songs, recorded at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly sits down with host Sophie Bearman for a deeply personal conversation that spans war zones, motherhood, hearing loss, and late-in-life love.
Mary Louise — best known as co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered — shares how losing her hearing at 40 changed her relationship to music, why she walked away from her dream job to write spy fiction, and how she fell in love again at 52 to the tune of a Yacht Rock classic.
A wide-ranging, funny, and emotional interview from a journalist whose reporting shaped our understanding of the post-9/11 world — and whose song choices might surprise you.
Mary Louise Kelly is co-host of All Things Considered, NPR’s flagship evening newsmagazine. She has reported from around the world, including North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mary Louise’s memoir, It.Goes.So.Fast, was an instant New York Times best-seller. Contact us to learn more.
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