I don't listen to talk radio for the same reasons I don't eat broccoli. It's got no taste and it gives me indigestion.
My grandmother could stomach it. In her last days, amid the spirit-numbing lethargy of a nursing home, she found comfort in radio talk shows, the political ones. They occupied her time and her mind. But they also darkened her heart.
It wasn't entirely her fault. On many of those shows, callous hosts pandered to an old woman's fears, stoked her prejudices, turned legitimate doubts into rock-hard certainties.
Information and entertainment weren't enough. To really engage an audience, radio executives came to understand, it was necessary to infuriate, titillate, castigate.