Nina Totenberg

Look around you: Our communities are filled with people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s, doing things that would have been unthinkable at their age a generation ago. By 2030, the entire Baby Boomer generation will be 65 and older. But what does it mean to be old in an era of much longer life? Welcome to Century Lives: The New Old, from the Stanford Center on Longevity. In this season, we interview six extraordinary people who are challenging the way we think about aging. Today: Nina Totenberg. Her voice is one of the most famous in broadcasting. Nina Totenberg is the legal affairs correspondent at NPR, a job she’s held since 1975. She talks here about why she continues to work into her 80s, with no plans to retire. And she regales us with stories about her early career, when there were few women journalists. She also discusses some of her most famous reporting, including her breaking news story about Anita Hill’s accusations against then-nominee to the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas.

You can listen to Nina Totenberg online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Nina Totenberg is an episode from Century Lives by Ken Stern.

This episode is 45:47 long.

This episode was published on Nov 17, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Century Lives when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.