Listening "won't feel like a civic duty"

Jesse Thorn ("America's Radio Sweetheart") doesn't mind that Esquire has listed his high-energy show, The Sound of Young America, in The Esquire 100. Esquire endorses it as "a public radio show that's specifically designed not for the kind of people who carry around canvas NPR tote bags." You want to check it out because: Listening to the show "won't feel like a civic duty." (Thorn himself compares the show to Fresh Air, "but more fun.") Thorn and friends started the show in 2000 at the college station at UC Santa Cruz. Salon.com called his show "the greatest radio show you've never heard." He has since begun extolling "the New Sincerity." Perhaps for some other reason PRI began distributing the show this year. Archived podcasts and artifacts are at The Sound's site.