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Neal Joseph Conan III (November 26, 1949August 10, 2021) was an American radio journalist, producer, editor, and correspondent. He worked for National Public Radio for more than 36 years and was the senior host of its talk show Talk of the Nation. Conan hosted Talk of the Nation from 2001 to June 27, 2013, when the program was discontinued; with the discontinuation, NPR announced that Conan would depart the network.
During the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi Republican Guard detained Conan for a week. He and Chris Hedges of The New York Times were reporting on a Shia Islam rebellion centered in Basra, Iraq. For five years, Conan hosted Weekly Edition: The Best of NPR News.
In 2000, Conan took a break from his work as a broadcaster to serve as the stadium play-by-play baseball announcer for Aberdeen Arsenal. A year later, he published Play by Play: Baseball, Radio and Life in the Last Chance League, which described his experience. On September 10, 2001, Conan began his work as host of Talk of the Nation. In 2008, investigative reporter James Ridgeway covered the Democratic primary elections for Mother Jones—in one episode, Mike Gravel was filmed in New Hampshire during a phone interview with Conan for Talk of the Nation. The Outsider World news, The Guardian, James Ridgeway, January 3, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
NPR announced that it was ending the 12-year run of Talk of the Nation on March 29, 2013, stating that Conan would "step away from the rigors of daily journalism." On February 12, 2014, an interview aired on KUAZ 89.1, Tucson, Arizona's NPR affiliate, during which Conan explained that ending Talk of the Nation was not a decision he was involved in or agreed with, citing its status as one of NPR's most popular shows. He went on to join Hawaii Public Radio as a news analyst on June 8, 2014. He produced a thrice-weekly series called Pacific News Minute between November 30, 2017, and October 31, 2019.
In January 2017, Conan launched a radio show and podcast entitled Truth, Politics, and Power, which focused on the first presidency of Donald Trump. Conan interviewed experts weekly about a different issue arising from the 2016 election and the president's administration.
Conan moved to Hawi, Hawaii after he left NPR and farmed macadamia nuts on 5.5 acres of land. He enjoyed scuba diving after he settled in Hawaii.
Conan was a friend of comics writer Chris Claremont. As a result, he was featured a number of times as a sympathetic journalist in stories Claremont wrote for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, such as the 1988 X-Men storyline "The Fall of the Mutants".Claremont, Chris (w), Silvestri, Marc (p), Green, Dan (i). The Uncanny X-Men #226–227 (Marvel Comics, February – March 1988). which often featured real life NPR engineer Manoli Wetherell as his cameraman.
Conan died on August 10, 2021, on his farm in Hāwī, Hawaii, as a result of glioblastoma, according to his son Connor. He was 71, having been diagnosed with a glioblastoma on his 70th birthday in November 2019.
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