
Carl Kasell Has Died - Bud
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/17/528656453/npr-newscaster-carl-kasell-dies-at-84-after-a-lifelong-career-on-air
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fencepost
I suspected his health had declined when WWDTM changed to having the voice of
anyone currently on the show as a prize, but as good as Bill Kurtis is
sometimes I miss Carl Kassell's voice.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Reminds me of how Car Talk quietly stopped recording new episodes once Tom
Magliozzi's Alzheimer's became a problem.

Dang, I miss Tom and Ray.

~~~
acjohnson55
Me too. I spent so many wonderful hours listening to that show on the road.
It's funny how radio/audio sticks with you.

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fixermark
I see that they fixed the URL. Original URL ended with "npr-newscaster-carl-
kasell-dies-at-XX-after-a-lifelong-career-on-air", I assume because NPR of
course knew of his condition and had an obituary prepared and ready-to-go in a
celebrity file; they updated the headline but forgot to update the URL.

... Oddly, that makes me smile. I had the privilege and pleasure of
volunteering with public broadcasters in my hometown as a kid; it was an
amazing bunch of people. Talented, smart, and always finding ways to do more
with less and skin-of-their-teeth their way into quality productions (live and
pre-taped) with a dozen SNAFUs the public almost never saw. I like to imagine
Carl would have smiled to see that error sneak through in his sendoff story.

~~~
acdanger
Yes, almost certainly they had his obituary prepared years ago. I was an
intern at NPR HQ and was once tasked with updating prepared obits with
additional news.

Later, as a production assistant, I wrote an obit for Billy Graham. This was
in 2008. No idea if this ended up being the one that would eventually air 10
years later.

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melling
He had Alzheimer’s. I heard on a podcast that 10,000 Americans are retiring a
day.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/health-care-
dilemma-10000-bo...](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/health-care-
dilemma-10000-boomers-retiring-each-day.html)

Underfunding research into Alzheimer’s is going to be a costly mistake as the
baby boomers retire.

~~~
chisleu
[https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-
funding-2017.p...](https://www.alz.org/documents_custom/historic-
funding-2017.pdf)

I couldn't believe the numbers when I read them. I fully expected that we were
doing more. Breast cancer is over funded, and Viagra is about $70/pill but
this debilitating disease is forgotten about until individuals are themselves
forgetting.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

~~~
hprotagonist
it is not for want of trying. Eli Lily bet the farm and lost, and they aren’t
alone.

At this point, we’re beginning to think previously unthinkable thoughts like
“what if the hypothesis the last 20 years of research was based on (beta
amyloid plaques)is just totally wrong”.

we’ve made drugs that reduce plaques. they don’t ameliorate the disease.

~~~
slfnflctd
I just read this yesterday:

[https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-
find-...](https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2018/04/11/Researchers-find-genetic-
cause-for-Alzheimers-possible-method-to-reverse-it/4661523454194/)

I know we all see at least half a dozen of these a year, but nobody can say in
advance how they'll turn out (unless it's just obviously badly designed
research). This line of inquiry certainly seems to have some promise.

~~~
hprotagonist
Always worth looking into. To my knowledge, previous studies have produced
things like "these 600 genes are regulated in a particular way in patients who
were diagnosed with Alzheimers", which is much less persuasive of an argument;
the contribution power per gene is quite low in that case.

If you can conclusively say "these n<5 genes are exactly the things that make
people 50% more likely to develop a disease", you're cooking with gas.

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clircle
Carl Kasell was a low-key American national treasure. RIP

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crcsmnky
Bummer. I loved his read of the news segments during Morning Edition. So much
so that I asked he record the voicemail message doing a similarly styled
opening.

~~~
jessaustin
Do you still have it?

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codewritinfool
Carl was great to listen to. Instantly recognizable.

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dale14
:(

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petercooper
I wonder why the title has been edited _away_ from the actual title _" NPR
Newscaster Carl Kasell Dies At 84, After A Lifelong Career On-Air"_? Normally
titles get edited _to_ the original on HN and not everyone is going to know
who he was (I didn't) :-)

~~~
inteleng
I would ask dang. It seems somewhat like the style here is now to title the
post "Firstname Lastname Has Died" to be as neutral as possible, but I could
be wrong.

~~~
jjeaff
I've noticed that. It seems rather blunt and unfeeling to me.

