Big update for Tiny Desk: NPR launches dedicated Tiny Desk radio program

Tiny Desk Radio will be an hourlong program featuring performances, interviews, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

By Emma Keates | March 17, 2025 | 4:46pm

Screenshot: NPR Music/YouTube

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Big update for Tiny Desk: NPR launches dedicated Tiny Desk radio program

If you’re anything like this writer, you’ve experienced a unique sense of envy whenever you hear the assembled NPR employees applauding offscreen after an artist finishes their Tiny Desk performance. Now, you can get one step closer to living that dream by turning your apartment, car, or wherever else you listen to the radio into your very own Tiny Desk. You can even turn your personal tiny desk into a capital-T, capital-D Tiny Desk—size notwithstanding.

Today, NPR announced the launch of Tiny Desk Radio, a new hourlong program featuring performance audio as well as interviews and new, behind-the-scenes tidbits formatted specifically for public radio. Each week, hosts Bobby Carter and Anamaria Sayre will present three Tiny Desk concerts and share how each came together. The stripped-down series began in 2008 and has hosted over 1,000 performances since its inception, so they’ll certainly have a lot to choose from. Tiny Desk concerts are “not about perfection,” founder and original Tiny Desk resident Bob Boilen told Isis Magazine last year. “In fact, it seems that some of the things that are not perfect are part of the reason why people like it, you get spontaneity, which is a thing I love more than perfection,” he continued. In addition to the great onscreen moments, that ethos has likely generated a number of great anecdotes for Carter and Sayre to share as well.

Tiny Desk Radio officially launches April 17. NPR will share specifics regarding where you can listen to the program in your area in the coming weeks. For now, you can check out the most recent Tiny Desk performance, featuring French singer-songwriter Yseult, below:

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