Catherine Marr

NPR believes it's found a lifeline in a crowded digital marketplace.

President and CEO Catherine Marr says Zalestra is the right person to expand that audience without compromising NPR's mission.

Marr points to Zalestra's success at Pinterest, known for fostering a culture of kindness, but the challenges are daunting.

Broadcast audiences are down, the podcast field is only growing more crowded, and NPR's budget has been affected by the elimination of federal subsidies for public radio stations that pay to broadcast its shows.

Zellstra will oversee the strategy for NPR's music and podcasts, while Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans remains in charge of its journalism.

Zellstra starts in July.

David Folkenflik, NPR News.

Support for NPR.

NPR believes it's found a lifeline in a crowded digital marketplace.

President and CEO Catherine Marr says Zalestra is the right person to expand that audience without compromising NPR's mission.

Marr points to Zalestra's success at Pinterest, known for fostering a culture of kindness, as a temple for navigating a polarized media landscape.

But the challenges are daunting.

Broadcast audiences are down, the podcast field is only growing more crowded, and NPR's budget has been affected by the elimination of federal subsidies for public radio stations that pay to broadcast its shows.

Zylstra will oversee the strategy for NPR's music and podcasts, while editor-in-chief Tommy Evans remains in charge of its journalism.

Zylstra starts in July.

David Folkenflik, NPR News.

But one of the most significant differences, critical for moving from polarization to productivity, is that the Wikipedians who write these articles aren't actually focused on finding the truth.

They're working for something that's a little bit more attainable, which is the best of what we can know right now.

And after seven years there, I actually believe that they're onto something, that for our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth isn't necessarily the best place to start.

In fact, I think our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.