All Things Considered: Bus Showdown: New York vs. Los Angeles

“Public transportation does not sound like the most riveting subject, but this collaboration between Robert Smith and Mandalit Del Barco is a total earworm. It uses one catchy radio trick after another. Their piece stuck in my head so deeply that almost a decade later, it inspired me to attempt a similar collaboration with my colleague Joanna Kakissis in Athens. Our story turned out perfectly fine but nowhere near the masters, Robert and Mandalit."

— Ari Shapiro, International Correspondent, NPR