NPR’s Susan Stamberg (second from left) joins Bob Edwards, Ed Asner, and Anne Meara performing in L.A. Theatre Works’ 2002 radio production I’d Rather Eat Pants by Peter Ackerman, later broadcast nationally on NPR. Listen to an audio clip from this scene here.

When L.A. Theatre Works presented the comedic radio play I’d Rather Eat Pants by Peter Ackerman in November 2002, we enlisted one of public radio’s most beloved voices for a special cameo: Susan Stamberg.

Recorded before a live audience at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills and directed by Gordon Hunt, the production featured a starry cast including Edward Asner, Anne Meara, Jonathan Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Dan Castellaneta, and more. In the official cast listing, Stamberg is credited simply as “Herself.”  

In this photo, Stamberg performs alongside Edward Asner, Anne Meara and NPR’s Bob Edwards. It’s a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse: a journalist stepping into theatrical space, lending her voice to a playful, narrative journey.

Though her lines in I’d Rather Eat Pants are brief, her presence is a kind of connective thread — a reminder of the intersection between storytelling, voice, and the community of public radio that L.A.Theatre Works and NPR share.

Susan, we'll really miss you.

Image Source: In Pictures: Remembering Susan Stamberg, one of NPR's Founding Mothers