Neal Conan

Neal Conan (born November 1949 in Beirut, Lebanon) is an American radio journalist, producer, editor, and correspondent who was the senior host of the National Public Radio talk show Talk of the Nation. Conan hosted Talk of the Nation from 2001 to June 27, 2013, when the program was discontinued. NPR announced that Conan would depart the network at that time.

During the 1991 Gulf War the Iraqi Republican Guard detained Conan for a week. He and Chris Hedges of The New York Times were reporting on a Shia rebellion centered in Basra, Iraq.

A friend of comics writer Chris Claremont, Conan was featured as a minor character in the 1988 Marvel Comics X-Men crossover series Fall of the Mutants, and has been featured sporadically in Claremont scripted comic books at both Marvel and DC Comics as a sympathetic journalist over the years.

Conan was married to Liane Hansen, former host of NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday. They have a son and a daughter. Hansen briefly co-hosted Talk of the Nation with Conan. Hansen revealed in April 2011 that she and Conan were divorcing.