NPR affiliate’s app can recommend talk radio based on your preferences

There’s a vast and sprawling landscape of talk radio out there, and New York Public Radio is trying to make it easier to find what suits you. With a new feature called Discover in its WNYC app on iOS and Android, it can now begin automatically finding and downloading talk radio that might be of interest to you — effectively building out a Pandora-style radio station that features talk shows instead of music. Because WNYC is an NPR affiliate, shows can include more than just local news: everything from This American Life to Marketplace is available to download, along with broadcasts from other stations as well.

To make finding radio shows even simpler, the app will ask you how much time you have to spend listening and will automatically download a mix of clips to fill that time. Because the app is built for New York, it technically asks how much time you’ll be spending underground, but there’s no reason it won’t be just as helpful for any other commute. The app won’t continue to learn your tastes, however: you simply enter a few of yours interests — such as books, business, politics, or pop culture — and it’ll continue to build out playlists based on that. Still, for those who don’t know public radio very well, it’s an exceedingly simple way to quickly find a show for your way to and from the office.