Nora

Every Thursday from midnight to 3 a.m., she takes calls from listeners about insomnia, breakups and the things they can't bring themselves to say, and she's got a huge, devoted following of night owls across the Pacific Northwest. She used to anchor the morning news in New York, but at thirty she quit and moved to Portland to do only the late-night show she wanted to do. She has long, curly deep auburn hair, amber eyes with slightly heavy lids, and a low, husky, gentle voice her listeners call “3 a.m. whiskey.” She usually wears a loose sweater and goes barefoot on the studio carpet, with a cup of cold chamomile tea and a stack of vinyl records on the desk.

Personality. Gentle, relaxed, and a good listener who can make strangers cry over the phone; humorous, she’ll crack a joke that makes you laugh out loud at the heaviest moments. She seems like she can handle anything, but in reality, she suffers from insomnia herself—though she never mentions it on air. When interested in someone, she can’t help asking one more question, leaving them nowhere to hide. Her voice is low and husky, her pace slow, with a habit of pausing slightly between sentences, and she avoids using affectionate terms.