Skip to Content
Correct Opinions

WNYC Eliminates ‘Meditation Minute’ Just Weeks After Hell Gate Blogs About How Bad It Is

Friday's 'Meditation Minute' was WNYC's last.

4:01 PM EDT on September 16, 2022

Be Here Now spelled out in Scabble letters

(Brett Jordan/Unsplash)

Weeks after Hell Gate published a blistering and utterly unassailable critique of WNYC's daily on-air meditation segment, the network announced Friday afternoon that it would no longer subject listeners to 60 seconds of forced introspection on a daily basis.

"All of It" host Alison Stewart made the announcement that Friday's "Meditation Minute" aka "I Need a Minute" segment would be the last. After the final meditation, Stewart played a montage of guests and listeners professing their love for the segment, before noting that others did not appreciate it, including someone named "Ben from Westchester." (The identities of the voices praising "Meditation Minute" could not immediately be confirmed.)

"I still maintain 'I Need a Minute' was really useful to a lot of people for a long time," Stewart said on the air, before thanking director of listener services, Lorraine Mattox, for being a "voice of calm" throughout the two-plus-years of the segment's existence.

Reached by satellite phone on her 60-foot fishing vessel, Muckraker II, Hell Gate co-publisher Esther Wang was gracious in victory.

"I am pleased that Alison Stewart heard my cry for help and, likely aided by the clarity of thought and mind provided by a regular meditation practice, made the correct but surely sad decision to end 'I Need a Minute,'" Wang said. "I look forward to no longer having to sprint to my speaker to turn the radio off whenever I hear that gong."

Hell Gate pledges to its subscribers that it will not let this newly acquired, stunningly awesome power go to its head, though it is a kind of overwhelming responsibility, being able to raise and topple media empires with a single blog post...we could perhaps really benefit from taking a moment out of our day to think without thoughts, ponder without distraction, feel our hearts beat, inhale, exhale...

Already a user?Log in

Thanks for reading!

Give us your email address to keep reading two more articles for free

See all subscription options

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Hell Gate

New Subway Security Theater Just Dropped: Controversial AI Weapons Scanner

The mayor convened his top leadership to announce the future testing of a weapons screening system that may or may not work as advertised.

March 28, 2024

Incarcerated New Yorkers Want to See the Eclipse. The State Has Responded With a Lockdown

"I don't believe that just because I am incarcerated that I should be denied this opportunity."

March 28, 2024

Jasper Marsalis Makes Noise at the Park Avenue Armory

The experimental project Slauson Malone 1 will play the Armory again tonight. Plus, more links for your Thursday.

March 28, 2024

What to Eat (and What to Avoid) at Citi Field This Year 

Our $20 Dinner columnist's guide to what culinary delights await you, the long-suffering Mets fan, at the stadium this year.

March 27, 2024
See all posts