Editing Talk of the Nation (section)

==Format==
''TOTN'' began with a [[Teaser campaign|look ahead to the upcoming topics]]. Then the regular five-minute NPR newscast occurred. After the newscast, the show generally spent from 30 minutes to the entire show discussing the main topic. If discussion on that topic petered, or if the guests had to leave, then shorter news interviews similar to those found on the NPR news-magazines of five to ten minutes aired. Sometimes these shorter segments took calls, but often they did not. More controversial issues may have had guests and take calls the entire hour.

One hour's topics did not carry into the next hour. This is because many stations carried only one hour of the program. In addition, the host delivered a concluding "This is ''Talk of the Nation'' from NPR News" as a cue to stations that wish to cut away to local programming before the scheduled break.

To coordinate the choice of interviewees across all NPR programs such as ''[[Morning Edition]]'', ''[[All Things Considered]]'', and ''[[Tell Me More]]'', NPR set up a "[[wikt:dibs|dibs]] list" system around 2005, whereby the first show to declare interest in a particular guest can "reserve" that person.<ref name=shepard/>