When NPR correspondent Ketzel Levine was laid off in 2008 after 30 years with the network, “the shock left me numb,” she writes. “The numbness was a blessing. Until it wore off.” Now the network’s former Doyenne of Dirt has shifted her attention from nurturing plants to saving animals, she reveals in the latest All Animals magazine from the Humane Society of the United States. Several months ago, Levine says, she decided to travel to Ecuador — because she knew nothing about it. She enrolled in a language school in Cuenca, and volunteered at the animal shelter a few blocks from there.

In what the Hollywood Reporter is calling “an upset,” both CBS and NBC beat out PBS, the usual top winner, for most News and Documentary Emmys at last night’s (Sept. 27) ceremonies. CBS won seven; NBC, six; and PBS, five. Nevertheless, PBS was well represented during the evening. The prestigious Chairman’s Award went to the PBS NewsHour. Roger Mudd, former Washington correspondent for CBS News, NBC News and the McNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS, presented the award to Robert MacNeil, Jim Lehrer, longtime executive producer Les Crystal, and current executive producer Linda Winslow. (Don’t miss MacNeil’s commentary on the award on the show’s Rundown blog.)

Public broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West are co-hosting the new radio show Smiley & West, premiering Oct. 1. The program was announced Sunday (Sept. 26) at the Public Radio Programming Conference in Denver. On the weekly hourlong PRI offering, Smiley and West will talk current affairs, politics and cultural news, especially focusing on stories not covered by the mainstream media. A segment titled “Take ‘Em to Task” will let listeners interact with the two. The show concludes with a 30-minute conversation among the co-hosts and celebrities, politicians and other newsmakers. First up: New York Times columnist Frank Rich, and comedian, actor and writer Garry Shandling.

The American Masters presentation of “LENNONYC” will have a free screening on Oct. 9, which would have been Lennon’s 70th birthday, in New York City’s Central Park. Onstage Sept. 24 to announce the event were New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and Neal Shapiro, c.e.o. of WNET/Thirteen. The screening will be at 7 p.m. (grounds open at 6) at Rumsey Playfield near the 69th Street and Fifth Avenue entrance, rain or shine.“LENNONYC,” written and directed by Michael Epstein and executive produced by Susan Lacy, premiered at the New York Film Festival on Sept. 25 and airs nationally Nov.

“For our target audience, entertainment is the gateway drug to news,” said Nicole Childers of L.A. Public Media (LAPM) when she unveiled LAForward, the first content offering of Radio Bilingue’s service for a new generation of young adults in Los Angeles. Childers, chief content officer of the CPB-backed start-up, presented the website and the research that informed its design Sept. 24 during a session at Public Radio Program Directors conference in Denver. The multimedia website launched Sept. 16 with coverage of news, entertainment and sports–key topics defined during seven months of research led by Paragon Media Strategies. Short-form video is key to reaching young Angelenos, Childers said, and she screened several that reflected the balance her editorial team is trying to strike between cultural relevance, news that directly impacts the lives of young Latinos, and passion for sports.

Do you feel caught in the kudzu of the public media 2.0 ecosystem as entities network and proliferate? Check out “A Guide to Rising Public Media Networks in the U.S.,” courtesy of Jessica Clark at the Center for Media, via the MediaShift blog.

The Library of Congress is turning over to the British Film Institute more than 68 rare recordings from 1957 to 1969 that were discovered in the Library’s National Educational Television Collection, reports the Government Video website. NET was the forerunner to PBS. PBS had donated its film and video holdings, some 20,000 reels, to the library through WNET/Thirteen in New York. For many years, NET imported a host of British teleplays and comedies — still popular on PBS today. One gem that is typical of the collection: Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens in “Much Ado About Nothing,” stage-directed by Franco Zeffirelli, from 1967.

The Public Radio Satellite System has updated its “Public Radio Resource Guide,” listing everything from technology and equipment services to training, funding and underwriting, membership organizations and conferences. “There is an overwhelming volume of information online of interest to the public radio community,” Pete Loewenstein, NPR v.p. for distribution, said on the Radio World website. “Our new guide is an effort to put some of this information in a format that’s easier for stations and producers to access.” And it’s free.

 The Sept. 27 launch of Dot Diva, a new initiative co-sponsored by WGBH to get young Massachusetts women interested in computing, is already sold out. The kickoff will be at the Microsoft New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge and feature an interactive fashion show, tech music demos, an “Artbotics” art installation and local college fair. It’s funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase the number of college-bound girls studying for a career in computer science. Women are still underrepresented in the field, according to WGBH. The station, along with co-sponsors ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery), NCWIT (the National Center for Women & Information Technology), conducted a national online survey of more than 1,400 college-bound high school students, ages 13-17; that research indicated a significant gender gap in attitudes toward computer science.

Grab your guitars, the NETA Nashville 2011 conference registration is now officially open. Once you’ve registered for the January event you can visit the confab’s Facebook page. Not sure what that means? Then you’d better stop by the conference Social Media Help Desk while you’re at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. That’s a new kiosk that will be “staffed by friendly experts in the use of Facebook, Twitter, texting and all sorts of handheld devices, ready with advice or a helping hand.”

Angela Lansbury, Jimmy Fallon, Brian Williams and Joel Grey are among celebrities set to appear on At the Paley Center, a new interview series produced by a partnership of Paley Center for Media and WNET.org’s Creative News Group, the two announced Wednesday (Sept. 22). Hosted by Pat Mitchell, president of the Paley Center and past president of PBS, returns to the network as host. Each half-hour program in the six-part series features a conversation with someone who has made a significant contribution to media, particularly television. First up is actor/activist Ted Danson on Oct. 1 (above, with Mitchell; image: Michael Priest Photography).

NPR’s Robert Siegel, senior host of All Things Considered, will receive the 2010 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, Columbia University announced today (Sept. 23). Siegel was chosen “in recognition of his extraordinary career at NPR where he has engaged millions of listeners with journalistic rigor and professionalism for more than 30 years,” the announcement said. A nine-member committee selected Siegel for the award, which comes with a $25,000 prize. The honor will be presented Nov. 6 at a dinner at Columbia University’s Low Library in New York.

“The Grace of Silence,” the new book by All Things Considered host Michele Norris, reveals painful parts of her family history, reports the Christian Science Monitor. While researching her ancestors, she discovered that soon after her father came back home to Alabama after World War II, he was grazed by a policeman’s bullet. Norris said the title refers to her father’s attitude after that incident. “He was part of a generation of black men and black veterans who were marginalized in the military and society and had every reason to be angry. It was easy to see how they’d become malcontents and grouse their way to their end of their lives.

PBS NewsHour’s Jim Lehrer spoke on a panel Wednesday (Sept. 22) addressing “The Death of Old News” at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, reports the Las Vegas Sun. Lerher talked about how the program is partnering with news websites including ProPublica, GlobalPost and NPR to reach a broader audience.“I couldn’t care less if someone is watching the program on their pink iPod, just as long as they are watching,” Lerher said. The event was sponsored by the Black Mountain Institute, a center for writers and scholars at the university.

Katy Perry’s snug-fitting gold bustier proved a bit much for her appearance on Sesame Street. Her “Hot & Cold” music video with Elmo has been pulled from an upcoming show, Us magazine reports. Sesame Workshop told the gossip mag that the decision was made following “feedback we’ve received” after the video went up on YouTube. It’s since been removed from Sesame’s YouTube channel, but is still available through Perry’s channel. (Oh and by the way: Look closely and you’ll see there’s flesh-colored netting up to Perry’s neck topped by a dainty bow.) The pop singer debuts on Sesame Street on Dec.