> How many people actually stick to the page and listen to that?

I just did. 3 minutes wasn't that bad and I wasn't somewhere where it would be a problem.

> Why do sites do this?

NPR is a radio network. I have seen that often they do transcribe their clips. I am not sure what the process they have for that looks like, but it seems this particular clip didn't get transcribed.

Edit: looks like they do have a transcription mentioned elsewhere in the thread. So seems like some kind of UI fail.