At the time it was just a show run by a very competent host out of a public radio station in LA (KPFK - not an NPR affiliate). I think it has expanded since then.
Several times Ian said he was surprised to usually get a "yes" when he asked some relatively high-profile journalist, think-tanker, or university professor to be interviewed on his show. (Typical interview was 15-20 minutes of airtime - not just a sound bite.)
Basically, these folks seem to be surprisingly willing to chat when cold-called by an interested person.
The intern that answered the phone said "do you want to tell him yourself?", to which I quickly said "yes".
Jesse answered the phone, and I said "hey, Jesse Lee Peterson, I think you're an ignorant moron".
He replied back with "do you want to say this on the show tomorrow?" to which I said "absolutely". A producer reached out to me via email, and the next day I spoke to him on the radio for about 20 minutes. I doubt I convinced him or any of his listeners of anything, but at least I got to say my piece, for a lot longer than I thought I was going to.
While I still think he's an ignorant and sexist moron whose opinions have only gotten more radical and scary, I guess I'll give him a little credit for being a bit open to alternate arguments.
[1] Even if you disagree, don't try and convince me otherwise here, because you will not convince me otherwise in this case. If you don't know who he is, I advise that you don't Google him if you don't want to get depressed.
Took a lot of bravery for you to do that.
Regarding the risk of a minor doing this kind of outreach, 90% of all child abuse happens with someone known to the child and/or their guardian, and I doubt many of the remaining 10% are just waiting around for a child to contact them first. I'd say reaching out to people you admire is a useful enough skill that it's definitely worth honing as soon as there's an interest, though of course involving one's parents in the process is a good idea.
Think about it, most email is a pit of despair. Interesting human contact is rare.
Years ago I was working with a client on a really obscure bug with a storage system. I emailed a dude from the manufacturer who posted on an listserv about some similar-ish scenarios.
We emailed a few times and he ended up calling me. Turned out he was on the east coast for a conference an hour away and we ended up meeting up at the customer site unofficially, and he realized that whatever we were doing was outside of their test coverage in error. We both learned a lot and stayed in touch for a few years.
Ironically, my elderly father does the same thing today! He cold emails ivy league professors and writers from the WSJ, and I'm always surprised on how engaged they get with corresponding. They send preprints, lab data, and all kinds of followup.