All reporters at NPR, including me, are very pleased when our stories generate a lot of public interest,

when they get seen and heard on air and online by thousands and sometimes millions of readers and listeners.

But everyone at NPR is well aware that there's one team here whose work is much more widely known than any single story.

I'm Taylor. Welcome to my tiny desk concert. I'm talking about the Tiny Desk

Concert series. That's where musicians ranging from little-known bands to superstar recording

artists perform behind what is literally a tiny desk in an office at NPR. Lucky staffers at NPR's

Washington, D.C. headquarters, and sometimes guests were allowed to bring along, get to watch

these concerts live. Millions more people watch them later on platforms like YouTube. I've attended

many tiny desk concerts over the years, including Taylor Swift and Alicia Keys.

But until this week, I hadn't known much about the story behind the series.

Well, it was several people's idea. It started off as a kind of a joke back in 2008.

That's Robin Hilton, host and senior producer of Tiny Desk and all songs considered.

A couple of people on the NPR music team, Bob Boylan and Stephen Thompson were at a bar

at South by Southwest trying to see the singer-songwriter named Laura Gibson.

And it was a really quiet set that couldn't really hear anything.

So that gave them an idea.

And after the show, Stephen joked that we ought to just have her come and play at her desk.

Long story short, Laura Gibson took Stephen up on the offer.

Up with sunrise, you'll be staring out through the...

That was the first of many, many tiny desk concerts.

The first year, I think we did 10 shows.

We'll do that many in a month now.

...