Apparently, they're starting to show up on some public radio stations in the U.S. After the often stressful news headlines, several outlets are offering an unsponsored 30 sec. "meditation break," supposedly to calm the nerves of their frazzled listeners.

“Through our reporting and being out in the community, we see that people are stressed,” WFDD’s Molly Davis says. In brainstorming ways to provide some relief, someone had the idea to play soothing sound bites—a summer rain, a mountain stream, birds in the trees—during station breaks.

“We have been working to keep those sounds fresh and trying to find some new sounds,” she says. “One of my colleagues had the idea of doing something more directly meditative.” That’s when the station introduced the 30-second mindfulness meditation breaks. They are sprinkled into the program rotation at random times throughout the day."

I'm not sure this would catch on with everyone. I'm not a big yoga believer and having been in broadcasting for so long, I think 30 secs. of what almost amounts to dead air would increase my stress level, not ease it!

When News Is Too Stressful, These Radio Stations Broadcast Calm