Most people in the audience at the Tate Lecture on Monday could have spent the entire discussion with their eyes closed. The voices of the four women who graced the McFarlin Auditorium stage are familiar, found nearly every day on the airwaves of National Public Radio.

Cokie Roberts, Susan Stamberg, Nina Totenberg and Linda Wertheimer, the founding mothers of NPR, spoke with moderator Keven Ann Willey on every topic from women in the workplace to snakes and shotguns.

The radio legends have each spent nearly 40 years on the air, spreading news and information to the nation on popular shows like “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered” and “Weekend Edition.” They shared their perspective on impeachments, disasters, and elections to thousands of listeners across the country.

As Roberts sat in the pouring rain in the Vatican City, waiting for the papal election in 2013, she complained to herself about the weather, the cardinals’ lengthy decision, and the seagull perched on the famed chimney. But, as the smoke came pouring out of the stack, she was humbled by the weight of the moment.

“We eyewitness history all day, every day,” Roberts said. “When you cover it, you don’t think of it as history.”

For the women, radio allows them to share their stories in a way that other mediums limit.

“Interactive media is a new idea, in theory, but it’s really what we’ve been doing all along,” Roberts said. “If we write it well enough, your imagination creates even better pictures that what would have been taken.”

Roberts, Stamberg, Totenberg and Wertheimer all joined NPR in the early ’70s, a time when strong women were still rare in the workforce. Full of self-deprecation, the women spoke at length about their time together in a progressive but still male dominated area.

Totenberg explained that she, Stamberg and Roberts worked in a small room at the beginning of their careers, sharing professional and personal problems and advice.

“One man called it the ‘Fallopian Jungle.’ I would like to point out that he is gone. We are not,” Totenberg said.

The Tate Lecture had a casual feel, different from many other lectures, as the women seemed to invite the audience into their minds, as they do through the radio.

“I’ve been to all of the Tate Lectures and this by far is the best one yet,” first-year Katie Anne Head said. “They played off each other really well. I think it was as fun for them as it was for the audience.”

Bringing a sort of levity to topics like the Supreme Court, Congress, and international news is not new for the four speakers, but their amusing personal stories brought their on air and on stage personalities to life.