Cordell currently writes and narrates his own commentary and storytelling pieces on public radio, mainly on NPR's Snap Judgment and American Public Media's Marketplace. On the latter, in 2008, Cordell obliquely recalled his experience writing for Bear, careful not to mention the show's name and changing a few animal species. He expected writing for children to be easy, not expecting the writers' staff to take the show so seriously, and recalling how his back went out. However, when nominated for an Emmy, "I was surprisingly disappointed when we lost to a show about singing vowels. Now really, I thought, how hard could that be to write?"