Melissa Block
As special correspondent and guest host of NPR's news programs, Melissa Block brings her signature combination of warmth and incisive reporting. Her work over the decades has earned her journalism's highest honors, and has made her one of NPR's most familiar and beloved voices.
As co-host of All Things Considered from 2003 to 2015, Block's reporting took her everywhere from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the heart of Rio de Janeiro; from rural Mozambique to the farthest reaches of Alaska.
Her riveting reporting from Sichuan, China, during and after the massive earthquake in 2008 brought the tragedy home to millions of listeners around the world. At the moment the earthquake hit, Block had the presence of mind to record a gripping, real-time narration of the seismic upheaval she was witnessing. Her long-form story about a desperate couple searching in the rubble for their toddler son was singled out by judges who awarded NPR's earthquake coverage the top honors in broadcast journalism: the George Foster Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia Award, Edward R. Murrow Award, National Headliner Award, and the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi Award.
Now, as special correspondent, Block continues to engage both the heart and the mind with her reporting on issues from gun violence to adult illiteracy to opioid addiction.
In 2017, she traveled the country for the series "Our Land," visiting a wide range of communities to explore how our identity is shaped by where we live. For that series, she paddled along the Mississippi River, went in search of salmon off the Alaska coast, and accompanied an immigrant family as they became U.S. citizens. Her story about the legacy of the Chinese community in the Mississippi Delta earned her a James Beard Award in 2018.
Block is the recipient of the 2019 Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism, awarded by the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, as well as the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fulbright Association.
Block began her career at NPR in 1985 as an editorial assistant for All Things Considered, and rose through the ranks to become the program's senior producer.
She was a reporter and correspondent in New York from 1994 to 2002, a period punctuated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Her reporting after those attacks helped earn NPR a George Foster Peabody Award. Block's reporting on rape as a weapon of war in Kosovo was cited by the Overseas Press Club of America in awarding NPR the Lowell Thomas Award in 1999.
Block is a 1983 graduate of Harvard University and spent the following year on a Fulbright fellowship in Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband — writer Stefan Fatsis — and their daughter.
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Film critic Roger Ebert is famous for arguing about movies on TV with Gene Siskel. Now that cancer surgeries have left him without the ability to speak, Ebert has found a new voice online. Melissa Block visits him at his Chicago home to talk about his memoir, Life Itself.
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Sally Mann, considered one of the most influential photographers of her time, has recently focused her work on her husband of 40 years, Larry. About 15 years ago, Larry was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Mann photographed him in a project called "Proud Flesh." "He's really brave," she says.
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Bill Thompson, editor of Bird Watcher's Digest, visited Melissa Block's urban backyard in Washington, D.C., for a bird-feeding makeover.
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While researching And the Pursuit of Happiness, Maira Kalman gained respect for American democracy.
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When Paul Greenberg started fishing as a kid in the '70s, he didn't have to think twice about dwindling wild fish populations. That was before the world nearly doubled its fish consumption. Four Fish is Greenberg's investigation into the future of the last wild food.
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It's no secret that Cajun and zydeco music is all about sweat. So you can go to Louisiana for a summertime steambath, or you can bring a bit of the heat to you. Here are five songs guaranteed to get your feet moving, at which point the sweating part will take care of itself.
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Since 1986, Ted Kooser has written an annual Valentine's Day poem and sent it to an ever-growing list of women. Now, he's collected those poems in a new book, Valentines.
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Jorgenson's fingers are nothing but a blur when he's notes-deep into a song on his unique guitar. The veteran gypsy-jazz guitarist has performed with Elton John, Bob Dylan and Sting, and was a member of the hit-making Desert Rose Band.
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Unless Hollywood writers and studios reach a deal over the weekend, the Writers Guild of America will strike just after midnight next Monday. That could mean many TV shows will have to revert to re-runs. The writers and studios are at odds over how much writers should make in royalties when shows are resold on DVD or the Internet.
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When Bridgewater came up empty after tracing her family tree back more than 100 years, she turned to West African music. After a trip to Mali in 2004, she discovered its complex musical heritage. Hear an interview about the inspiration behind her new album, Red Earth.