Robert Siegel
Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.
In 2010, Siegel was recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with the John Chancellor Award. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, first in 1984 for All Things Considered's coverage of peace movements in East and West Germany. He shared in NPR's 1996 Silver Baton Award for "The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution," for coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. He was part of the NPR team that won a Silver Baton for the network's coverage of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.
Other awards Siegel has earned include a 1997 American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for the two-part documentary, "Murder, Punishment, and Parole in Alabama" and the National Mental Health Association's 1991 Mental Health Award for his interviews conducted on the streets of New York in an All Things Considered story, "The Mentally Ill Homeless."
Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, Siegel became NPR's first staffer based overseas when he was chosen to open NPR's London bureau, where he worked as senior editor until 1983. After London, Siegel served for four years as director of the News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition. He became host of All Things Considered in 1987.
Before coming to NPR, Siegel worked for WRVR Radio in New York City as a reporter, host and news director. He was part of the WRVR team honored with an Armstrong Award for the series, "Rockefeller's Drug Law." Prior to WRVR, he was morning news reporter and telephone talk show host for WGLI Radio in Babylon, New York.
A graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, Siegel began his career in radio at Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. As a student he anchored coverage of the 1968 Columbia demonstrations and contributed to the work that earned the station an award from the Writers Guild of America East.
Siegel was the editor of The NPR Interviews 1994, The NPR Interviews 1995 and The NPR Interviews 1996, compilations of NPR's most popular radio conversations from each year.
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For over 100 years, the composer's "Allegretto" movement from his Seventh Symphony has haunted musicians and music lovers. Once you start to listen, says pianist Helene Grimaud, you simply can't do anything else.
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In 1851, two chess masters sat down for a practice game in London. What should have been a throwaway game intensified and was quickly dubbed "the immortal game." David Shenk, author of a new history of chess called The Immortal Game, describes the historic match.
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Neil Burger, writer and director of the movie The Illusionist, says he tried not to use film effects to create the magic captured on screen. He also talks about how he became interested in magic. Based on a short story, the film stars Paul Giamatti, Edward Norton and Jessica Biel.
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Toumani Diabate is a storyteller and musician known for his talents with the African harp, or, Kora. He teamed up with producer Nick Gold of Buena Vista Social Club fame to produce a CD that explores the varied styles found in Mali.
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A bold new interpretation of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle sets its timeless tale of the corruption of power in a more contemporary American setting. Director Francesca Zambello talks about what's being called the American Ring.
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Natalie Portman stars in the new movie V for Vendetta. She says the project interested her because of its subversive and provocative ideas questioning such modern-day labels as "terrorist."
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Composer John Adams, who has composed operas about communism and terrorism, believes that "if opera is actually going to be a part of our lives... it has to deal with contemporary topics." is latest work is about the first test of a nuclear weapon. John Adams talks about his opera, Dr. Atomic.
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Larry Appelbaum of the Library of Congress recordings division talks about previously undiscovered tapes of a 1957 Carnegie Hall performance of the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane.
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Robert Siegel talks to Ralph Fiennes, star of The Constant Gardener. Fiennes talks about his role as Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose work in Nairobi leads him to discover a deadly conspiracy.
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Dick Cavett's late-night show, launched on ABC in 1969, showcased a who's who of musicians of the day, among them Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. A DVD series was released this week.