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 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 "," 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 鈥� writer Stefan Fatsis 鈥� and their daughter.
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Hispanics now make up 38 percent of Texas residents. One demographer says the state's future is tied to the success of its growing minority population. Schools may be part of the solution. -
An injured leg can cause so much pain that some wounded veterans consider amputation. A brace invented at an Army medical center in Texas is getting them up and running again. -
The Oxford English Dictionary is adding some 900 new words and phrases to its pages, with wackadoodle, bestie and DIYer among them. Melissa and Robert review some of the new entries.
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President Obama's pitch for his health care law has brought him to an awkward place: "Between Two Ferns." In a bid to up the enrollment of young people, Obama visited Zach Galifianakis' Internet show.
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In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his position on Ukraine. In a news conference, Putin denied that Russian troops are in Crimea but reserved the right to use force in Ukraine.
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A long-running study has been raising questions about the value of mammography for younger women, and recently it has produced yet more evidence to cast doubt on routine screening. The study found no evidence that screening saved lives, even after 25 years of follow-up. Rather, screening may lead instead to unnecessary treatment for many women. The findings are unlikely to settle debate over the value of mammography.
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During his 10-year career, Sean Morey absorbed countless hits, more than a few of which resulted in concussions. "Every time I hit somebody it was like getting tasered," he says. Now, he suffers from lingering conditions, like debilitating headaches, and is an advocate for players' health. -
The long-anticipated Syrian peace conference is again in turmoil. The U.N. secretary-general's surprise decision to invite Iran to attend the conference prompted a boycott threat from Syria's exiled opposition. At issue is the fact that Iran has not publicly committed to the framework for the conference or pledged to withdraw its troops and allied militias from Syria. Under pressure from the opposition groups and the U.S., the U.N. has since withdrawn its invitation to Iran.
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The latest on a car chase and near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Thursday afternoon.
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Brazil has been one of the world's economic success stories over the past decade, with tens of millions rising out of poverty. Their numbers have risen sharply, but many feel their foothold in the middle class is still tenuous.
