Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
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The once impressive medical system has crumbled dramatically in Venezuela's ongoing crisis. Measles is resurgent; HIV patients aren't getting drugs. Even catheters are in short supply. -
From an economic standpoint, China does not need World Bank loans. So why is it still a top borrower?
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Scholars at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum say that mass killings follow predictable patterns. They're using a computer model to track where the next genocide is likely to occur.
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The parasitic infection schistosomiasis affects 200 million people a year but is deemed a "neglected tropical disease." A new study pays attention, comparing drug treatment with cups of wormwood tea. -
Monsoon floods won't stop these kids from going to school in Bangladesh — especially if the school comes to the student! -
After the horrific conditions in Romanian orphanages were publicized in the 1990s, there's been a movement in the aid world to shut down orphanages. But an orphanage can have a very different image. -
Gregg Gonsalves dropped out of college, drifted around, became a health-care activist and epidemiology professor — and is now the recipient of a 'genius grant.' -
Hassan Abedin is on the go at the U.N. General Assembly trying to get diplomats to focus on the plight of the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. "My Fitbit is just screaming," he says. -
For the elderly, a flood can turn into an eviction notice. They're often on fixed incomes and can't afford repairs. -
A U.N. report shows that the number of people around the world who aren't getting enough to eat has been increasing by millions since 2014.
