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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More than half the states passed dozens of gun control measures in 2018, including what are known as "red flag" laws, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. -
Of all the deaths by gunfire in Colorado, suicides account for about 80 percent. A coalition of doctors, public health researchers and gun shop owners are working together to prevent that self-harm. -
It's estimated that nearly half of all Americans over 65 own a gun or live with someone who does. And 7 million in the U.S. have dementia, a number that's expected to double within two decades. -
In southwest Virginia, Galax was once a traditional small-town mountain community. It now has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the state. -
Carmen Schentrup was a senior, one week away from her 17th birthday, when she was killed. Her family reflects on her life, death and why "missing her doesn't feel like enough anymore." -
When it comes to speedskating, South Koreans love short track. The Dutch are masters of long track. Two previous Olympic medalists talk about the thrill and pain of speedskating.
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They're not the Zamboni drivers. These skilled technicians know how to make ice for figure skating, speedskating, hockey and curling — each requiring different temperatures, textures and hardness. -
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin narrowly missed out on winning her third gold medal Friday. And in men's figure skating, top U.S. medal hope Nathan Chen had a disappointing performance.
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For many parents at the Olympics, watching their children compete is nerve-wracking. Beth Heiden Reid has a special perspective: she won a bronze medal in speedskating at the 1980 Games, and was in Korea to watch her daughter Joanne compete in biathlon.
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"Why are these people so crazy?" Caldwell wondered when she first watched aerials skiing at age 12. Now she's the women's world champion, spinning and somersaulting some 60 feet high in the air.
