Robert Siegel, longtime senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered, will be retiring effective Jan. 5, 2018.
"This is a decision long in the making and not an easy one. I've had the greatest job I can think of, working with the finest colleagues anyone could ask for, for as long a stretch as I could imagine,” said Siegel. “But, looking ahead to my seventies (which start all too soon) I feel that it is time for me to begin a new phase of life.”
Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, he 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. He became host of All Things Considered in 1987.
During his final show on Friday, Jan. 5, Siegel will have an audio essay about events he's reported on and talked about during the last 40 years that altered the course of history, have never been fully resolved, or have repeated themselves. Some of the key events during his tenure include the Cold War, the nuclear arsenal in Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Clinton Impeachment, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Brexit, and the election of President Trump.
Siegel’s illustrious career was even featured as a category on Jeopardy recently.
NPR has announced that Mary Louise Kelly will officially move into the ATC host chair on January 17. Kelly is no stranger to audiences, given her guest hosting across NPR news programs as well as her leading work as National Security Correspondent on the ongoing Russia investigation. She will join Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro as co-hosts of the show.
