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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A slew of recent security breaches in London is likely to have an impact on tourism. A reporter for a tabloid newspaper recently managed to bring fake bomb equipment onto the floor of Parliament without being checked. Earlier, a protestor dressed as Batman managed to scale Buckingham Palace. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Matthew Tempest of the British newspaper The Guardian.
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Hurricane Ivan approaches the Gulf coast with winds of up to 145 miles per hour, prompting the mayor of New Orleans to declare a state of emergency. The storm has caused a mass exodus of boats and fishermen from the area. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Brian Wells of the Sportsman Marina and Drydock in Orange Beach, Ala.
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With Hurricane Ivan approaching, oil companies evacuate hundreds of oil workers from drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the workers are being evacuated by helicopter after they secure equipment on the platforms. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Peter Velez of Shell Oil.
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Hurricane Ivan reaches Cuba packing winds of up to 160 mph, skirting the island nation's western tip as it heads north toward the Florida Panhandle. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Hugh Willoughby, former director of NOAA's hurricane research division.
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West of Iraq's capital, U.S. warplanes continue to attack targets in Fallujah, where Sunni Muslim insurgents remain in control. In Baghdad, little fighting took place just one day after a surge of violence. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Peter Kenyon.
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Some 2.5 million residents are told to evacuate a 310-mile stretch of Florida's east coast in advance of Hurricane Frances. The storm had threatened to reach Category 5 by Saturday morning, when it's expected to make landfall. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Jill Roberts of member station WQCS. -
A Colorado judge dismisses the felony sexual assault case against basketball player Kobe Bryant at the request of prosecutors, who said Bryant's accuser does not want it to go forward. NPR's Melissa Block talks with Peggy Lowe of the Rocky Mountain News.
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President Bush clarifies his stance on the fight against terrorism, saying the United States will emerge victorious. The president's remarks Tuesday clashed with his statements on NBC's Today show Monday, when he said he was not sure America could win a definitive victory in the war on terror. Hear NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Melissa Block.
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Speeches at the Republican Convention portray President Bush as a strong wartime leader. After Sen. John McCain made the case for war in Iraq, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani assailed Bush's opponent, Sen. John Kerry. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Robert Smith.
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U.S. troops and Iraqi forces storm into the center of Najaf in what Marine commanders are calling a final push to crush a rebellion by supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The cleric and hundreds of his followers are believed to be inside the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Ivan Watson.
