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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The FBI won't close the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. On Wednesday, the FBI is expected to share some evidence against scientist Bruce Ivins who committed suicide after emerging as a key suspect in the attacks.
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Rescuers worked frantically to reach thousands of people still trapped in the rubble after Monday's earthquake. But, as the day faded, so did the hope that many of the missing would be found alive. -
On the road to Ganxi, in an area hit hard by Monday's earthquake, NPR's Melissa Block talks with a woman who estimates that 5,000 people died in her town, and meets a boy hobbling with a fractured foot. -
The death toll is expected to rise following an earthquake Monday that struck Southwest China. The state news agency says thousands of people have been killed. An NPR reporting team in Sichuan province, site of the quake's epicenter, reports from the scene.
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Conventional wisdom says Barack Obama will win Tuesday's primary in North Carolina. However, Hillary Clinton leads in the polls in Indiana. If that's how it pans out, not much changes in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, which is good news for Obama.
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The U.S. dollar plunged against other major currencies Thursday, dipping below 100 yen for the first time in 12 years. There were other signs of weakness — retail sales were down in February. Despite all this, the stock market closed higher.
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A routine financial inquiry led to the discovery of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a high-priced prostitution ring. How do banks scrutinize the transactions of their customers, particularly "PEPs" — politically exposed people?
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Now that space shuttle Atlantis has safely returned to Earth, the Pentagon plans to shoot down a failing spy satellite as early as Wednesday night. The Navy will launch a missile in an attempt to destroy the satellite before it crashes to Earth.
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A new study shows that the rate of abortion in the U.S. has dropped to its lowest level since the mid-1970s. The survey, conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, also found a rise in the use of the abortion pill mifepristone, also known as RU-486.
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Three leading Republicans are competing hard for delegates in the large industrial state. Mitt Romney hopes to trade on the legacy of his late father, a former Michigan governor. John McCain hopes to capitalize on a bounce in the polls after his New Hampshire win, while Mike Huckabee seeks support from evangelicals.
