Gabriel Spitzer
Gabriel Spitzer (he/him) is Senior Editor of Short Wave, NPR's daily science podcast. He comes to NPR following years of experience at Member stations – most recently at KNKX in Seattle, where he covered science and health and then co-founded and hosted the weekly show Sound Effect. That show told character-driven stories of the region's people. When the Pacific Northwest became the first place in the U.S. hit by COVID-19, the show switched gears and relaunched as Transmission, one of the country's first podcasts about the pandemic.
Spitzer spent six years at WBEZ, where he covered health and science and created the science podcast Clever Apes. Spitzer's public radio career started in Anchorage, with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
He spent a year on a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford. Spitzer has been honored with awards including the Kavli Science Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as awards from the Association of Health Care Journalists and Public Media Journalists Association.
Spitzer lives in Seattle with his wife, two children and several unruly pets.
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The World Food Programme, a U.N. agency and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is facing cuts in its budget that experts are describing as "unprecedented." -
The U.N. World Food Program plans to cut its staff by a third. Donations from Europe and Britain have flagged, and cuts by the Trump administration forced the humanitarian organization to downsize.
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FEWS NET, the U.S. early warning system for famine, shut down after the foreign aid freeze. What are the consequences? And why does the U.S. has a famine early warning system in the first place? -
New data samples from the Wuhan market points to an intermingling of SARS-CoV-2, raccoon dogs and humans. The authors of a new paper say it bolsters the animal origin theory. Other researchers object.
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With genetic samples from the infamous Wuhan market, a new study makes the case that raccoon dogs are likely the animal that infected humans. Proponents of the lab leak theory are dubious. -
Fifty Black sailors were convicted of mutiny after a massive Naval disaster during World War II. This week the Navy finally cleared their names.
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Two sisters found they had different recollections of a traumatic childhood experience and learned that human memory is a lot less reliable than we tend to think. -
Two sisters struggled to remember troubling childhood events until adulthood. A neuroscientist and author gave them the science and the language to turn their work into a dance performance and a book.
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"This is the first time that this has happened in recent years," said Martin Griffiths of the United Nations, about the reduced ask. Why in a time of greater need is the U.N. lowering its appeal? -
The humanitarian sector is facing a funding crisis, even as needs around the world continue to grow. We talk with experts and to NGOs about the impacts.
