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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NPR's Melissa Block talks with singer-songwriter and American icon Dolly Parton about her new kids book Billy the Kid Makes It Big!
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Florida's medical boards have voted to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Families with trans children and medical providers who care for them are worried about the impact. -
Florida's medical boards have voted to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Families with trans children and medical providers who care for them are worried about the impact.
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Deb Perelman, creator of the hugely popular Smitten Kitchen website, whips up some budget-conscious, vegetable-centric Thanksgiving side dishes. Her new cookbook is Smitten Kitchen Keepers. -
Ken Barcus, longtime Midwest bureau chief on NPR's National Desk, has died at age 67. He took great pride in countering stereotypes of the Midwest and in mentoring scores of young reporters. -
This year has seen a record number of anti-LGBTQ laws enacted, many targeting transgender youth. But courts have blocked a number of those laws from going into effect.
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Electronic line judging has replaced humans at the U.S. Open. But the voices making calls are real people, recorded with varying levels of urgency to sell the call, depending on how close the shot is. -
An ob-gyn and nurse-midwife are gearing up to open an all-trimester abortion clinic near Washington, D.C. They aim to provide abortions later in pregnancy and serve women from states with bans. -
An NPR/Ipsos poll shows a stark partisan split on laws that prevent transgender youth from accessing medical care for gender transition. -
Old accusations of LGBTQ people "grooming" and "recruiting" children have gained new traction. When have we heard this before? What counternarrative are activists using to win over public opinion?
