Elizabeth Blair
Elizabeth Blair is a Peabody Award-winning senior producer/reporter on the Arts Desk of NPR News.
Blair produces, edits, and reports arts and cultural segments for NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. In this position, she has reported on a range of topics from arts funding to the MeToo movement. She has profiled renowned artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Mikhail Baryshnikov, explored how old women are represented in fairy tales, and reported the origins of the children's classic Curious George. Among her all-time favorite interviews are actors Octavia Spencer and Andy Serkis, comedians Bill Burr and Hari Kondabolu, the rapper K'Naan, and Cookie Monster (in character).
Blair has overseen several, large-scale series including The NPR 100, which explored landmark musical works of the 20th Century, and In Character, which probed the origins of iconic American fictional characters. Along with her colleagues on the Arts Desk and at NPR Music, Blair curated American Anthem, a major series exploring the origins of songs that uplift, rouse, and unite people around a common theme.
Blair's work has received several honors, including two Peabody Awards and a Gracie. She previously lived in Paris, France, where she co-produced Le Jazz Club From Paris with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and the monthly magazine Postcard From Paris.
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The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music recounts the story of Flack's father finding her a beat-up, old, upright in a junkyard — a treasure that led to a life in music. -
PEN America and two other free speech groups are calling for school officials in Florida to reinstate a high school production of Paula Vogel's Indecent, a play that is itself about censorship. -
Epic Games has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $520 million over allegations of privacy violations and unwanted charges. Nearly half of the money will go to refund consumers. -
The annual Abortion Onscreen report says more TV shows had abortion plotlines than previous years and that writers are doing slightly better job reflecting reality. -
The Kennedy Center has announced Adam Sandler as the winner of this year's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Sandler's credits include SNL, Happy Gilmore, Grown Ups, The Wedding Singer and Hustle. -
Amy Grant, George Clooney, Gladys Knight, U2 and Tania León attended a dinner at the U.S. State Department and a gala tribute event. The 45th annual Kennedy Center Honors airs on CBS later this month. -
Youth soccer games seem to unleash the worst in adult behavior. Parents and coaches yell at refs, the players and each other. Adults' sideline behavior has resulted in a national referee shortage. -
Streamers and broadcasters are putting slightly more women in front of and behind the camera according to Boxed In, an annual study. But ageism persists. -
This year's MacArthur Fellows include scientists, artists and historians. The so-called MacArthur "geniuses" receive unrestricted grants of $800,000 for their "exceptional creativity" and "promise." -
With more than 300 million downloads and multiple awards, Serial's investigation into Adnan Syed's case paved the way for a veritable cottage industry of true crime podcasts.
