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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Guy Clark, one of Nashville's most renowned singer-songwriters, has died at the age of 74. This profile of Clark originally aired on July 23, 2013, on All Things Considered.
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The attacks in Brussels were followed by appeals for national unity. But Belgium is a country long driven by sectarian divide, and nationalist politicians say the attacks support their cause. -
The European capital hasn't had any flights in or out since the March 22 suicide bombing. And authorities still aren't saying when the Zaventem Airport might reopen. -
Belgium is divided linguistically, culturally and politically. Yet the Brussels bombings have also brought citizens together in ways they hadn't expected. -
Hundreds of people turned out for what was supposed to be a peaceful rally in Brussels for bombing victims. It turned violent when right-wing protesters stormed in to disrupt the gathering.
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Tuesday night, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough tweeted some advice to Hillary Clinton as she delivered her victory speech: "Smile. You just had a big night." It caused an uproar. -
Astronaut Scott Kelly is back from nearly a year in space. NPR's Melissa Block says she misses the photos he shared from orbit, but tweets from his re-entry have been pretty entertaining. -
In Kutztown, Pa., school nurses stock naloxone to treat heroin overdoses. "Kids aren't afraid of it," a guidance counselor says. "It's available and it's cheap." -
Two businessmen — one of whom was born in Cuba — have been granted permission to build the first U.S. factory on the island nation since 1960. They plan to produce small tractors for Cuban farmers. -
Friday marks Melissa Block's last day anchoring All Things Considered. She shares some of her favorite interview moments over her 12 1/2 years hosting the show.
