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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Caster Semenya, the favorite in the women's 800 meters, is controversial. The South African runner is widely believed to be intersex, with testosterone levels much higher than other female athletes'. -
The 10 athletes representing the first-ever refugee team received a stadium-rattling ovation at the opening ceremony. They hope to send a message about refugees that reaches far beyond the Rio Games. -
In the days before his competition, Pryor said he had never been more ready for anything in his life. With his family watching, he faced a tough Swiss opponent in his opening match. -
Fireworks have lit up the night sky in Rio de Janeiro with the start of the Olympic opening ceremony. The pageant is celebrating Brazil's history and culture, which will include music and dance.
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Friday night's Olympic opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro provides the official start to 16 days of competition that will see the world's best athletes competing for the gold. Athletes from 206 countries plus, for the first time, a team of refugees will parade through legendary Maracana Stadium for the opening pageant.
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Athletes from around the world are arriving at the Olympic Village set up just for them. It's a huge place offering a chance to grab a burger or have your nails adorned with your home country's flag.
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Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, and South Sudan, which followed three years later, are both sending athletes to the Olympics for the first time. -
American women are expected to dominate team sports at the Olympics. That includes water polo, where they are defending champions and have medaled every time since the sport was introduced in 2000.
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Vashti Cunningham, 18, is on a roll. She set a world junior record and won the world indoor championship in March, while still in high school. She has now turned pro and has her eyes set on Rio. -
The smash Broadway hit Hamilton is bringing legions of new fans to the grave sites of Alexander Hamilton and his wife, Eliza, both at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan.
