Susan Stamberg
Nationally renowned broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg is a special correspondent for NPR.
Stamberg is the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program, and has won every major award in broadcasting. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame. An NPR "founding mother," Stamberg has been on staff since the network began in 1971.
Beginning in 1972, Stamberg served as co-host of NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered for 14 years. She then hosted Weekend Edition Sunday, and now reports on cultural issues for Morning Edition and Weekend Edition Saturday.
One of the most popular broadcasters in public radio, Stamberg is well known for her conversational style, intelligence, and knack for finding an interesting story. Her interviewing has been called "fresh," "friendly, down-to-earth," and (by novelist E.L. Doctorow) "the closest thing to an enlightened humanist on the radio." Her thousands of interviews include conversations with Laura Bush, Billy Crystal, Rosa Parks, Dave Brubeck, and Luciano Pavarotti.
Prior to joining NPR, she served as producer, program director, and general manager of NPR Member Station WAMU-FM/Washington, DC. Stamberg is the author of two books, and co-editor of a third. Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things, chronicles her two decades with NPR. Her first book, Every Night at Five: Susan Stamberg's All Things Considered Book, was published in 1982 by Pantheon. Stamberg also co-edited The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton. That collection grew out of a series of stories Stamberg commissioned for Weekend Edition Sunday.
In addition to her Hall of Fame inductions, other recognitions include the Armstrong and duPont Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ohio State University's Golden Anniversary Director's Award, and the Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.
A native of New York City, Stamberg earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. She is a Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, and has served on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Foundation and the National Arts Journalism Program based at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Stamberg has hosted a number of series on PBS, moderated three Fred Rogers television specials for adults, served as commentator, guest or co-host on various commercial TV programs, and appeared as a narrator in performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her voice appeared on Broadway in the Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter.
Her late husband Louis Stamberg had his career with the State Department's agency for international development. Her son, Josh Stamberg, an actor, appears in various television series, films, and plays.
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Longtime New Yorker Gay Talese has written the introduction to a new book of photographs of New York that is titled New York: 365 Days. The collection of photos came from The New York Times archive and spans more than a 100 years.
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The court of Versailles was the place to see the operas of French composers in the 17th Century. But because those operas had to be lit by candles, composers had to factor into their writing just how long the candles would last.
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Ah, books: One size fits all, and they're often a clear sight better than fruitcake. If you're at sea amid the scores of books on the shelves, let three independent booksellers help you narrow down your gift choices.
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Sir Paul McCartney discusses his new choral piece, Ecce Cor Meum, or Behold My Heart. It was first performed in London earlier this month, and had its American premiere at Carnegie Hall earlier this week.
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With the annual brace of holidays approaching, it's a good time to remind dinner guests of a few basic rules of etiquette. Like don't complain when you're served something you may not like — even Susan Stamberg's awful-sounding favorite holiday dish.
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Carl Sandburg received one of his two Pulitzer Prizes for a 1950 compilation of his poems. A new collection focuses on the Midwestern poet's early works, what the editor calls Sandburg's "great period."
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Ambroise Vollard played a key role in discovering and selling the works of Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso and others. A new exhibit in New York tells the story of the influential dealer who brought some of the world's greatest artists to light.
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Journalist Jenny Allen and cartoonist Jules Feiffer collaborate on their first literary effort, an illustrated book for adults. The Long Chalkboard's three stories are full of quick and witty writing and mostly well-intentioned people.
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Marie Antoinette has been a subject for both biographers and novelists. Since before her beheading by French revolutionaries, her life has been analyzed and mythologized. Biographer Antonia Fraser and novelist Sena Jeter Naslund Offer a peek at the life of Marie Antoinette.
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As summer dwindles away and back-to-school time approaches, an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum looks at life around the schoolhouse in the 19th century.