Two painful reporter layoffs on NPR's investigative team this week: Austin Fast🎙 & Chiara Eisner 🎤. Both are smart, skilled, talented, and adored by their peers. I hope our terrible loss will be another media outlet's great fortune. Contact me for recommendations of either:

I was laid off NPR as part of the massive cuts. I loved the i-team and wanted to stay for years, but here we are.

Please let me know if you're looking for a multimedia, bilingual reporter w/ experience investigating environment, healthcare, tech, immigration & criminal justice.

Off to buy some Arizona Lottery tickets because my luck is HOT today! The U.S. is in a period of fewer #layoffs , but the #NPRLayoffs still found me!
Currently accepting all offers in #DataJournalism #OpenToWork #rstats #pythonprogramming

Bracing for sleep deprivation this week, when I host NPR's Morning Edition & Up First w/Leila Fadel & NPRinskeep. Daily schedule:

—wake up 2:30 a.m.
—in studio 3 a.m.
—prep 3-5 a.m.
—show starts 5 a.m.

We're a round-the-clock news operation. Please support us if you can!

2 interesting updates for anyone following Guantánamo (yes, it's still open):

Biden recently released 4 Gitmo prisoners, a sign he's upping efforts to close the place.

9/11 settlement talks need his administration's input to proceed, but so far: silence n.pr/3T8ffad

Rare Guantánamo news: a prisoner has been released -- to Belize

- He is Pakistani but could not go there
- He lived in Maryland but could not go there
- So he went to Central America
- His lawyer calls Gitmo 'a Frankenstein court with Frankenstein rules'
n.pr/3RwZ3OZ

Pablo Eisenberg, noted philanthropy critic who often chastised journalists for obsequious coverage of grantmakers, got a superb NPR obit by Sacha Pfeiffer.

Pablo sought fair treatment of the poor & powerless and held the donor class accountable.

npr.org/2022/11/28/113…

I recently came across this old gem, and oh how the memories rushed back. What a surreal moment to meet the actual investigative journalists we played in #Spotlight . Given the direction of journalism today, it's important to recognize those speaking truth to power.

I'm in Washington DC this week to host NPR's All Things Considered (@npratc) with Ailsa Chang (and last week with NPRKelly). This is a city with many beautiful murals. Today I spotted one I hadn't seen before, and it's become one of my favorites:

As we gradually exit the pandemic and return to our workplaces, here's what a hybrid meeting looks like:

Monika Evstatieva, Barrie Hardymon and Barbara Van Woerkom at NPR HQ in Washington DC
Meg Anderson at home in Minneapolis
me at home in Boston

Five coworkers, sort of together, sort of apart!

For years, I've been reporting on the extremely dysfunctional U.S. military court in Guantánamo. Case in point: More than 20 years after the September 11th attacks, there has still been no 9/11 trial.

Now the U.S. is admitting there may never be one:
npr.org/2022/03/21/108…

This from a man who might be expected to resent the media for its coverage of clergy sex abuse.

As Russia makes independent journalism a crime punishable by prison, a reminder that without robust, responsible reporting, many injustices worldwide would never become public.

COVID kept people apart for years.

In a rare delight, four of us on NPR's i-team had dinner last week in Washington:

I came from Boston to host All Things Considered
Tom Dreisbach came from LA to cover a trial
Monika Evstatieva came from Ukraine
Barrie Hardymon came from DC

Missed you, colleagues.

As NPR reopens its Washington building, it's taking a creative approach to differing degrees of COVID comfort.

Employees get wristbands & lanyards in 3 colors. You pick which one to wear:

green = 'office-appropriate' contact ok
yellow = elbow bumps only
red = stay 6 feet away!

I'm spending this somber news week in Washington DC, hosting All Things Considered with Ari Shapiro. With COVID waning, today is 'Phase 1' of the reopening of NPR headquarters, and the wonderful folks at our in-house café (fittingly called Sound Bites) had balloons and free muffins waiting.

Radio problems!

I'm hosting Weekend Edition remotely. It's 7 degrees here in Boston, but I couldn't use the heater in my home studio because its sound was audible on my microphone. Then my home internet kept crashing.

Thanks for saving the day, GBH News, by lending me a studio!

it is a VERY good morning, dear listeners -- we have the spectacular Sacha Pfeiffer in the host chair this Sunday! tune in so you may hear her talking about beavers! and other things! but mostly the beavers.

This is can't-stop-listening radio.

It's a special 41-minute podcast by my colleagues on NPR's investigative team: Tim Mak Tom Dreisbach Monika Evstatieva Barrie Hardymon

It's from secret NRA recordings after the Columbine shootings.

The topic: PR strategy

npr.org/2021/12/17/106…

Do you (like me) hope to spend part of Thanksgiving weekend with a good book?

If so, here's a gift from NPR & NPR Books: the 2021 edition of 'Books We Love'

It's gorgeous. It's searchable. It has 2,800 titles.

My pick is 'The Vixen' by Francine Prose!

apps.npr.org/best-books/#vi…