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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50 years ago, The Electric Company premiered its first broadcast. The public broadcasting show aimed to use sketch comedy and animated shorts to teach kids to read.
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King Richard tells how Richard Williams doggedly pursued professional tennis careers for his daughters, Venus and Serena. His methods may have kept them from the burnout that ends many careers.
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Ronnie Wilson, a founding member of the Gap Band, has died at age 73. The group dominated the R&B charts in the 1980s, and their music went on to be sampled by artists decades later.
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Beyoncé's former music director and bassist has a new children's album and book project, which she hopes will instill positivity in young listeners. -
Mort Sahl had a stream-of-consciousness style of humor, and credited jazz as his influence. He started doing stand-up in the '50s, a time when most comedians were men in suits rattling off one-liners.
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Sahl started doing stand-up in the 1950s, a time when most comedians were men in suits, rattling off one-liners. Sahl wore a V-neck sweater, tucked a newspaper under his arm, and just ... talked.
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In October 1971, The Electric Company flipped a switch and hit the public TV airwaves, aiming to use sketch comedy and animated shorts to teach kids to read.
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A new, nonfiction book series for kids ages 9 to 12 is written by young people who've experienced trauma, including living through Hurricane Maria and facing discrimination and arrest after 9/11.
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When COVID hit the U.S., writers of The Morning Show on Apple TV+ scrapped a year's worth of work to make the fictional TV show's new season newsworthy.
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Don Everly, half of one of rock and roll's pioneering groups, The Everly Brothers, has died. The musician was known for singing close harmonies with his brother.
