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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James Lee Williams was best known as "The Vivienne," a drag queen who competed in the TV show Dancing On Ice, starred in musical theatre in London, and won the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race U.K.
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The couple married in 2014, but separated two years later. A lengthy legal battle ensued over custody of their children and the future of their once-shared Château Miraval.
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Earlier this year, 19-year-old Alex Yurkiv was killed in a motorcycle accident in Australia. His name isn't well-known, but he co-wrote a Christian song that's been played more than 30 million times.
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Hasan Minhaj, Ronny Chieng, Mike Birbiglia, Hannah Einbinder and Michelle Buteau all delivered specials that cracked us up this year.
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The findings of an annual report on how abortion is depicted on TV are released today.
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MAX will no longer distribute new episodes of "Sesame Street" after 2025.
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In his new Netflix comedy special, "What Had Happened Was," Jamie Foxx reveals he had a brain bleed and a stroke.
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The stars came out to celebrate this year's Kennedy Center Honorees: Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, Arturo Sandoval, Francis Ford Coppola and The Apollo. The Honors broadcast on CBS on Dec. 22.
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A Danish museum has agreed to return the bronze head of a Roman Emperor to Turkey. The sculpture was among thousands of artifacts looted from Turkey and sold to American and European museums. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on Dec. 3, 2024.)
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NPR staff recommend four young adult novels: "Heir," "Annie LeBlanc is Not Dead Yet," "The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette For Young Ladies of Mad Science," and "Dragonfruit."