
Robert Siegel
Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.
In 2010, Siegel was recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with the John Chancellor Award. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, first in 1984 for All Things Considered's coverage of peace movements in East and West Germany. He shared in NPR's 1996 Silver Baton Award for "The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution," for coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. He was part of the NPR team that won a Silver Baton for the network's coverage of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.
Other awards Siegel has earned include a 1997 American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for the two-part documentary, "Murder, Punishment, and Parole in Alabama" and the National Mental Health Association's 1991 Mental Health Award for his interviews conducted on the streets of New York in an All Things Considered story, "The Mentally Ill Homeless."
Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, Siegel became NPR's first staffer based overseas when he was chosen to open NPR's London bureau, where he worked as senior editor until 1983. After London, Siegel served for four years as director of the News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition. He became host of All Things Considered in 1987.
Before coming to NPR, Siegel worked for WRVR Radio in New York City as a reporter, host and news director. He was part of the WRVR team honored with an Armstrong Award for the series, "Rockefeller's Drug Law." Prior to WRVR, he was morning news reporter and telephone talk show host for WGLI Radio in Babylon, New York.
A graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, Siegel began his career in radio at Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. As a student he anchored coverage of the 1968 Columbia demonstrations and contributed to the work that earned the station an award from the Writers Guild of America East.
Siegel was the editor of The NPR Interviews 1994, The NPR Interviews 1995 and The NPR Interviews 1996, compilations of NPR's most popular radio conversations from each year.
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Robert Siegel reads emails from listeners about unusual Texas town names.
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Following the news of an Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Robert Siegel speaks with Pierre Rollin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the virus' symptoms, transmission and containment.
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The band Vulfpeck has a new album called Sleepify. The 10-song set is absolutely silent. The Michigan-based funk group is using Spotify's royalty-payment system to fund its upcoming tour.
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The Oxford English Dictionary is adding some 900 new words and phrases to its pages, with wackadoodle, bestie and DIYer among them. Melissa and Robert review some of the new entries.
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Melissa Block and Robert Siegel read emails from listeners about Game of Thrones and The Big Broadcast.
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President Obama's pitch for his health care law has brought him to an awkward place: "Between Two Ferns." In a bid to up the enrollment of young people, Obama visited Zach Galifianakis' Internet show.
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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is trying to help Alzheimer's patients experience fewer behavioral issues. Robert Siegel speaks with researcher Mariana Figueiro and psychiatrist Guerman Ermolenko.
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Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis talks to host Robert Siegel about the latest developments in the Dolphins bullying investigation. Carried out by attorney Ted Wells on behalf of the National Football League, the investigation found a "pattern of harassment" on the team, including texts and voicemail abuse targeting Jonathan Martin.
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Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas are the Baseball Hall of Fame's newest inductees. Last year, baseball writers pointedly left some of the biggest stars off the list due to links with performance-enhancing drugs, and this year has been no different. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were again denied induction.
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An email thread released Wednesday is raising more questions about whether lanes were closed on the George Washington Bridge as political payback. The emails indicate that top officials in New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration are involved in the closures — motivated more by politics than a traffic study, as originally claimed.