Sonari Glinton
Sonari Glinton is a NPR Business Desk Correspondent based at our NPR West bureau. He covers the auto industry, consumer goods, and consumer behavior, as well as marketing and advertising for NPR and Planet Money.
In this position, which he has held since late 2010, Glinton has tackled big stories including GM's road back to profitability and Toyota's continuing struggles. In addition, Glinton covered the 2012 presidential race, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as well as the U.S. Senate and House for NPR.
Glinton came to NPR in August 2007 and worked as a producer for All Things Considered. Over the years Glinton has produced dozen of segments about the great American Song Book and pop culture for NPR's signature programs most notably the 50 Great Voices piece on Nat King Cole feature he produced for Robert Siegel.
Glinton began his public radio career as an intern at Member station WBEZ in Chicago. He worked his way through his public radio internships working for Chicago Jazz impresario Joe Segal, waiting tables and meeting legends such as Ray Brown, Oscar Brown Jr., Marian MacPartland, Ed Thigpen, Ernestine Andersen, and Betty Carter.
Glinton attended Boston University. A Sinatra fan since his mid-teens, Glinton's first forays into journalism were album revues and a college jazz show at Boston University's WTBU. In his spare time Glinton indulges his passions for baking, vinyl albums, and the evolution of the Billboard charts.
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New cars on display at the Detroit auto show are full of fancy new technology. But it doesn't have anything to do with automation or self-driving.
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Toyota Announces Makeover Of Its Flagship CarToyota is investing in a major makeover of its Avalon sedan. It's an interesting choice because Americans are bypassing sedans in favor of SUVs. And while the Avalon is reliable, its styling is considered stodgy, at best.
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Tesla has grabbed headlines for innovating electric cars and driverless technology. Companies such Toyota, GM and Mercedes may not have the trendy cache of Tesla, but they do have deep pockets.
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As battery technology improves and cities get denser, some West Coast companies are targeting millennial and Gen X consumers by producing cheaper and greener mopeds, scooters and e-bikes. -
Seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030, regulators approved a plan that offers incentives for truck and bus fleets to go green and for utilities to use more renewable energy.
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The show features some technology and advances that aren't necessarily sexy but are changing the way we move around. They range from luxury car subscriptions to personal electric vehicles.
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The Model 3 is supposed to take Tesla mainstream and bring it to profitability. But CEO Elon Musk's company has missed production goals, and analysts wonder whether he's spreading himself too thin. -
NPR's Sonari Glinton has been out observing the state of retail sales in Los Angeles on Black Friday. He tells NPR's Elise Hu what he's discovered in the huge after Thanksgiving sales.
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We take a look at what this year's Black Friday sales indicate about the direction of the economy.
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Years ago, retailers had an unofficial agreement: Black Friday would be the start of the shopping season. Then some stores started opening their doors and offering sales on Thanksgiving Day. That created some conflicts between consumerism and turkey consumption and now the pendulum is swinging back again.