Alan Greenblatt
Alan Greenblatt has been covering politics and government in Washington and around the country for 20 years. He came to NPR as a digital reporter in 2010, writing about a wide range of topics, including elections, housing economics, natural disasters and same-sex marriage.
He was previously a reporter with Governing, a magazine that covers state and local government issues. Alan wrote about education, budgets, economic development and legislative behavior, among other topics. He is the coauthor, with Kevin Smith, of Governing States and Localities, a college-level textbook that is now in its fourth edition.
As a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, he was the inaugural winner of the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, which is given to outstanding reporters under the age of 35. Sadly, he no longer meets that requirement.
Along the way, Alan has contributed articles about politics and culture for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is happy to be working for an outlet where he has been able to write about everything from revolutions in the Middle East to antique jazz recordings.
Alan is a graduate of San Francisco State University and holds a master's degree from the University of Virginia.
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The World War II generation had a sense of serving the country together and also shared a belief in professionalism, one historian says. Still, Bush was not afraid to get personal with campaign foes. -
Burrito-making get-togethers are sprouting up around the U.S. to distribute healthy, grab-and-go meals, as well as provide people a fun way to help out and get involved with their communities. -
Blacks often struggle to raise capital to open and run restaurants, a legacy of discrimination. Over the past few years, promotions to help diners know which restaurants are black-owned have spread. -
By the 1980s, 60,000 people had been forcibly removed from this mixed-race section of Cape Town. But the area's food traditions reflect the spirit of helpmekaar, an Afrikaans term for mutual support. -
The country's street-food staple is a fusion meal that has nothing to do with rabbits, and everything to do with the rise of immigrant Indian workers in the 19th century and the era of apartheid. -
Cape Town, South Africa, is now a global food hot spot. But the lack of restaurants serving traditional dishes of the continent speaks to larger concerns about what this post-apartheid society values. -
Medieval theologians used to distinguish between land vs. water creatures, not mammals vs. fish. That's good enough for some restaurants — and parishes — in places with large Catholic populations. -
Marriage proposals are pretty routine at America's high-end restaurants. They can lift the mood in the entire dining room, boost tips and create lifelong customers. Unless the answer is "no," that is. -
A study argues that the density of restaurants and large-scale food retailers in parts of the U.S. has been a major factor in the rise of obesity. But some see it as a "chicken and egg" problem. -
A handful of restaurants are experimenting with no-tipping models, guaranteeing their servers a base level of pay. So far, satisfaction is up and turnover is down.
