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.
-
The Roots drummer, DJ and cookbook author isn't letting a pandemic slow him down — he's still performing on The Tonight Show, and now he's hosting a virtual potluck dinner party on the Food Network. -
The Walt Disney Co. will report its second-quarter earnings on a call with investors on Tuesday — just weeks after the pandemic has shuttered much of the business and led to mass furloughs.
-
Hollywood stars, Jews and non-Jews, celebrated Passover by streaming a Seder online Saturday night. It raised some $2 million for the CDC Foundation's Emergency Response Fund to battle COVID-19.
-
The package marks $75 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, $7.5 million for the Smithsonian, and $25 million for the Kennedy Center.
-
President Trump upset the architectural world in February when he proposed an executive order mandating traditional, classical architecture for new federal buildings. That order is now a reality. -
Chief Justice John Roberts trotted out an obscure term during impeachment proceedings yesterday; here's what it means. -
Chicago attorney Donna Rotunno is defending movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in what is expected to be a knock-down-drag-out trial. Rotunno has publicly disparaged the #MeToo movement.
-
When a teacher suggested Gina Yashere become an actor, her mom said: "Actor? No, no, no. You can act like a doctor when you become a doctor." Yashere is now a co-creator of Bob Hearts Abishola.
-
All Things Considered's Best of 2019 lists are going highly specific. Up next: the best bits from stand-up comedy specials, from Best Joke about the Immigrant Experience to Best Bit about Pregnancy.
-
"Fiction is life with the dull bits left out." That is just one of the many clever observations of the writer, TV host and cultural critic Clive James. He died Sunday in Cambridge, England.
