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Susan Stamberg
Antony Nagelmann

Susan Stamberg

Special Correspondent, Morning Edition

Nationally renowned broadcast journalist Susan Stamberg is special correspondent for NPR.

Stamberg is the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program, and has won every major award in broadcasting. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame. An NPR "founding mother," Stamberg has been on staff since the network began in 1971.

Beginning in 1972, Stamberg served as co-host of NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered for 14 years. She then hosted Weekend Edition Sunday, and now serves as guest host of NPR's Morning Edition and Weekend Edition Saturday, in addition to reporting on cultural issues for Morning Edition.

One of the most popular broadcasters in public radio, Stamberg is well known for her conversational style, intelligence, and knack for finding an interesting story. Her interviewing has been called "fresh," "friendly, down-to-earth," and (by novelist E.L. Doctorow) "the closest thing to an enlightened humanist on the radio." Her thousands of interviews include conversations with Laura Bush, Billy Crystal, Rosa Parks, Dave Brubeck, and Luciano Pavarotti.

Prior to joining NPR, she served as producer, program director, and general manager of NPR Member Station WAMU-FM/Washington, DC. Stamberg is the author of two books, and co-editor of a third. Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things, chronicles her two decades with NPR. Her first book, Every Night at Five: Susan Stamberg's All Things Considered Book, was published in 1982 by Pantheon. Stamberg also co-edited The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton. That collection grew out of a series of stories Stamberg commissioned for Weekend Edition Sunday.

In addition to her Hall of Fame inductions, other recognitions include the Armstrong and duPont Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ohio State University's Golden Anniversary Director's Award, and the Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.

A native of New York City, Stamberg earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. She is a Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, and has served on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Foundation and the National Arts Journalism Program based at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Stamberg has hosted a number of series on PBS, moderated three Fred Rogers television specials for adults, served as commentator, guest or co-host on various commercial TV programs, and appeared as a narrator in performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her voice appeared on Broadway in the Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter.

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Stories By

Susan Stamberg
Edgar Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is on display at the National Gallery of Art until Jan. 11.

Edgar Degas' Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is on display at the National Gallery of Art until Jan. 11. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon/ Courtesy of the National Gallery hide caption

itoggle caption Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon/ Courtesy of the National Gallery

Theater

'Little Dancer' Musical Imagines The Story Behind Degas' Mysterious Muse

Ballerina Marie Van Goethem started modeling for Edgar Degas around 1878 and inspired his statue Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. But history lost track of her after she left the Paris Opera.

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These pastel boxes originally owned by Mary Cassatt were acquired recently by the National Gallery of Art. Click here for a closer look.

These pastel boxes originally owned by Mary Cassatt were acquired recently by the National Gallery of Art. Click here for a closer look. National Gallery of Art hide caption

itoggle caption National Gallery of Art

Fine Art

Now That's An Artifact: See Mary Cassatt's Pastels At The National Gallery

Cassatt gave the three well-loved, wooden boxes of pastels to a friend's 10-year-old granddaughter, who later recalled: "I wasted lots of them on playing and swapping them with my friends."

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Tom Murphy, San Francisco, 1948 gelatin silver print

Tom Murphy, San Francisco, 1948 gelatin silver print The Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum hide caption

itoggle caption The Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum

Photography

Minor White, Who Lived A Life In Photographs, Saw Images As Mirrors

White was an outsider with a quirky sense of humor who used photography to look inward. He died in 1976, and now an exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles celebrates his work.

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The Wilshire Boulevard Temple (pictured above circa 1939) was dedicated 85 years ago in 1929. Rabbi Steve Leder says, "This was the Los Angeles Jewish community's statement to itself — and to the majoritarian culture that surrounded it — that 'We are here, and we are prepared to be a great cultural and religious and civic force in our community.' "

The Wilshire Boulevard Temple (pictured above circa 1939) was dedicated 85 years ago in 1929. Rabbi Steve Leder says, "This was the Los Angeles Jewish community's statement to itself — and to the majoritarian culture that surrounded it — that 'We are here, and we are prepared to be a great cultural and religious and civic force in our community.' " Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library

Architecture

Best Seat In The House Of Worship: The Temple Hollywood Built

Built in the late 1920s by movie moguls, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is a Los Angeles landmark — and also a statement the LA Jewish community made to itself, and to the city.

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Albert Paley's iron and steel gates, archways and free-standing sculptures are eye-catching landmarks. His 2010 steel work Evanesce stands in Monterrey, Mexico. "American Metal: The Art of Albert Paley" is on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art until September.

Albert Paley's iron and steel gates, archways and free-standing sculptures are eye-catching landmarks. His 2010 steel work Evanesce stands in Monterrey, Mexico. "American Metal: The Art of Albert Paley" is on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art until September. Agencia para la Planeacióndel Desarrollo Urbano de Nuevo León/Courtesy Paley Studios hide caption

itoggle caption Agencia para la Planeacióndel Desarrollo Urbano de Nuevo León/Courtesy Paley Studios

Fine Art

With Swirls Of Steel, These Sculptures Mark The Passage Of People And Time

Albert Paley's eye-catching gates, archways and sculptures frame transitions and elevate otherwise routine paths. An exhibit in Washington, D.C., is celebrating the work of the American metalsmith.

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Apples and Cakes (Pommes et gateaux) by Paul Cezanne, 1873-1877.

Apples and Cakes (Pommes et gateaux) by Paul Cezanne, 1873-1877. Christie's Images Limited/Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation hide caption

itoggle caption Christie's Images Limited/Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation

Fine Art

For Paul Cezanne, An Apple A Day Kept Obscurity Away

In the 1800s, still-life painting was the bottom feeder of the art world, but that's where the French painter chose to leave his mark. "I want to astonish Paris with an apple," he's said to have said.

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Yves Saint Laurent works with a model at his Paris fashion house in 1965. A new film follows the designer's rise in the fashion world.

Yves Saint Laurent works with a model at his Paris fashion house in 1965. A new film follows the designer's rise in the fashion world. Reg Lancaster/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Reg Lancaster/Getty Images

Movie Interviews

The Turbulent Love Story Behind Yves Saint Laurent's Revolutionary Rise

The designer and his lover, Pierre Berge, had deliberately defined roles — Saint Laurent was the fragile artist and Berge was the ultimate manager. A new film tells their story.

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In 1930, Grant Wood had his sister Nan pose for American Gothic. "The public reaction to the painting was so rough on her that her brother Grant felt bad for her," curator Elizabeth Botten says.

In 1930, Grant Wood had his sister Nan pose for American Gothic. "The public reaction to the painting was so rough on her that her brother Grant felt bad for her," curator Elizabeth Botten says. Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art Collection/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Art Institute of Chicago, Friends of American Art Collection/AP

Fine Art

Meet The Models: Exhibit Explores The People Behind The Paintings

An exhibit at Smithsonian's Archives of American Art investigates the relationship between artists and their models. The stern woman in Grant Wood's American Gothic? That was actually his sister, Nan.

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Joan Brown's 1970 Self-Portrait with Fish and Cat is the first image you see at the National Portrait Gallery's "Face Value" exhibit.

Joan Brown's 1970 Self-Portrait with Fish and Cat is the first image you see at the National Portrait Gallery's "Face Value" exhibit. Estate of Joan Brown/Courtesy of George Adams Gallery/National Portrait Gallery hide caption

itoggle caption Estate of Joan Brown/Courtesy of George Adams Gallery/National Portrait Gallery

Fine Art

As Portraits Became Passé, These Artists Redefined 'Face Value'

After World War II, portraiture fell out of fashion. But an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery celebrates some rebel artists who found new, clever and funny ways to portray the human figure.

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In a letter, Mary Cassatt describes working on Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878) with Edward Degas. An X-ray of the painting reveals brush strokes unlike Cassatt's regular strokes.

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itoggle caption National Gallery of Art

Fine Art

Impressionists With Benefits? The Painting Partnership Of Degas And Cassatt

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Two pensive women share a mysterious, intense moment in Raphael Soyer's 1980 Annunciation.

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itoggle caption Smithsonian American Art Museum

Fine Art

One Collector's Plan To Save Realistic Art Was Anything But Abstract

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