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.
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In 2017, a crowdsourced spreadsheet gave women the opportunity to anonymously share allegations against prominent figures in journalism and publishing. One writer has filed a defamation lawsuit. -
Valerie Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, died Friday in Los Angeles. She was 80.
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Harper's Mary Tyler Moore Show character was the perfect foil for the sitcom's buttoned-up protagonist. "Rhoda had this wonderful quality of saying the unsayable," Harper told NPR in 2010. -
D.A. Pennebaker used portable cameras and redefined documentary filmmaking. Pennebaker was best known for Don't Look Back, The War Room, and Monterey Pop. He died Thursday at 94.
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Inspired by gospel, the standout from U2's American experiment, The Joshua Tree, has become a rock and roll hymn, even finding its way into real-life church services. -
Montreal's Just For Laughs festival has countless comedy performances at indoor venues — but organizers say it's important that the fun spills out onto the streets, with clowns, dancers and puppets. -
The Just For Laughs international comedy festival is not just for headliners. The largest comedy festival in the world is also known for being the place for new comedians to break out.
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Singer Billie Holiday died 60 years ago next week. For nearly a year, she had no tombstone until fans rallied to make sure Lady Day's final resting place was properly marked.
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Brian Regan has been called "your favorite comedian's favorite comedian." He's also known as a "clean comic," which might explain why families make up a good portion of his audience.
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The Smithsonian Institution has named Lonnie Bunch III as its new secretary. He will become the first African American to lead the institution and the first historian to be elected to the position.
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Nevins, 80, has some 1,500 credits to her name, and is best known for running HBO's prestigious documentary division. "At my age, most people would think that I would be out to pasture," she says. -
The comic and actor, known for his boundary-pushing stand-up routines and his sketch comedy TV series Chappelle's Show, will receive the award in a gala at the Kennedy Center.
