Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
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We get the latest on the coronavirus that has infected more than 1,300 people worldwide, and killed at leasr 54 people.
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The World Health Organization has confirmed that the new coronavirus can be transmitted between humans, raising concerns about the potential spread of the SARS-like disease.
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As massive fires continue to consume Australia, aboriginal elders like Noel Butler say officials need to listen to natives about fire control. -
In Australia there's a debate over how best to control wildfires. An Aboriginal elder is familiar with ancient techniques to prevent large, destructive wildfires.
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Australia faces even hotter weather and strong winds which are expected to worsen the crisis. The disaster is heightening scrutiny of what critics say is inaction on climate change by politicians.
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This past decade has seen a significant amount of destructive hurricanes. NPR's Jason Beaubien has covered some of them and reflects on his reporting.
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A report issued by the U.N. Development Programme says that the 20th-century thinking about global inequality no longer works in the 21st century. -
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that House Democrats will move ahead with drafting articles of impeachment against President Trump. We look at what's next. Also, the latest on measles outbreaks.
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The World Health Organization has released the latest data on measles. The increase in cases is notable — and a sign of how much work needs to be done to address the outbreak. -
Scientists are trying to flip the script on control of mosquitoes in an effort to combat dengue fever. Instead of trying to wipe them out, they're infecting them with bacteria. -
One of the vaccines used to prevent polio has actually been causing some people to get the disease.
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Health officials have long known that virus from the oral vaccine can contaminate water supplies; they underestimated how big a problem this would be.
