Robert Siegel
Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.
In 2010, Siegel was recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with the John Chancellor Award. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, first in 1984 for All Things Considered's coverage of peace movements in East and West Germany. He shared in NPR's 1996 Silver Baton Award for "The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution," for coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. He was part of the NPR team that won a Silver Baton for the network's coverage of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.
Other awards Siegel has earned include a 1997 American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for the two-part documentary, "Murder, Punishment, and Parole in Alabama" and the National Mental Health Association's 1991 Mental Health Award for his interviews conducted on the streets of New York in an All Things Considered story, "The Mentally Ill Homeless."
Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, Siegel became NPR's first staffer based overseas when he was chosen to open NPR's London bureau, where he worked as senior editor until 1983. After London, Siegel served for four years as director of the News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition. He became host of All Things Considered in 1987.
Before coming to NPR, Siegel worked for WRVR Radio in New York City as a reporter, host and news director. He was part of the WRVR team honored with an Armstrong Award for the series, "Rockefeller's Drug Law." Prior to WRVR, he was morning news reporter and telephone talk show host for WGLI Radio in Babylon, New York.
A graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, Siegel began his career in radio at Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. As a student he anchored coverage of the 1968 Columbia demonstrations and contributed to the work that earned the station an award from the Writers Guild of America East.
Siegel was the editor of The NPR Interviews 1994, The NPR Interviews 1995 and The NPR Interviews 1996, compilations of NPR's most popular radio conversations from each year.
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NPR's Robert Siegel talks with author Robert Timberg about his new book, State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time. Timberg's book recalls his days playing sandlot football around New York City, and the young men he played ball with.
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During the 2002 election in Manchester, N.H., a number of phone banks used by Democrats to get out the vote were all but shut down by computer jammers. Democrats accused Republicans of dirty tricks -- and on Thursday, attorneys for the Democrats were slated to question a Republican official under oath about the incident. But federal prosecutors stepped in, and asked a judge to delay the deposition. Democrats are again crying foul -- this time, accusing the Justice Department of playing politics by delaying the proceedings just before the 2004 election. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Fred Bever of Maine Public Radio.
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With only a few weeks left in the tight presidential race, all eyes are on the latest swing-state polls. An "Electoral Vote Tracker" on the Los Angeles Times Web site displays the latest poll figures and allows users to create their own election scenarios. NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Los Angeles Times online business and politics editor Dan Gaines.
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President Bush defends his decision to invade Iraq despite a U.S. weapons inspector's report that the country had no illicit weapons. His rival, Sen. John Kerry, said the president refuses "to face the truth." Hear NPR's Robert Siegel, NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Scott Horsley.
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In Tuesday's debate with Sen. John Edwards, Vice President Dick Cheney answered a charge about his role at Halliburton by referencing a Web site, factcheck.com. The site, an advertising holder for encyclopedia companies, was overwhelmed with visits before forwarding all traffic to George Soros.com -- which bears the headline, "Why we must not re-elect President Bush." The vice president meant FactCheck.org. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Melissa Block.
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The U.S. Library of Congress recently made almost $15 million in grants to eight institutions to identify, collect and preserve significant digital material. The Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program seeks to preserve material that was "born digital." NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Laura Campbell of the Library of Congress.
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News that a British flu-vaccine company will be closed instead of providing vaccines for the upcoming flu season has health officials working to get the available vaccine to those who need it most. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and Dr. Richard Raymond, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
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The former top U.S. administrator in Iraq says the United States deployed too few troops there. L. Paul Bremer said the U.S. military also failed to contain violence and looting. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and retired Maj. Gen. William Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Tom Gleisner, co-author of the travel guide Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry. Gleisner describes the invented Eastern European country, including everything from historic nuclear reactors to the legacy of founding father Szlonko Busjbusj, also known as "Bu Bu."
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NPR's Robert Siegel reports on the long awaited presidential debate which airs this evening at 9 p.m. ET from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. So, what can America expect? We talk with the candidates' former debate opponents and get an analysis from journalists about their styles.
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NPR's Robert Siegel talks with political commentaors E.J. Dionne, columnist for The Washington Post, and David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times. Their topics: Thursday night's presidential debates and U.S. policy in Iraq.
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Dr. John Mack died Tuesday in London, the victim of an auto accident. Dr. Mack, a Harvard professor, wrote A Prince of Our Disorder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of T.E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia. Years later, he did controversial research on people who claimed they had been abducted by aliens. NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with a friend and colleague of Dr. Mack, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton of the Harvard Medical School.