Guy Raz
Guy Raz is the host, co-creator, and editorial director of three NPR programs, including two of its most popular ones: TED Radio Hour and How I Built This.Both shows are heard by more than 14 million people each month around the world. He is also the creator and co-host of NPR's first-ever podcast for kids, Wow In The World.
TED Radio Hour is a co-production of NPR and TED that takes listeners on a journey through the world of ideas. Each week, the world's greatest thinkers, scientists, artists, and visionaries join Raz for an exploration into the common experiences that make us human. The TED Radio Hour asks questions like "Why do we have the capacity to imagine?" "What animates us?" "What does it mean to live in the Anthropocene?" It is also the fastest-growing NPR radio program in history and the third most-downloaded podcast in America.
How I Built This is a podcast about the greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity, and insight — told by the founders of some of the world's best-known companies and brands. In 2016, it was named one of the top ten podcasts of the year by iTunes, and Inc Magazine called it "the best podcast to take on the new year."
Wow in the Worldis a show about science, wonder, discovery and the amazing things happening in our world. It's for kids ages 5-10 and marks NPR's first-ever foray into children's programming. The Guardian called it "a kids podcast with plenty for parents, too!"
In 2017, Raz became the first person in the history of podcasting to have three shows in the top 20 on the Apple Podcast charts.
Previously, Raz was weekend host of NPR News' signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Considered. During his tenure, he transformed the sound and format of the program, introducing the now-signature "cover story" and creating the popular "Three-Minute Fiction" writing contest.
Raz joined NPR in 1997 as an intern for All Things Considered and has worked virtually every job in the newsroom from temporary production assistant to breaking news anchor. His first job was the assistant to NPR's legendary news analyst Daniel Schorr.
In 2000, at the age of 25, Raz was made NPR's Berlin bureau chief where he covered Eastern Europe and the Balkans. During his six years abroad, Raz covered everything from wars and conflict zones to sports and entertainment. He reported from more than 40 countries including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Macedonia, and the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Raz also served as NPR's bureau chief in London, and between 2004-2006 he left NPR to work in television as CNN's Jerusalem correspondent. During this time, Raz chronicled everything from the rise of Hamas as a political power to the incapacitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Raz returned to NPR to serve as defense correspondent where he covered the Pentagon and the US military.
For his reporting from Iraq, Raz was awarded both the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Daniel Schorr Journalism prize. His reporting has contributed to two duPont awards and one Peabody awarded to NPR. He's been a finalist for the Livingston Award four times. He's won the National Headliner Award and an NABJ award, in addition to many others. In 2008, he spent a year as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University where he studied classical history.
As a host and correspondent, Raz has interviewed and profiled more than 6,000 people including Christopher Hitchens, Condoleezza Rice, Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, General David Petraeus, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Eminem, Taylor Swift, and many, many others.
Raz has anchored live coverage on some of the biggest stories in recent years, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Newtown School Shootings, and the 2012 presidential election.
He has also served as a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University, a Shapiro fellow at George Washington University, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Georgetown.
Most importantly, Guy is a father. He's performed in DC children's theater as the narrator in "Cat in the Hat." He helped design the local playground in his neighborhood. And Guy is also known as the "Cokie Roberts for the 4-8-year-old crowd" as the news analyst for the Breakfast Blast Newscast on Kids Place Live on SiriusXM radio. You can catch his updates each Friday morning. His work on the Breakfast Blast Newscast was named "Best Children's Radio Program" of 2016 by the New York Festivals World's Best Radio Programs.
Guy is also an avid cyclist who commutes to work on his bike year-round. From early April to late September, you can find him at Nationals Park watching baseball.
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With films including period pieces like Sense and Sensibility, big-budget action films like Hulk and epic romances like Brokeback Mountain,Lee can't be pigeonholed. So he was up for the challenge when presented with a story that takes place almost entirely on a boat — with a real tiger. -
More than 15 years after his game-changing debut, Endtroducing....., the hip-hop producer born Josh Davis is about to see his work get the deluxe box set treatment. He explains where he finds the scraps of sound that make up his albums and why he does his best work when he's alone. -
On Nov. 17, 1968, the New York Jets had taken a two-point lead over the Oakland Raiders with 50 seconds left on the clock. But before the final whistle blew, the stadium faded out and the Swiss Alps faded in for fans watching the game in their living rooms. -
As we look ahead to the next four years, it's not just Congress that will undergo change. Four of the nine Supreme Court justices are over the age of 70, meaning there's a real possibility for at least one new court appointment during President Obama's second term. -
Jon Ronson, the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. His newest book, Lost at Sea, is a collection of true mini-adventures he has written along the way.
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Voters will decide 174 ballot propositions across 37 states this election, and some of those decisions could change the day-to-day lives of average Americans more than who wins the presidency. -
The poll shows President Obama leading his GOP challenger, Mitt Romney, 48 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. The poll was conducted after Superstorm Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast. Pew also found that Romney supporters are more committed to voting than are Obama's supporters.
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It's the question most pollsters ask. But one political economist says there's a better one to ask if you want to predict a candidate's fate. -
As the presidential candidates prepare for Monday night's foreign policy debate, they'll probably think about Iran, Israeli-Palestinian talks and China. Each case would require a balance of alliance-building and tough talk. But how much of what the candidates say will they actually pursue if elected? -
Host Guy Raz speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea, who has just spent two weeks on the campaign trail. Along the way, he met some undecided voters. In swing states, undecided voters are being bombarded by advertising, and Gonyea explains what is keeping them from making up their minds.
