Noel King
Noel King is a host of Morning Edition and Up First.
Previously, as a correspondent at Planet Money, Noel's reporting centered on economic questions that don't have simple answers. Her stories have explored what is owed to victims of police brutality who were coerced into false confessions, how institutions that benefited from slavery are atoning to the descendants of enslaved Americans, and why a giant Chinese conglomerate invested millions of dollars in her small, rural hometown. Her favorite part of the job is finding complex, and often conflicted, people at the center of these stories.
Noel has also served as a fill-in host for Weekend All Things Considered and 1A from NPR Member station WAMU.
Before coming to NPR, she was a senior reporter and fill-in host for Marketplace. At Marketplace, she investigated the causes and consequences of inequality. She spent five months embedded in a pop-up news bureau examining gentrification in an L.A. neighborhood, listened in as low-income and wealthy residents of a single street in New Orleans negotiated the best way to live side-by-side, and wandered through Baltimore in search of the legacy of a $100 million federal job-creation effort.
Noel got her start in radio when she moved to Sudan a few months after graduating from college, at the height of the Darfur conflict. From 2004 to 2007, she was a freelancer for Voice of America based in Khartoum. Her reporting took her to the far reaches of the divided country. From 2007 - 2008, she was based in Kigali, covering Rwanda's economic and social transformation, and entrenched conflicts in the the Democratic Republic of Congo. From 2011 to 2013, she was based in Cairo, reporting on Egypt's uprising and its aftermath for PRI's The World, the CBC, and the BBC.
Noel was part of the team that launched The Takeaway, a live news show from WNYC and PRI. During her tenure as managing producer, the show's coverage of race in America won an RTDNA UNITY Award. She also served as a fill-in host of the program.
She graduated from Brown University with a degree in American Civilization, and is a proud native of Kerhonkson, NY.
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The departure of American forces from Afghanistan was forecast to renew violence there, but few expected the Afghan government to fall so quickly. Now the blame game has begun in Washington.
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Hospitals in the South are burdened by the new surge. In Mississippi, only 35% of people are vaccinated, ICUs are full, elective surgeries are being postponed and more kids are being hospitalized.
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The Afghan government has fallen and the Taliban are in control. The U.S. races to process special visas for Afghan contractors. The death toll from the earthquake in Haiti continues to rise.
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The CDC urges pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Taliban fighters effectively control two-thirds of Afghanistan. The Census Bureau is about to reveal new details of what America looks like.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo will leave office in two weeks after an investigation found he sexually harassed 11 women. Cuomo said the transition for Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul to take over "must be seamless."
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The Senate approves a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. New York's lieutenant governor will take over after Gov. Cuomo's steps down. More than 93% of new U.S. COVID-19 cases involve the delta variant.
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The Senate may sign off on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. The Pentagon moves to make vaccines mandatory for service members. As Taliban fighters gain ground, what is the global community doing?
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he's seeking a mandate that will require all members of the U.S. military to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-September — if not sooner.
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A landmark new report finds that climate change is accelerating. Taliban fighters took control of three Afghan cities on Sunday. The maker of Oxycontin, Purdue Pharma, returns to court Monday.
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Weather-wise, it's been a disastrous summer. Scientists say climate change is driving deadly weather disasters around the world, as hotter temperatures produce deeper droughts and heavier rains.