Samantha Balaban
Samantha Balaban is a producer at Weekend Edition.
After receiving her M.A. in Journalism and Latin American studies from New York University, she got her start in public radio covering the James "Whitey" Bulger trial for WBUR as an intern. Since coming to NPR in 2014, she has reported on a perfume-loving tiger, traveled to Mexico to meet actor Diego Luna (and cover the elections), ridden with border patrol officers along the Rio Grande River, eaten very well in Houston, interviewed a Bangle and used her waterproof fanny pack to help keep her mic dry during hurricanes. She's also responsible for Picture This, a series of conversations with authors and illustrators.
Most days, you can find her under a pile of books and mail coordinating Weekend Edition's book coverage. On weekends, she's hanging out with her dog, Winnie.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe visits the food writer's home to talk and cook. Clark has a new book of recipes promising minimal fuss (and dirty dishes).
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As a young attorney, Gray helped defend some of the biggest names of the civil rights movement. If his life had a motto, it would be, as he often says, "To destroy everything segregated I could find."
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Three siblings spend a summer day at the beach building sandcastles and watching them get demolished in a wordless picture book written by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Qin Leng.
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Samantha Balaban and NPR's Life Kit provide insight to teaching old and new dogs new tricks.
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NPR's Eyder Peralta speaks with Spanish rapper C. Tangana about his highly-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album, "El Madrileño."
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Gary Paulsen — whose wilderness adventure Hatchet taught generations of kids to survive in the forest — worked as a farmhand, truck driver and satellite technician before turning to writing.
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The soccer stadium in the Haitian seaside town of Les Cayes is now a tent city of people whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. Aid continues to arrive, but slowly.
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Relief supplies are reaching the quake zone, but slowly. Health care workers are exhausted, some at their jobs 24 hours a day as Haiti struggles to care for those affected by the 7.2 magnitude quake.
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Relief efforts in Haiti are being greatly hampered by the torrential rains of Tropical Storm Grace. And many people are sleeping outside because of a fear of aftershocks.
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For Prince Harry's first Father's Day, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, got him a bench — and wrote a poem about the moments she hoped her husband and their son would share together there.