Jennifer Ludden
Jennifer Ludden helps edit energy and environment stories for NPR's National Desk, working with NPR staffers and a team of public radio reporters across the country. They track the shift to clean energy, state and federal policy moves, and how people and communities are coping with the mounting impacts of climate change.
Previously, Ludden was an NPR correspondent covering family life and social issues, including the changing economics of marriage, the changing role of dads, and the ethical challenges of reproductive technology. She's also covered immigration and national security.
Ludden started reporting with NPR while based overseas in West Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She shared in two awards (Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists) for NPR's coverage of the Kosovo war in 1999, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her coverage of the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When not navigating war zones, Ludden reported on cultural trends, including the dying tradition of storytellers in Syria, the emergence of Persian pop music in Iran, and the rise of a new form of urban polygamy in Africa.
Ludden has also reported from Canada and at public radio stations in Boston and Maine. She's a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in television, radio, and film production and in English.
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Calls to the country's largest sexual assault hotline have spiked since a video came out of Donald Trump bragging about molesting women. We hear from sexual assault survivors about the tape.
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In 1971, the United States came very close to having universal, federally subsidized child care. How did Congress come to pass the legislation? And why President Nixon vetoed it? -
The growth in paid parental leave has largely left out hourly employees. But the Hilton hotel chain this year extended it to all its workers. Demand by millennial employees helped drive the decision. -
Tricia Olson gave birth to her son and was back on the job three weeks later. Like most Americans, she doesn't get paid family leave, and she's among the 40 percent who don't qualify for unpaid leave. -
Carfentanil, a powerful opioid used to sedate elephants, is being blamed for a record spike in drug overdoses in the Midwest. It's much stronger, and riskier, than heroin or fentanyl. -
Given the increasingly dire predictions about the future, being a climate activist is stressful. Some say it's making them stress over something else — whether or not to have children.
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Arkansas, a Bible Belt state that emphasizes abstinence-only in high school, is launching a mandatory program in its colleges and universities on strategies to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
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Prosecutors have dropped all the remaining charges against Baltimore police officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. While the four trials so far returned no convictions, the three more scheduled trials have now also been dropped.
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Baltimore prosecutors have dropped all charges against the three officers who still faced trial in the death of Freddie Gray. Previous trials all ended in acquittals.
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Dallas Police Chief David Brown has been at the forefront of efforts to make police work more transparent and to train officers in de-escalation tactics.
