Joel Rose Joel Rose is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. As the network’s transportation correspondent since 2023, Rose’s reporting focuses on roadway and pedestrian safety, an air travel system under stress and how emerging technologies are changing the ways we get around.
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Joel Rose

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Nickolai Hammar/NPR

Joel Rose

Correspondent, National Desk

Joel Rose is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk. As the network's transportation correspondent since 2023, Rose's reporting focuses on roadway and pedestrian safety, an air travel system under stress and how emerging technologies are changing the ways we get around.

In his previous assignment on the immigration beat, Rose was part of an NPR team that was a finalist for the duPont-Columbia Award for reporting on the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy. He traveled to Arizona to investigate how fentanyl is smuggled through legal ports of entry at the southern border, and to Honduras to report on how climate change is reshaping migration.

Rose joined NPR in 2011 as a general assignment reporter in New York City. He's interviewed grieving parents after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, asylum-seekers fleeing from violence and poverty in Central and South America and a long list of musicians including Solomon Burke, Tom Waits, Sixto Rodriguez, Mary Halvorson and Arcade Fire.

Breaking news coverage has taken him across the country: from the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, to major hurricanes in Florida, Louisiana, New York and North Carolina, and protests after the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner.

Rose has collaborated with NPR's Planet Money, Consider This and Up First podcasts, and contributed to NPR's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

Story Archive

Thursday

While air traffic controllers welcome an infusion of more than $12 billion to modernize their equipment, some controllers say they are under pressure due to other issues, such as grueling schedules, mandatory overtime and stagnating pay. Glenn Harvey for NPR hide caption

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Glenn Harvey for NPR

Air Traffic Controller Morale 

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Wednesday

Air Traffic Controller Morale 

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Monday

A Tesla Model S in the aftermath of a fatal crash in April 2019 near Key Largo, Fla. The driver survived, but the impact killed a 22-year-old woman and severely injured her companion. Florida Highway Patrol hide caption

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Florida Highway Patrol

A lawsuit against Tesla and its driver-assistance technology goes to trial in Florida

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Friday

Members of the Indian Army's engineering team prepare to remove the wreckage of an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, bound for London's Gatwick Airport, which crashed during take-off from an airport in Ahmedabad, India June 14, 2025. Basit Zargar/AFP via Getty hide caption

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Basit Zargar/AFP via Getty

Tuesday

An air traveler puts his shoes in a bin before passing through a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport in 2014. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Shoes off at the airport? TSA gives the pesky rule the boot

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Thursday

A traveler walks through Newark Liberty International Airport in early June. United Airlines says Newark was the most reliable airport in the New York City area in June — a remarkable turnaround after a wave of cancellations and delays in April and May. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

We flew to Newark to find out if the airport is recovering from its recent struggles

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Tuesday

In this National Transportation Safety Board handout photo, plastic covers the exterior of the fuselage plug area of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 Max, on January 7, 2024 in Portland, Ore. A door-sized section near the rear of the plane blew off 10 minutes after takeoff on January 5 on its way to Ontario, Calif. NTSB handout/Getty Images hide caption

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NTSB handout/Getty Images

NTSB DOOR PLUG MEETING

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Saturday

Inside a school that’s working to fix the U.S. shortage of air traffic controllers

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Thursday

Why it's hard to hire air traffic controllers

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Hailee Williamson stands behind the controls of an air traffic control simulator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Joel Rose/NPR hide caption

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Inside a school that’s working to fix the U.S. shortage of air traffic controllers

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Thursday

The back of Air India Flight 171 juts out of a building after the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images

Sunday

WHY HASN'T AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL BEEN FIXED?

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Friday

The fragile state of the U.S. air traffic control system was evident during the recent outages at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. The radar and communication problems led to hundreds of delays and cancellations. But it will be a lot harder to make up for decades of underinvestment and failed attempts to modernize the system. Andres Kudacki/Getty Images hide caption

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Andres Kudacki/Getty Images

Air Traffic Overhaul Obstacles

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Thursday

Air Traffic Overhaul Obstacles

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Monday

Is the nation's air traffic control system ready as travel season gets underway?

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Friday

Relatives of victims hold a placard with photos of victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019, prior to a hearing in Fort Worth, Texas, in January 2023. Shelby Tauber/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Shelby Tauber/AFP via Getty Images

Thursday

It's been a harrowing month for travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. Radar and communication systems have stopped working on at least three occasions since April 28. The incidents have raised big questions about how the air traffic control mess in Newark got as bad as it did. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

Wednesday

INSIDE THE NEWARK MESS - ATC

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Friday

Relatives of victims hold a placard with photos of victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019, prior to a hearing in Fort Worth, Texas, in January 2023. Shelby Tauber/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Shelby Tauber/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. Army soldiers patrol the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 24. The Trump administration has often used the word invasion to describe illegal immigration, but that framing has not been fully tested in court until now. Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Thursday

NPR/IPSOS poll finds that more than half of Americans are against ending birthright citizenship, the longstanding principle by which any child born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

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Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Majority of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, NPR/Ipsos poll finds

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Wednesday

Majority of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship, NPR/Ipsos poll finds

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Monday

Thousands of international students studying at U.S. universities have had their visa records terminated by the Trump administration, sometimes for infractions as minor as a traffic violation. Lisa Poole/AP hide caption

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Trump administration confirms targeting international students with minor offenses

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Sunday

Trump administration confirms targeting international students with minor offenses

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