Accessibility links
Margot Adler Margot Adler is a NPR correspondent based in NPR's New York Bureau. Her reports can be heard regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.
Margot Adler
Stories By

Margot Adler

Old Reporters Never Die

NPR's Margot Adler said she was going to a party last night and asked if I was interested. Of course I was interested, but she sent me this instead of taking me: When I was growing up in the 1950s in New York City, my father always said to me, "Read The New York Times when the Republicans are in power; read The New York Herald Tribune when the Democrats are governing." It was a phrase you could say in those days, because there were eight newspapers in the New York City, and rivalry between the Times and the Herald Tribune was feisty and legendary...

Performing Arts

A Greek View of War's Tragedy: 'The Persians'

Aeschylus' tragedy The Persians is the first play based not on myth, but on a historical fact: the defeat of the Persian army at the Battle of Salamis. The National Theatre of Greece is performing the play in Greek with English subtitles, at the City Center in New York. This oldest surviving tragedy can, at times, seem surprisingly contemporary.

A Greek View of War's Tragedy: 'The Persians'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6104370/6134118" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Obituaries

A Nation Pauses to Reflect on Attacks of 2001

Mourners around the country commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with moments of silence, pauses in routine -- and with large events at New York City's Ground Zero; in Shanksville Pa., where Flight 93 crashed; and at the Pentagon. In New York, loved ones read aloud the names of 2,749 victims to a crowd that began assembling before dawn.

A Nation Pauses to Reflect on Attacks of 2001

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6056131/6056132" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

Thousands Gather in New York for Sept. 11

Thousands of people are gathering at Ground Zero in New York to observe the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. President Bush was among those in the city to remember those lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Thousands Gather in New York for Sept. 11

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/6051202/6051203" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

A Tale of Two Connecticuts

The Struggle to Make a Living Wage

Once a thriving industrial center, the story of Bridgeport, like many industrial towns in New England, is the story of factories closing, jobs lost, rising crime, unemployment, drugs and poverty.

The Struggle to Make a Living Wage

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5768280/5768283" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

After a Court Battle, More Sept. 11 Tapes Released

Tapes of more than 1,600 phone calls to New York police and firefighters on Sept. 11 are released under court order. Most are brief conversations from firefighters to emergency responders. The release -- the second this year -- follows a long court battle pitting the city against some Sept. 11 families and the New York Times.

After a Court Battle, More Sept. 11 Tapes Released

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5658950/5658951" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Performing Arts

A Train Plays: From Concept to Stage in 28 Hours

"A train plays" are created on NYC's longest subway line. Performers, writers, composers and directors have about a day to take a production from the first line on paper to its first performance.

A Train Plays: From Concept to Stage in 28 Hours

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5637781/5637797" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Your Money

Behind the Ever-Expanding American Dream House

The size of a typical American house has more than doubled since the 1950s. Why do we need an office, a wine cellar, a sauna and a room for the flat-screen TV? And what does it say about our culture?

Behind the Ever-Expanding American Dream House

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5525283/5533012" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

National

Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Readied for Auction

A collection of personal documents belonging to Martin Luther King Jr. will be sold on June 30 by Sotheby's auction house. Potential buyers got to do a little window shopping Wednesday in New York.

Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Readied for Auction

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5503185/5503186" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sports

Negro Leagues Exhibit Goes on Nationwide Tour

Exhibits from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum are touring the country in a mobile trailer, with photos, videos and memorabilia. The trailer, visiting 30 cities, stopped at New York's Shea Stadium on Sunday, when the Mets were honoring the Negro Leagues. Legendary player, scout and coach Buck O'Neil, 94, is traveling with the exhibit.

Negro Leagues Exhibit Goes on Nationwide Tour

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5452425/5452426" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

Terror Financing Cut, New York Reacts

Perhaps the headline in the New York Post said it all: "DC's Stupid Scrooges Slash NYC Terror Aid and Splurge on the Sticks." On the other hand, New Yorkers seem to be taking in stride the news that the city's federal anti-terrorism funding will be cut about 40 percent.

Terror Financing Cut, New York Reacts

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5445341/5445342" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

Ground Zero Stairs Named to Historic List

A New York City staircase has been listed as one of America's most endangered historic sites by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Patty Clark, left, and Kayla Bergeron escaped from the collapsing World Trade Center through these steps, now known as the "survivor" staircase.

Ground Zero Stairs Named to Historic List

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5397044/5397055" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Education

Taking the SAT, Graduating Middle School

These days, more than 100,000 students are taking the SAT while they're still in middle school. Some are under increasing pressure to get ready for college, no matter how early. And some want to qualify for prestigious academic summer programs such as the one at Johns Hopkins University.

Taking the SAT, Graduating Middle School

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5383634/5383635" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Law

New York Reconsiders No-Fault Divorce

New York has not embraced no-fault divorce, a legal revolution that swept the country in the 1970s. Now that may be changing. New Yorkers, unlike most Americans, must show grounds for divorce. That may be about to change.

New York Reconsiders No-Fault Divorce

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5368225/5368226" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

National

The Vanishing Craft of the Typewriter Repairman

Some people still write with fountain pens. Some still love their old manual and electric typewriters. But typewriter repairmen are a vanishing breed. Up on the eighth floor of the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, Paul Schweitzer has been fixing and cleaning typewriters for 40 years.

The Vanishing Craft of the Typewriter Repairman

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5330310/5344694" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript