Susan Stamberg
Susan Stamberg was one of NPR's "founding mothers" (she also coined the phrase). She joined the network at the time of its inception in 1971, and her career at NPR spanned more than five decades.
In 1972, as a host of All Things Considered, Stamberg became the first woman to anchor a national nightly news program. She won every major award in broadcasting, and was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame.
Stamberg served as a host of NPR's award-winning newsmagazine All Things Considered for 14 years and went on to host Weekend Edition Sunday. Later in her career, and until her retirement in September of 2025, she reported on cultural issues as a Special Correspondent for NPR covering the arts.
One of the most popular broadcasters in public radio, Stamberg was well known for her conversational style, intelligence and knack for finding an interesting story. Her interviewing has been called "fresh," "friendly, down-to-earth," and (by novelist E.L. Doctorow) "the closest thing to an enlightened humanist on the radio." Her thousands of interviews include conversations with Laura Bush, Billy Crystal, Rosa Parks, Dave Brubeck and Luciano Pavarotti.
Prior to joining NPR, she served as producer, program director and general manager of NPR Member Station WAMU-FM/Washington, DC. Stamberg authored two books and co-edited a third. Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things, chronicles her two decades with NPR. Her first book, Every Night at Five: Susan Stamberg's All Things Considered Book, was published in 1982 by Pantheon. Stamberg also co-edited The Wedding Cake in the Middle of the Road, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton. That collection grew out of a series of stories Stamberg commissioned for Weekend Edition Sunday.
In addition to her Hall of Fame inductions, other recognitions include the Armstrong and duPont Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Ohio State University's Golden Anniversary Director's Award and the Distinguished Broadcaster Award from the American Women in Radio and Television.
A native of New York City, Stamberg earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College and was awarded numerous honorary degrees including a Doctor of Humane Letters from Dartmouth College. She served as a Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University and on the boards of the PEN/Faulkner Fiction Award Foundation and the National Arts Journalism Program based at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Stamberg hosted a number of series on PBS, moderated three Fred Rogers television specials for adults, served as commentator, guest or co-host on various commercial TV programs and appeared as a narrator in performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her voice appeared on Broadway in the Wendy Wasserstein play An American Daughter.Her husband Louis Stamberg had his career with the State Department's agency for international development.
She passed away at age 87 on October 16, 2025.
