Sacha Pfeiffer Correspondent, Investigations
Stories By

Sacha Pfeiffer

Sacha Pfeiffer Lucy Cobos/WBUR hide caption

toggle caption
Lucy Cobos/WBUR

Sacha Pfeiffer

Lucy Cobos/WBUR

Sacha Pfeiffer

Correspondent, Investigations

Sacha Pfeiffer is a correspondent for NPR's Investigations team and an occasional guest host for some of NPR's national shows.

Pfeiffer came to NPR from The Boston Globe's investigative Spotlight team, whose stories on the Catholic Church's cover-up of clergy sex abuse won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, among other honors. That reporting is the subject of the movie Spotlight, which won the 2016 Oscar for Best Picture.

Pfeiffer was also a senior reporter and host of All Things Considered and Radio Boston at WBUR in Boston, where she won a national 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast reporting. While at WBUR, she was also a guest host for NPR's nationally syndicated On Point and Here & Now.

At The Boston Globe, where she worked for nearly 18 years, Pfeiffer also covered the court system, legal industry and nonprofit/philanthropic sector; produced investigative series on topics such as financial abuses by private foundations, shoddy home construction and sexual misconduct in the modeling industry; helped create a multi-episode podcast, Gladiator, about the life and death of NFL player Aaron Hernandez; and wrote for the food section, travel pages and Boston Globe Magazine. She shared the George Polk Award for National Reporting, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, among other honors.

At WBUR, where she worked for about seven years, Pfeiffer also anchored election coverage, debates, political panels and other special events. She came to radio as a senior reporter covering health, science, medicine and the environment, and her on-air work received numerous awards from the Radio & Television News Directors Association and the Associated Press.

From 2004-2005, Pfeiffer was a John S. Knight journalism fellow at Stanford University, where she studied at Stanford Law School. She is a co-author of the book Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church and has taught journalism at Boston University's College of Communication.

She has a bachelor's degree in English and history, magna cum laude, and a master's degree in education, both from Boston University, as well as an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Cooper Union.

Pfeiffer got her start in journalism as a reporter at The Dedham Times in Massachusetts. She is also a volunteer English language tutor for adult immigrants.

Story Archive

Tuesday

Rick Hoyt, a fixture at the Boston Marathon with his dad, dies at 61

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1177770586/1177773751" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Sunday

A screenshot from the new documentary, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Courtesy of Apple hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of Apple

'No violins': Michael J. Fox reflects on his career and life with Parkinson's

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175855997/1175921815" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Friday

Turkey's opposition leader poses a challenge to President Erdogan

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175914999/1175915000" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

FDA changes rules for donating blood. Some say they're still discriminatory

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175915036/1175915037" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

'Full faith and credit' means loaning money to U.S. is a safe bet

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175893484/1175915069" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

Bishop's gambit: Elementary school custodian Dave Bishop teaches kids chess

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175609504/1175609505" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Row House Publishing

'A Day With No Words' can be full of meaningful communication

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174982594/1174983175" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Wednesday

The lost Jeopardy tapes: the 40-year mystery behind an enigmatic champion

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175305962/1175305963" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Dozens of student athletes in Iowa came under investigation for sports gambling

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175302089/1175306020" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Tuesday

'Hotel Cuba' tells an immigrant's story of everyday courage

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175071531/1175071532" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Alabama father-son journalists win Pulitzer for reporting that changed laws

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1175071458/1175071459" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Monday

What happens if the government defaults? A former Federal Reserve economist explains

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174853895/1174853917" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

DOT Secretary Buttigieg wants to hold airlines accountable for delays, cancellations

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174853874/1174853875" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Friday

'A Day With No Words' can be full of meaningful communication

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174390728/1174390729" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Does SCOTUS have a moral obligation to answer Congress?

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174390644/1174390645" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

4 horses die at Churchill Downs ahead of the Kentucky Derby

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174390658/1174390659" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images

Thursday

What's next, now that the IRS has a new commissioner and a new budget

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1174085350/1174085351" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Wednesday

Senator says the Supreme Court should 'take the hint' on code of conduct

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1173776535/1173776536" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

8th-graders' history and civics scores drop on a national test

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1173776447/1173776467" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Compared with the rest of the band, lead vocalists are getting quieter

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1173776563/1173776591" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

A giant rat that wasn't suited for its bomb-sniffing job gets a new role

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1173776542/1173776543" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

From 'the other woman' to Queen: how Camilla turned her image around

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1173776618/1173776619" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript