Barbara Bradley Hagerty
Barbara Bradley Hagerty is the religion correspondent for NPR, reporting on the intersection of faith and politics, law, science and culture. Her New York Times best-selling book, "Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality," was published by Riverhead/Penguin Group in May 2009. Among others, Barb has received the American Women in Radio and Television Award, the Headliners Award and the Religion Newswriters Association Award for radio reporting.
Before covering the religion beat, Barb was NPR's Justice Department correspondent between 1998 and 2003. Her billet included the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, Florida's disputed 2000 election, terrorism, crime, espionage, wrongful convictions and the occasional serial killer. Barbara was the lead correspondent covering the investigation into the September 11 attacks. Her reporting was part of NPR's coverage that earned the network the 2001 George Foster Peabody and Overseas Press Club awards. She has appeared on the PBS programs Washington Week and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Barb came to NPR in 1995, after attending Yale Law School on a one-year Knight Fellowship. From 1982-1993, she worked at The Christian Science Monitor as a newspaper reporter in Washington, as the Asia correspondent based in Tokyo for World Monitor (the Monitor's nightly television program on the Discovery Cable Channel) and finally as senior Washington correspondent for Monitor Radio.
Barb was graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 1981 with a degree in economics, and has a masters in legal studies from Yale Law School.
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Benjamine Spencer's case illustrates how difficult it can be for some prisoners in Texas to prove they did not commit a crime without new and unassailable evidence, such as DNA. -
People between 45 and 65 may be the loneliest segment in the U.S. And researchers are using brain scans to show that friendships are vital to staying healthy and engaged in your middle years.
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You forget someone's name, or why you ran downstairs. Your brain is getting older, and the connections are weakening. But research shows the middle-aged brain is actually operating at its peak. -
Maya Thompson's son Ronan died of cancer three days before his fourth birthday. During his illness, she began a raw and sometimes angry blog that drew millions of readers. Thompson has since started a foundation and is funding clinical trials to find a cure for childhood cancer. -
The Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Bishops are pushing back against what they perceive as threats to the Catholic Church's core beliefs. While some Catholics are uncomfortable with the changes under way, others say they are overdue. -
The Defense Of Marriage Act prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages — and that means Social Security benefits don't pass on to surviving partners. A lawsuit seeks the same benefits given to heterosexual married couples. -
The King James translation, first published 400 years ago, is celebrating a birthday of biblical proportions. It's no longer the top-selling Bible, but in those four centuries, it has woven itself deeply into our speech and culture. -
Brian McLaren, an influential evangelical leader, suggests in a new book that Jesus is not the only way to salvation. Traditional evangelicals fiercely object to his ideas. But McLaren is tapping into a generational divide between young evangelicals and their parents.
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Scholar Philip Jenkins argues that scriptures in the Quran are less brutal than those in the Bible. In his forthcoming book, Dark Passages, Jenkins points out that violence in the Quran is mostly defensive, but in the Bible, it is often a method of genocide. -
Pope Benedict XVI praises America as a land of opportunity during his first public Mass in the U.S. Tens of thousands of worshippers filled the new baseball stadium in Washington, D.C., for an open-air service.
