Emily Kwong
Emily Kwong (she/her) is the reporter for NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. The podcast explores new discoveries, everyday mysteries and the science behind the headlines — all in about 10 minutes, Monday through Friday.
Prior to working at NPR, Kwong was a reporter and host at KCAW-Sitka, a community radio station in Sitka, Alaska. She covered local government and politics, culture and general assignments, chasing stories onto fishing boats and up volcanoes. Her work earned multiple awards from the Alaska Press Club and Alaska Broadcasters Association. Prior to that, Kwong produced youth media with WNYC's Radio Rookies and The Modern Story in Hyderabad, India.
Kwong won the "Best New Artist" award in 2013 from the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition for a story about a Maine journalist learning to speak with an electrolarynx. She was the 2018 " Above the Fray" Fellow, reporting a series for NPR on climate change and internal migration in Mongolia.
Kwong earned her bachelor's degree at Columbia University in 2012. She learned the finer points of cutting tape at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in 2013.
-
The science is nascent and a little squishy, but researchers are trying to better understand ASMR — a feeling triggered in the brains of some people by certain soft sounds and gentle gestures. -
Its environment and population are enduring major shifts as the country goes big on mining and as effects of climate change set in. See Mongolia's changes close up in this immersive photo essay.
-
Mongolia is undergoing a dramatic transformation from a pastoral society to one whose economy is based on mining, especially copper and coal. With the change has come opportunity — and loss. -
Winter nights in Ulaanbaatar can drop to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Many residents without electricity burn coal to heat their homes, leading to toxic air and health problems. -
Mongolia's herders are accustomed to cold, but the extreme conditions of the country's terrible winters, known as dzuds, killed countless livestock and livelihoods. Herders have had to adapt. -
Two-humped Bactrian camels were domesticated thousands of years ago to carry goods and people across Asia. Every year, herders come to one Gobi Desert town to celebrate these gentle giants. -
This season's final competition, originally scheduled for mid-March, had to be bumped up by two weeks. "The river was already melting," the town's mayor explained.
