Karen Grigsby Bates
Karen Grigsby Bates is the Senior Correspondent for Code Switch, a podcast that reports on race and ethnicity. A veteran NPR reporter, Bates covered race for the network for several years before becoming a founding member of the Code Switch team. She is especially interested in stories about the hidden history of race in America—and in the intersection of race and culture. She oversees much of Code Switch's coverage of books by and about people of color, as well as issues of race in the publishing industry. Bates is the co-author of a best-selling etiquette book (Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times) and two mystery novels; she is also a contributor to several anthologies of essays. She lives in Los Angeles and reports from NPR West.
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In his new memoir, Rodney King explains why he gave his famous "Can we get along?" speech when riots erupted after police officers were acquitted in his beating. His lawyers had drafted a far angrier script for him. He also reflects on his life since the trial: "Things have changed for me," he says. -
In Power Concedes Nothing, civil rights attorney Connie Rice describes brokering peace between the Los Angeles Police Department and minority populations. -
In a nation where child obesity rates are soaring, some parents are turning to a boarding school that focuses on both weight loss and academics. The goal: to rewire students' eating and exercise habits to ensure they live long and healthy lives. The kids find it a challenge — but totally worth it. -
Fifteen years after she led the prosecution against O.J. Simpson in one of the most public trials of the century, Marcia Clark returns to the courtroom. But this time, it's to make her fiction debut as the writer of a new legal thriller novel, Guilt by Association.. -
The South and West may become the Rust Belts of the 21st century, according to a new study from the Mortgage Bankers Association. It says the economies in these regions — in places like California and Florida — may never fully recover from the burst of the housing bubble. -
The prolific and perennially controversial celebrity biographer takes a look at the life of a talk show host who doesn't much like to be talked about. Not surprisingly, Kelley's latest bio is entirely unauthorized. -
On Sunday night, the Golden Globes will become the biggest, high-profile casualty of the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike. The cost to Los Angeles' economy in lost business from the cancelled ceremonies and after-parties is estimated at $80 million.
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NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates talks to James Dettore about the process of naming high-profile pharmaceutical drugs. Dettore talks about the thinking behind the name Intrinsa, a sexual dysfunction treatment for women.
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NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports on a Catholic bishop who has suspended communion in his Vermont diocese during flu season to help prevent the spread of sickness in his parishes.
