Margot Adler
Margot Adler died on July 28, 2014 at her home in New York City. She was 68 and had been battling cancer. Listen to NPR Correspondent David Folkenflik's retrospective on her life and career
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Margot Adler is a NPR correspondent based in NPR's New York Bureau. Her reports can be heard regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition.
In addition to covering New York City, Adler reports include in-depth features exploring the interface of politics and culture. Most recently she has been reporting on the controversy surrounding the proposed Islamic Cultural Center near Ground Zero. Other recent pieces have focused on the effect of budget cuts on education, flood relief efforts by the Pakistani community in the United States, the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, and the battles over the September 11 th memorial as well as the continuing human story in New York City in the years since the attacks. Her reporting has included topics such as the death penalty, affirmative action and the culture wars.
Adler did the first American radio interview with J.K. Rowling and has charted the Harry Potter phenomenon ever since. Her reporting ranges across issues including children and technology, the fad of the Percy Jackson books and the popularity of vampires. She occasionally reviews books, covers plays, art exhibitions and auctions, among other reports for NPR's Arts desk.
From 1999-2008, Adler was the host of NPR's Justice Talking, a weekly show exploring constitutional controversies in the nation's courts.
Adler joined the NPR staff as a general assignment reporter in 1979, after spending a year as an NPR freelance reporter covering New York City. In 1980, she documented the confrontation between radicals and the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1984, she reported and produced an acclaimed documentary on AIDS counselors in San Francisco. She covered the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988 and in Sarajevo in 1984. She has reported on homeless people living in the subways, on the state of the middle class and on the last remaining American hospital for treating leprosy, which was located in Louisiana.
From 1972 to 1990, Adler created and hosted live talk shows on WBAI-FM/New York City. One of those shows, Hour of the Wolf, hosted by Jim Freund, continues as a science fiction show to this day. She is the author of the book, Drawing Down the Moon, a study of contemporary nature religions, and a 1960's memoir, Heretic's Heart. She co-produced an award-winning radio drama, War Day, and is a lecturer and workshop leader. She is currently working on a book on why vampires have such traction in our culture.
With a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, Adler went on to earn a Master of Science degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York in 1970. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1982.
The granddaughter of Alfred Adler, the renowned Viennese psychiatrist, Adler was born in Little Rock, Ark., and grew up in New York City. She loves birding and science fiction.
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Mourners around the country commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with moments of silence, pauses in routine -- and with large events at New York City's Ground Zero; in Shanksville Pa., where Flight 93 crashed; and at the Pentagon. In New York, loved ones read aloud the names of 2,749 victims to a crowd that began assembling before dawn.
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Tapes of more than 1,600 phone calls to New York police and firefighters on Sept. 11 are released under court order. Most are brief conversations from firefighters to emergency responders. The release -- the second this year -- follows a long court battle pitting the city against some Sept. 11 families and the New York Times.
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The Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a former Yale University chaplain known for his anti-war and peace activism, dies at the age of 81. Coffin questioned authority throughout his career, using civil disobedience to fight for civil rights and against war.
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In the wake of the London bombings, New York City officials have begun random searches of subway passengers. Some New Yorkers are taking it in stride, but a civil liberties group is raising legal questions saying that the search policy gives a false sense of security.
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Medical residents at Columbia University Medical Center in New York are learning all about the surrounding community of Dominicans and other Latinos by visiting their homes, bodegas and botanicas. It's part of a growing movement in medical schools to teach young doctors how to understand patients who come from a different culture.
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New York City police arrest nearly 1,000 protesters as they try to reach the site of the Republican convention. The marches began in various corners of the city, but police set up barricades to prevent protesters from reaching Madison Square Garden. Hear NPR's Margot Adler.
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As the Republicans prepare to start their national convention, hundreds of thousands of protesters descend on New York City, marching past Madison Square Garden. Police were ready for violence, but the demonstration went peacefully. Hear NPR's Margot Adler.
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New York's Central Park was the scene of demonstrations Sunday as activists protested Republican policies in advance of the party's national convention, which begins Monday. Organizers of a march called "Billionaires for Bush" are among the groups hoping to confront party supporters when the sessions begin. Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden, NPR's Margot Adler and NPR's Nancy Solomon.
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The Florida Marlins defeat the New York Yankees, 3-2, in Game One of the World Series. For some, the game seemed subdued compared to the excitement of the championship series that ousted long-time wannabes the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. NPR's Margot Adler reports.