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Robert Siegel

Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.

In 2010, Siegel was recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with the John Chancellor Award. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, first in 1984 for All Things Considered's coverage of peace movements in East and West Germany. He shared in NPR's 1996 Silver Baton Award for "The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution," for coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. He was part of the NPR team that won a Silver Baton for the network's coverage of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.

Other awards Siegel has earned include a 1997 American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for the two-part documentary, "Murder, Punishment, and Parole in Alabama" and the National Mental Health Association's 1991 Mental Health Award for his interviews conducted on the streets of New York in an All Things Considered story, "The Mentally Ill Homeless."

Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, Siegel became NPR's first staffer based overseas when he was chosen to open NPR's London bureau, where he worked as senior editor until 1983. After London, Siegel served for four years as director of the News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition. He became host of All Things Considered in 1987.

Before coming to NPR, Siegel worked for WRVR Radio in New York City as a reporter, host and news director. He was part of the WRVR team honored with an Armstrong Award for the series, "Rockefeller's Drug Law." Prior to WRVR, he was morning news reporter and telephone talk show host for WGLI Radio in Babylon, New York.

A graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, Siegel began his career in radio at Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. As a student he anchored coverage of the 1968 Columbia demonstrations and contributed to the work that earned the station an award from the Writers Guild of America East.

Siegel was the editor of The NPR Interviews 1994, The NPR Interviews 1995 and The NPR Interviews 1996, compilations of NPR's most popular radio conversations from each year.

  • Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for president Thursday, bowing to the mathematical logic that says John McCain will be the nominee of the Republican Party. Romney had poured tens of millions of dollars from his personal fortune into an effort that left him hundreds of delegates behind McCain.
  • During the first week of the Sundance Film Festival, buyers compete for films in earnest. Competition for films is expected to be tougher this year because the screenwriters' strike means supply is limited. But the highest bidder might not be the best distributor for an independent film.
  • President Bush and Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke have both endorsed the idea of a stimulus package for the economy. Bernanke said at a House Budget Committee hearing that if Congress is going to act, it should do so quickly and make sure its actions are temporary. The president said he'll lay out his plan Friday.
  • Hillary Clinton addressed the growing tension between her and presidential rival Barack Obama on Monday, telling a gathering in New York honoring Martin Luther King that the civil rights visionary made it possible for both a woman and a black man to run for president.
  • We've barely had time to interpret the results of last week's Iowa caucuses, and now it's New Hampshire's turn. What statement — if any — will the voters in the "Live Free or Die" state make Tuesday? How will the independents vote? What will the results mean for the winners — and for the losers? And where do the candidates go from here?
  • The Federal Reserve Bank moved Wednesday morning to ease a global credit crisis, announcing a plans to offer $40 billion in emergency funds to banks through an auction process. The move was coordinated with other major central banks and is designed to increase liquidity around the globe.
  • State prosecutors in Missouri have dropped child sexual abuse charges against the leaders of a small church, one week before their trial was due to begin. A defense lawyer said the charges were dropped after two of the accusers stopped cooperating with authorities.
  • Paul Tibbets, who piloted the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, has died at age 92. On Aug. 6, 1945, Tibbets' B-29 dropped the nearly five-ton bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Tibbets always insisted that he did not have regrets.
  • Cyclist Floyd Landis has lost his doping case and with it his claim to the 2006 Tour de France title. An arbitration panel upheld the results of a test that showed Landis used synthetic testosterone to fuel his victory. Landis has the right to appeal.
  • In one of the worst incidents since the start of the conflict in Iraq, at least 175 people were killed Tuesday when three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers attacked a town in northern Iraq. Kahtaniya, near Mosul, is home to an ancient minority sect. At least 200 others were injured.