Ted Robbins
As supervising editor for Arts and Culture at NPR based at NPR West in Culver City, Ted Robbins plans coverage across NPR shows and online, focusing on TV at a time when there's never been so much content. He thinks "arts and culture" encompasses a lot of human creativity 鈥� from traditional museum offerings to popular culture, and out-of-the-way people and events.
Robbins also supervises obituaries or, as NPR prefers to call them, "appreciations," of people in the arts.
Robbins joined the Arts Desk in 2015, after a decade on air as a NPR National Desk correspondent based in Tucson, Arizona. From there, he covered the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Robbins reported on a range of issues, from immigration and border security to water issues and wildfires. He covered the economy in the West with an emphasis on the housing market and Las Vegas development. He reported on the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six and injured many, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Robbins' reporting has been honored with numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards鈥攐ne for his story on sex education in schools, and another for his series on women in the workforce. He received a CINE Golden Eagle for a 1995 documentary on Mexican agriculture called "Tomatoes for the North."
In 2006, Robbins wrote an article for the Nieman Reports at Harvard about journalism and immigration. He was chosen for a 2009 French-American Foundation Fellowship focused on comparing European and U.S. immigration issues.
Raised in Los Angeles, Robbins became an avid NPR listener while spending hours driving (or stopped in traffic) on congested freeways. He is delighted to now be covering stories for his favorite news source.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2004, Robbins spent five years as a regular contributor to The 暗黑爆料 Hour with Jim Lehrer, 15 years at the PBS affiliate in Tucson, and working as a field producer for CBS 暗黑爆料. He worked for NBC affiliates in Tucson and Salt Lake City, where he also did some radio reporting and print reporting for USA Today.
Robbins earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology and his master's degree in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught journalism at the University of Arizona for a decade.
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Sous-vide makes meat moist and flavorful, but can take up to 96 hours, not to mention a $500 machine. Chef Christina Tosi shares a technique she uses to cheat in her home kitchen: the "Bird in a Bag." -
A new report says thousands of people are being deported without their belongings, money or ID. And that's creating even more hardship for Mexican migrants when they return home. -
Desert Bus, a parody game invented by magicians Penn and Teller, consists of driving a bus on a featureless road for hours. A comedy troupe in Canada has turned that monotony into money for charity. -
Sympathy for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011, helped get her successor elected. Now she lobbies for tighter gun laws, and a tough ad from her PAC has stirred anger. -
Members of Lev Tahor left Canada with trail of allegations of child abuse. Then leaders of the Guatemalan village where they settled asked them to leave. The sect is again looking for a new home. -
Los Algodones is tiny, but with help from the Internet, the Mexican border town has become a virtual dental factory, drawing patients from across the U.S. and Canada. -
When Arizona State University graduates hear their names announced, they have Peter Lafford to thank. It's his job to ensure students' names are pronounced correctly 鈥� and it's not always easy.
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In Tucson, Ariz., a man set to be deported has taken sanctuary in a church. Immigrant rights activists are hailing the move as a new way to fight the Obama administration's deportation policies.
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The controversy over Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's fight with the federal government seems to have come out of nowhere. It, however, is just the latest skirmish in a fight that's goes back 150 years.
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U.S. officers at the ports of entry are arresting undocumented immigrants as they try to leave the U.S. They're then prosecuted and sent to prison, only to be removed from the U.S. anyway. Why bother? That's a question people on all sides of the immigration debate are asking.
