Margot Adler

Credit Michael Paras

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 11th 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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Around the Nation
5:13 pm
Tue November 27, 2012

Social Security Numbers Found In Parade Confetti

Originally published on Tue November 27, 2012 5:55 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

We turn now to Confetti-gate. A student watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City found confetti dropping on him and his friends. That's to be expected. But then he took a closer look and saw on those strips of shredded paper Social Security numbers, names of police officers, license plates, even the route of presidential candidate Mitt Romney's motorcade.

NPR's Margot Adler has the rest of the story.

CROWD: Three, two, one...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Let's start the parade.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)

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Superstorm Sandy: Before, During And Beyond
5:41 pm
Tue November 20, 2012

Thousands Of Trees Gone, Ripped Out By Sandy

Originally published on Tue November 20, 2012 6:14 pm

New York City lost almost 10,000 trees from the winds of Superstorm Sandy and the nor'easter that followed. That's far more trees lost in the city than in any other storm for which tree damage was recorded.

Walking through Central Park, Ken Chaya peers past a stone arch, observing the damage and uprooting of about 800 trees. He knows more about the park's trees than just about anybody else; he created a map that charts every single one of the roughly 20,000 trees.

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Around the Nation
5:02 am
Tue November 13, 2012

For Some Sandy Victims, Power Will Be Off For Weeks

As power is restored to many areas affected by Superstorm Sandy, the reality is setting in that tens of thousands of houses and apartments will not have their power back for weeks, or even months, until they are repaired. Money for shelter and repairs has become an urgent issue and officials are urging new initiatives.

Education
5:20 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Some New York City Students Head Back To School

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 5:49 pm

Schools in New York City opened for the first time since superstorm Sandy hit the city last Monday. Some buildings had to be cleaned up before students arrived and a few had no heat. Still more than 90 schools remained closed due to storm damage or because they are still being used as evacuation shelters.

Around the Nation
6:35 am
Sun November 4, 2012

Wandering The Border: N.Y. Reactivates, In Part

Originally published on Sun November 4, 2012 12:11 pm

NPR's Margot Adler has been covering the storms aftermath. On Saturday, she walked into Central Park, opened for the first time since before the storm. She then went to examine the "border areas," those blocks where there was power and normalcy on one side, and on the other, no lights and just the noise of a few generators pumping power.

The Two-Way
3:46 pm
Thu November 1, 2012

In Sandy's Wake, New Yorkers Don't Sweat Small Stuff

Credit Timothy A. Clary / AFP/Getty Images
People wait to charge cellphones and laptops Thursday at a generator set up in the West Village. Superstorm Sandy left large parts of New York City without power.

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 4:05 pm

NPR's Margot Adler is covering the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy in New York.

I walked out of my apartment at 5 this morning in a part of Manhattan -– the Upper West Side — that never lost power. Still, I skirted around downed trees on my way to the subway. Across the street, a car was crushed by a tree. Almost no one was on the street.

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Around the Nation
5:18 pm
Tue October 30, 2012

New Yorkers Woke Up To Strangely Quiet City

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

I'm Audie Cornish. And we begin this hour with Sandy by the numbers. At least 39 people on the East Coast have died, as a result of the massive storm.

SIEGEL: Sixty-nine are dead in the Caribbean.

CORNISH: Eight-point two million people, in the U.S., are without power.

SIEGEL: And while it's too early for an accurate tally, insured losses alone are estimated at 5- to $10 billion.

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Around the Nation
9:39 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Parts Of Manhattan Go Dark As Sandy Rolls Through

New York City has seen some of the worst damage from Sandy. Large parts of Manhattan were without power on Monday night, a building crane was knocked loose, and there were reports of flooding in the city's subway system.

Around the Nation
4:50 pm
Mon October 22, 2012

New York City Real Estate Market One Of Few Thriving

Originally published on Tue October 23, 2012 6:56 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

Over the past few years, New York City has fared better in this rocky economy than many American cities. A recent report by the Real Estate Board of New York says homes sales are up 6 percent. And NPR's Margot Adler reports that in two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, sales are back to pre-recession levels.

MARGOT ADLER, BYLINE: So this house is on the market. It's not - it hasn't been sold yet.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: It hasn't been sold yet.

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Books
4:29 pm
Wed October 17, 2012

Thousands Line Up For Rare Rowling Appearance

Credit Dan Hallman / AP
J.K. Rowling promotes her new novel, The Casual Vacancy, at Lincoln Center in New York. It was her only U.S. appearance.

Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 7:09 pm

While much of America was watching the second presidential debate, about 2,000 people — many of them between the ages of 20 and 40 — were doing something very different. They had gotten a rare and prized ticket to the only U.S. appearance by J.K Rowling, as she promotes her new book for adults, The Casual Vacancy.

The crowd was huge but happy — double the number originally planned, forcing the organizers to change venues. Attendees got a ticket to the Lincoln Center event and a copy of the book, which Rowling would later sign.

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U.S.
5:03 am
Tue June 12, 2012

Loud Debate Rages Over N.Y. Library's Quiet Stacks

Originally published on Tue June 12, 2012 8:18 am

Enter the glorious Rose Reading Room on the third floor of the New York Public Library on a weekday afternoon, and you'll find almost every chair filled.

Scholars and researchers still submit their book requests on slips of paper and wait for their numbers to appear on two large boards.

The stacks, filled with some 3 million volumes, are closed to the public, so books are retrieved from seven floors of shelving below. Still other volumes are stored off-site.

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All Tech Considered
4:03 pm
Mon May 7, 2012

These Apps Are Going To The Birds — And People Who Watch Them

Credit Margot Adler / NPR
Cornell University's Andrew Farnsworth compiles data to forecast where birds are going and when they'll be there.

Originally published on Tue May 8, 2012 8:26 am

I'm standing in the Manhattan office of Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at Cornell University's ornithology lab. Farnsworth is using meteorological data, radar data, crowd-sourced eBird data and acoustic data from the flight calls of migrating birds to predict where birds are going and when they'll be there.

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Arts & Life
3:24 am
Wed May 2, 2012

'Scream' Still Echoes After More Than A Century

Originally published on Thu May 3, 2012 7:59 am

It's perhaps the most reproduced piece of art ever created. It has adorned key chains and coffee mugs, and the cover of Time magazine. Andy Warhol used it, and now one of the four versions of The Scream, Edvard Munch's iconic work — the only one outside Norway — is coming up for auction at Sotheby's in New York. Sale estimates are as high as $80 million.

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London 2012: The Summer Olympics
4:54 pm
Mon April 30, 2012

A Swimmer's Recipe For Olympic Gold: Add More Fun

Originally published on Mon April 30, 2012 8:36 pm

Four years ago, swimmer Rebecca Soni won a gold medal in the 200 breaststroke at the Beijing Summer Olympics. She hopes to add to her medal collection at this summer's London Games, where she'll be competing in three events.

Now 25, Soni looks graceful when she stands at the edge of the pool. And when she jumps in, it seems to take her just a few strokes to get to the other side of a 25-meter pool.

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Monkey See
9:56 am
Sat April 28, 2012

My '70s Show — Remembering 'Ecotopia' Author Ernest Callenbach

Credit Courtesy Heyday Books
Sustainability advocate and author Ernest Callenbach in 2005.

There was news this week that Ernest "Chick" Callenbach had died. His 1975 cult-classic, Ecotopia, was beloved by environmentalists and science fiction fans. Originally self-published, it went on to sell more than a million copies in many languages. The utopian novel, which imagined a new nation made up of Northern California, Oregon and Washington state, is told from the point of view of a visiting reporter from the United States.

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