Sonari Glinton
Sonari Glinton is a NPR Business Desk Correspondent based at our NPR West bureau. He covers the auto industry, consumer goods, and consumer behavior, as well as marketing and advertising for NPR and Planet Money.
In this position, which he has held since late 2010, Glinton has tackled big stories including GM's road back to profitability and Toyota's continuing struggles. In addition, Glinton covered the 2012 presidential race, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as well as the U.S. Senate and House for NPR.
Glinton came to NPR in August 2007 and worked as a producer for All Things Considered. Over the years Glinton has produced dozen of segments about the great American Song Book and pop culture for NPR's signature programs most notably the 50 Great Voices piece on Nat King Cole feature he produced for Robert Siegel.
Glinton began his public radio career as an intern at Member station WBEZ in Chicago. He worked his way through his public radio internships working for Chicago Jazz impresario Joe Segal, waiting tables and meeting legends such as Ray Brown, Oscar Brown Jr., Marian MacPartland, Ed Thigpen, Ernestine Andersen, and Betty Carter.
Glinton attended Boston University. A Sinatra fan since his mid-teens, Glinton's first forays into journalism were album revues and a college jazz show at Boston University's WTBU. In his spare time Glinton indulges his passions for baking, vinyl albums, and the evolution of the Billboard charts.
-
Ford is about to sell an aluminum-sided version of its F-150 pickup, setting the industry atwitter with expectation. Some hope that after 40 years on top, the truck will finally fall on its tailgate. -
The massive auto recall announced this week is different from most. It affects more than one-third of air bags on the road and there are no simple fixes, short of a full air bag replacement. -
In previous generations, manufacturing jobs were dirty, dangerous and low-skill. The new factory jobs are almost all clean, require increasingly higher skills and take very few people to do them.
-
Gas prices are falling — and so are hybrid car sales. Analysts say better gas mileage for traditional vehicles, combined with low gas prices, is giving hybrids a run for their money. -
Cadillac, the luxury division of General Motors, is leaving Detroit and moving to Manhattan to be closer to the headquarters of other high-end brands.
-
Home Depot says some 56 million card holders were possibly compromised in a cyberattack. It says there's no evidence that debit PINs were comprised or that the breach affected online shoppers.
-
Several states, including California and Texas, are in competition for the so-called Gigafactory, which is expected to employ as many as 6,500 workers. They will make lithium ion batteries.
-
Abercrombie & Fitch is shedding its traditional logo-focused apparel. That logo, and the clothes it was affixed to, made the brand one of the most sought-after among teens in the past two decades.
-
Standard big box shopping centers are in decline. But other types of malls have sprung up in their place. Some are based on making shopping more convenient. Others focus on the consumer experience.
-
Detroit created the car culture and the shopping mall exists because of that culture. But the shopping mall is partly responsible for Detroit's downfall. Now, the mall is threatened by the Internet.
