David Kestenbaum
David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.
In his years at NPR, David has covered science's discoveries and its darker side, including the Northeast blackout, the anthrax attacks and the collapse of the New Orleans levees. He has also reported on energy issues, particularly nuclear and climate change.
David has won awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
David worked briefly on the show This American Life, and set up a radio journalism program in Cambodia on a Fulbright fellowship. He also teaches a journalism class at Johns Hopkins University.
David holds a bachelor's of science degree in physics from Yale University and a doctorate in physics from Harvard University.
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With online health-insurance markets set to open this week, it's still unclear whether healthy people will sign up. Yet the success of the program depends on them.
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Oil sits under a pristine swath of the rainforest. Ecuador promised to leave the forest untouched — if the rest of the world would pay up. -
Most charities get money from donors and spend it on things they think will help people — schools, medicine, farm animals. GiveDirectly just gives money away. And that poses a challenge to the more traditional charities.
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There are no strings attached. People can spend the money on whatever they want, and they never have to pay it back. -
The tortuous negotiations involved in the "fiscal cliff" talks are like a chess game. To shed some light on the kinds of negotiation techniques that members of Congress might be using, we asked two negotiation experts to walk us through examples from their everyday lives. -
In the early 1990s, Colombian drug cartels had a problem: They had more money than they knew what to do with. So a pair of federal agents created an offshore bank. -
In the early 1990s, Colombian drug cartels had a problem: They had more money than they knew what to do with. So a pair of federal agents created an offshore bank.
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The race for ever-faster trades has "absolutely no social value," says a billionaire who helped bring computers to financial markets. -
The scandal over interest-rate manipulation seems dry until you consider what happened to Dan Sullivan. He may have lost a million dollars as a result — and he's just one of many who say they've been harmed -
China's foreign-exchange reserves are worth over $3 trillion. That's a problem for China, and for the U.S.
