Jennifer Ludden
Jennifer Ludden helps edit energy and environment stories for NPR's National Desk, working with NPR staffers and a team of public radio reporters across the country. They track the shift to clean energy, state and federal policy moves, and how people and communities are coping with the mounting impacts of climate change.
Previously, Ludden was an NPR correspondent covering family life and social issues, including the changing economics of marriage, the changing role of dads, and the ethical challenges of reproductive technology. She's also covered immigration and national security.
Ludden started reporting with NPR while based overseas in West Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She shared in two awards (Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists) for NPR's coverage of the Kosovo war in 1999, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her coverage of the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When not navigating war zones, Ludden reported on cultural trends, including the dying tradition of storytellers in Syria, the emergence of Persian pop music in Iran, and the rise of a new form of urban polygamy in Africa.
Ludden has also reported from Canada and at public radio stations in Boston and Maine. She's a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in television, radio, and film production and in English.
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The high cost of child care is a strain for many families in the U.S., yet child care workers average less than $10 an hour. This strain on workers hurts babies and toddlers, too, researchers say. -
In the final debate, Trump said he supports the federal ban on "partial-birth" abortion because it can happen "as late as one or two or three or four days prior to birth." That is not at all likely. -
In 1971, the United States came very close to having universal, federally subsidized child care. How did Congress come to pass the legislation? And why President Nixon vetoed it? -
Tricia Olson gave birth to her son and was back on the job three weeks later. Like most Americans, she doesn't get paid family leave, and she's among the 40 percent who don't qualify for unpaid leave. -
Carfentanil, a powerful opioid used to sedate elephants, is being blamed for a record spike in drug overdoses in the Midwest. It's much stronger, and riskier, than heroin or fentanyl. -
Given the increasingly dire predictions about the future, being a climate activist is stressful. Some say it's making them stress over something else — whether or not to have children.
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Arkansas, a Bible Belt state that emphasizes abstinence-only in high school, is launching a mandatory program in its colleges and universities on strategies to prevent unplanned pregnancy.
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For some climate activists, the personal decision to have a child is also fraught with moral consequences: the negative impact on the environment, and on the quality of life for those children. -
Prosecutors have dropped all the remaining charges against Baltimore police officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray. While the four trials so far returned no convictions, the three more scheduled trials have now also been dropped.
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Dallas Police Chief David Brown has been at the forefront of efforts to make police work more transparent and to train officers in de-escalation tactics.
