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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A handful of states are refusing to name both parents from a same-sex couple on a birth certificate, even though its among the benefits named in the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.
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Planned Parenthood has paid forensic experts to comb through undercover videos released by anti-abortion activists, and their report finds significant distortions and misleading edits. The report has been handed over to Congress, which is investigating allegations that Planned Parenthood illegally profits from fetal tissue donation.
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Former spouses who disagree over whether their embryos can be destroyed have taken their case to court. In the process, one thing has become clear: how far the law lags behind reproductive technology. -
A series of sting videos targeting Planned Parenthood is raising questions about the field of fetal tissue research. Companies who buy and sell such tissue defend their work.
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The young anti-abortion activist who planned the recent sting videos on Planned Parenthood staff members has ties to larger group that oppose abortion.
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Activists say the video of a Planned Parenthood official is evidence the group is selling parts from aborted fetuses, which is illegal. Planned Parenthood says tissue is donated for medical research.
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Sixty years ago, Helena Hicks helped desegregate the city's lunch counters. In the wake of Freddie Gray's death, the 80-year-old has continued to advocate for Baltimore's poor, black residents. -
Several dozen recreation centers offer aftercare and summer camp for children in the city's poorest neighborhoods. But they also give kids the family stability and structure that so many of them lack. -
A federal appeals court has upheld sweeping abortion restrictions in Texas that supporters say protect women's health. Opponents say the decision could leave just seven or eight clinics open. -
Accusations against police of a slowdown has heightened longstanding mistrust of police. While steps are being taken to rebuild that trust, that's hard to do when police are out combating violence.
