American radio and television journalist (born 1947)
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Robert Louis Krulwich
(born August 5, 1947) is an American radio and television
journalist
who co-hosted the radio show
Radiolab
and served as a science correspondent for
NPR
.
[1]
He has reported for
ABC
,
CBS
, and
Pacifica
, with assignment pieces for ABC's
Nightline
and
World News Tonight
, as well as
PBS
's
Frontline
,
NOVA
, and
NOW with Bill Moyers
.
TV Guide
called him "the most inventive network reporter in television", and
New York Magazine
wrote that he's "the man who simplifies without being simple."
Background
[
edit
]
Krulwich received his bachelor's degree in U.S. history from
Oberlin College
in 1969 and his
Juris Doctor
degree from
Columbia Law School
in 1974. Just two months later, he abandoned his pursuit of a law career to cover the
Watergate
hearings for
Pacifica Radio
. In 1976, he became Washington bureau chief for
Rolling Stone
.
From 1978 to 1985, he was the
business
and
economics
correspondent for
NPR
. Among other creative efforts, he recorded an opera called "Rato Interesso" to explain interest rates. He went on to host the
PBS
arts series
Edge
.
In 1984, he joined CBS and appeared regularly on
CBS This Morning
,
48 Hours
, and
Nightwatch with Charlie Rose
. During the
Gulf War
, he co-anchored the CBS program
America Tonight
. In 1994, he joined
ABC
.
In 1992, Krulwich appeared as a guest on the first episode of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
.
[2]
[3]
Critic
Tom Shales
panned Krulwich's appearance, describing him as "the
Big Bird
of economics."
[3]
Annually through the 1990s, he hosted a semi-fictional year-in-review program called
Backfire
for NPR.
[4]
In 1995, at the invitation of
President
Bill Clinton
and First Lady
Hillary Clinton
, Krulwich recorded a live show at the
White House
with the rest of the “Backfire” team.
[5]
In 1999, he hosted an eight-part prime-time series for ABC
Nightline
called
Brave New World
(which frequently featured his friends,
They Might Be Giants
, as musical guests).
In 2004, Krulwich became the host and managing editor of the innovative PBS science program
NOVA scienceNOW
. The show often tackled science stories considered too complex for television, sometimes using cartoons and musical production numbers to illustrate abstract concepts. In 2005, Krulwich re-established a relationship with NPR, where he made regular contributions to several programs on science topics, while continuing to produce occasional segments for ABC News. By early 2006, with several projects going at once, Krulwich decided to end his work on
NOVA scienceNOW
after only five episodes.
Krulwich regularly moderates discussions on scientific topics at the
92nd Street Y
in New York City. His presentations at the
YMHA
have featured such prominent scientists as
Brian Greene
and
James D. Watson
.
He is a regular correspondent on the PBS investigative series
Frontline
. Krulwich substitutes for the hosts of NPR's magazine shows, and from mid-2004 to January 2020 he co-hosted the
Radiolab
program with
Jad Abumrad
.
Krulwich has a prominent role in the 2021 feature documentary film
Objects
[6]
[7]
as a proponent of recognizing the importance of seemingly useless keepsakes for their history and personal meaning.
Retirement
[
edit
]
On December 5, 2019, Krulwich announced via the
Radiolab
email newsletter that he would be retiring from
Radiolab
, though specifying it would not be immediate.
[8]
[9]
His last episode aired on January 30, 2020.
[10]
Krulwich said he planned to use his retirement to work on collaborations including a documentary about
Oliver Sacks
with
Ric Burns
and a project about photographer Anand Varma's cultivation of
jellyfish
.
[11]
Awards and honors
[
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]
In his
Frontline
role, he has won an
Alfred I. duPont?Columbia University Award
for his coverage of
campaign finance
in the
1992 U.S. Presidential campaign
; a national
Emmy Award
for his investigation of
privacy
on the
Internet
,
High Stakes in Cyberspace
; and a
George Polk Award
for an hour on the
savings and loan
scandal. His
ABC
special on
Barbie
also won an Emmy.
He has received a multitude of other awards for his reporting, including the
Extraordinary Communicator Award
from the
National Cancer Institute
in 2000, four consecutive
Gainsbrugh Awards
from the
Economics Broadcasting Association
, and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science Excellence in Television
Award in 2001 for a
NOVA
special on the human genome. He also won the 2001
AAAS Science Journalism Award
for his
NOVA
special,
Cracking the Code of Life
.
TV Guide
named Krulwich to its "all-star reporting team." He was included in
Esquire
's "Registry of Outstanding Men and Women" in 1989.
In 2010, WNYC received a
Peabody Award
for
Radiolab
.
Personal life
[
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]
Krulwich lives in
New York City
and
Shelter Island
, New York, with his wife, Tamar Lewin, a national reporter for
The New York Times
. They have two children: Jesse (who graduated from
Earlham College
in 2007), and Nora Ann (
Bowdoin College
, Class of 2011). The couple was featured in Act 2 of Episode 226 ("Reruns") of the Chicago Public Radio program
This American Life
, recounting their separate (and divergent) accounts of an event in their lives.
Krulwich is an
improvisational comedian
who performed with his troupe at the
White House
in 1995.
[11]
Controversies
[
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]
Krulwich was criticized over a September 24, 2012,
Radiolab
segment on
yellow rain
and the
Hmong people
in which he interviewed
Kao Kalia Yang
and her uncle, Eng Yang, an official documenter of the Hmong experience for the Thai government. During the two-hour interview, of which less than five minutes was aired, Yang was brought to tears over "Robert's harsh dismissal of my uncle's experience." Amongst other statements regarding the controversy, Yang stated: "Everybody in the show had a name, a profession, institutional affiliation except Eng Yang, who was identified as “Hmong guy,” and me, “his niece.” The fact that I am an award-winning writer was ignored. The fact that my uncle was an official radio man and documenter of the Hmong experience to the Thai government during the war was absent." Krulwich issued an apology on September 30, 2012, writing, "I now can hear that my tone was oddly angry. That's not acceptable -- especially when talking to a man who has suffered through a nightmare in Southeast Asia that was beyond horrific."
[12]
[13]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Robert Krulwich, Co-Host of WNYC Studios' Radiolab, to Retire in January 2020"
.
New York Public Radio
. 2019-12-05
. Retrieved
2022-05-16
.
- ^
TV.com.
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Robert Krulwich; Shanice"
.
TV.com
. Retrieved
2020-08-27
.
- ^
a
b
Shales, Tom (27 May 1992).
"Jay Leno, The Morning After"
.
Washington Post
. Retrieved
11 February
2021
.
- ^
New York Magazine
. New York Media, LLC. 1995-12-25. p. 182.
- ^
Roberts, Roxanne (1995-03-04).
"At the White House, Radio Free America"
.
Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
2019-12-05
.
- ^
"OBJECTS"
.
DOC NYC
. Retrieved
2023-06-03
.
- ^
"Objects Is a Documentary Beautifully Unstuck in Time - MovieMaker Magazine"
.
www.moviemaker.com
. 2022-10-10
. Retrieved
2023-06-03
.
- ^
"An Announcement from Robert Krulwich"
.
us5.campaign-archive.com
. Retrieved
2019-12-05
.
- ^
"An Announcement from Radiolab | Radiolab"
.
WNYC Studios
. Retrieved
2019-12-05
.
- ^
"The Bobbys"
.
WNYC
. January 30, 2020.
- ^
a
b
Kalish, Jon (2020-02-06).
"Post-'Radiolab,' Robert Krulwich plans many more experiments with storytelling"
.
Current
. Retrieved
2024-04-14
.
- ^
The Science of Racism: Radiolab's Treatment of Hmong Experience
at
hyphenmagazine.com
- ^
From Robert Krulwich on Yellow Rain
at Radiolab Blogland
External links
[
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]
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