Samantha Balaban
Samantha Balaban is a Senior Producer at Weekend Edition. Most days, you can find her under a pile of books and mail coordinating the show's book coverage. She's also responsible for Picture This, a series of conversations with authors and illustrators.
She has traveled to Ukraine, where she helped coordinate coverage of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. She arrived in Israel on October 9, 2023 — her work covering Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza won a National Press Club award and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. She also worked as NPR's coordinating producer in Lebanon in 2024.
Balaban got her start in public radio covering the James "Whitey" Bulger trial for WBUR as an intern. Since coming to NPR in 2014, she has worked at Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. She's covered multiple hurricanes as well as earthquakes in Haiti and Turkey. She produced stories from Pakistan for the 20th anniversary of 9/11. She's watched a kidney transplant and ridden with border patrol officers along the Rio Grande. She's also had a lot of fun: celebrating the 250th anniversary of the song "Amazing Grace," meeting actor Diego Luna in Mexico (and covering the elections), interviewing a Bangle and going clubbing — for work! Jaques Pépin once made her a French omelette and she's eaten very well in Houston — and Charleston — and New York City — and also at home in Washington, D.C.
Originally from Lexington, Mass., Balaban has a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her master's degree in Journalism and Latin American studies from New York University.
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In 1926, author A.A. Milne and illustrator Ernest H. Shepard published Winnie-the-Pooh. Now, a new kids' book — How a Bear Became a Book — celebrates their collaboration. -
Class 203 is turning old shirts, baby blankets, a stripy skirt and pink polka-dot curtains into a "Story Rug" for their teacher in a new book written by Sophie Blackall and illustrated by Phoebe Wahl. -
Judy Blume wrote her last book more than a decade ago. At the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, NPR's Scott Simon talked to Blume about her long career and why she doesn't miss writing. -
On his birthday, Tad's best friend Vlad eats the very last slice of cake. Tad is mad so Tad kicks Vlad, kicking off a chain of kicks that travels around the world. -
When author Bruce Handy's son was young, he loved and lost an orange balloon. He and illustrator Julie Kwon talk about a child's singular devotion to a lost object in their nearly wordless kids' book. -
In The One About the Blackbird, a young boy learns to play guitar from his grandfather. And there's one song in particular that they love… -
One legacy of the former Soviet Union is the New Year's feast. Ukrainians are reclaiming Christmas and old recipes.
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After his mom died, Fry Bread author Kevin Maillard found himself wondering, "but where did she go?" So he wrote about it. His new kids' book is And They Walk On, illustrated by Rafael López. -
Big Ma dashes off commands, pots clang, aunts and uncles shoot the breeze, little ones beg to lick the bowl, ham and candied yam. Family Feast! is about food, family and love. -
