Robert Krulwich
Encyclopedia
Robert Krulwich is an American radio and television journalist
whose specialty is explaining complex topics in depth. He has worked as a full-time employee of ABC
, CBS, National Public Radio
, and Pacifica
. He has done 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".
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 The Edge.
In 1984, he joined CBS and appeared regularly on This Morning, 48 Hours, and Nightwatch with Charlie Rose. During the first Gulf War, he co-anchored the CBS program America Tonight
. In 1994, he joined ABC
.
Annually, he hosts a semi-fictional year-in-review program called Backfire for NPR. In 1995, at the invitation of President
and Mrs. Clinton
, the group who collaborates with Krulwich to produce Backfire performed at the White House.
In 1999 he hosted an eight-part primetime series for ABC "Nightline" called Brave New World
(which frequently featured his friends, They Might Be Giants
, as musical guests).
Krulwich, in 2004, 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. (He is an alumnus of their nursery school.) 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 he co-hosts the Radiolab program with Jad Abumrad
.
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, 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.
and Shelter Island
, NY 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.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
whose specialty is explaining complex topics in depth. He has worked as a full-time employee of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, CBS, National Public Radio
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, and Pacifica
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
. He has done assignment pieces for ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Nightline and World News Tonight, as well as PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
's Frontline, NOVA
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
, and NOW with Bill Moyers. TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
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
Krulwich received his bachelor's degree in U.S. history from Oberlin CollegeOberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1969 and his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree from Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
in 1974. Just two months later, he abandoned his pursuit of a law career to cover the Watergate hearings for Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
. In 1976, he became Washington bureau chief for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
.
From 1978 to 1985, he was the business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
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 The Edge.
In 1984, he joined CBS and appeared regularly on This Morning, 48 Hours, and Nightwatch with Charlie Rose. During the first Gulf War, he co-anchored the CBS program America Tonight
America Tonight
America Tonight was a late-night news program on CBS. It aired on weeknights at 11:30pm ET from October 1, 1990 to March 29, 1991. It was hosted by Charles Kuralt and Lesley Stahl...
. In 1994, he joined ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
Annually, he hosts a semi-fictional year-in-review program called Backfire for NPR. In 1995, at the invitation of President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
and Mrs. Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, the group who collaborates with Krulwich to produce Backfire performed at the White House.
In 1999 he hosted an eight-part primetime series for ABC "Nightline" called Brave New World
Brave New World (TV series)
Brave New World was an ABC TV mini-series aired in 1999, about the possibilities in the 21st century.They Might Be Giants were asked to help out with some music for the show like Older, All Alone and the theme song for the show.-External links:...
(which frequently featured his friends, They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
, as musical guests).
Krulwich, in 2004, became the host and managing editor of the innovative PBS science program "NOVA scienceNOW
NOVA scienceNOW
NOVA scienceNOW is a newsmagazine version of the long running and venerable PBS science program Nova. Premiering on January 25, 2005, the series was originally hosted by Robert Krulwich, who described it as an experiment in coverage of "breaking science, science that's right out of the lab, science...
". 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
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
in New York City. (He is an alumnus of their nursery school.) His presentations at the YMHA have featured such prominent scientists as Brian Greene
Brian Greene
Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. He has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996. Greene has worked on mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds...
and James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
.
He is a regular correspondent on the PBS investigative series Frontline. Krulwich substitutes for the hosts of NPR's magazine shows, and he co-hosts the Radiolab program with Jad Abumrad
Jad Abumrad
Jad Abumrad is a Lebanese-American radio host and producer. He has reported and produced documentaries for a number of local and National Public Radio programs, including On the Media, PRI's Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Democracy Now!, and WNYC's "24...
.
Awards and honors
In his Frontline role, he has won a Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for his coverage of campaign financeCampaign finance
Campaign finance refers to all funds that are raised and spent in order to promote candidates, parties or policies in some sort of electoral contest. In modern democracies such funds are not necessarily devoted to election campaigns. Issue campaigns in referendums, party activities and party...
in the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign; a national Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for his investigation of privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, High Stakes in Cyberspace; and a George Polk Award for an hour on the savings and loan scandal. His ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
special on Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
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
National Cancer Institute
The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...
in 2000, four consecutive Gainsbrugh Awards from the Economics Broadcasting Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Excellence in Television Award in 2001 for a NOVA
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
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
Esquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
s "Registry of Outstanding Men and Women" in 1989.
In 2010, WNYC received a Peabody Award for RadioLab.
Personal life
Krulwich lives in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Shelter Island
Shelter Island (town), New York
Shelter Island is a town and island at the eastern end of Long Island in the U.S. state of New York. It forms the tip of Suffolk County and is separated from the rest of the county by water. The population was 2,228 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, NY with his wife, Tamar Lewin, a national reporter for the New York Times. They have two children, Jesse (who graduated from Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
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
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...
recounting their separate (and divergent) accounts of an event in their lives.