Linda Wertheimer
As NPR's senior national correspondent, Linda Wertheimer travels the country and the globe for NPR News, bringing her unique insights and wealth of experience to bear on the day's top news stories.
A respected leader in media and a beloved figure to listeners who have followed her three-decade-long NPR career, Wertheimer provides clear-eyed analysis and thoughtful reporting on all NPR News programs.
Before taking the senior national correspondent post in 2002, Wertheimer spent 13 years hosting of NPR's news magazine All Things Considered. During that time, Wertheimer helped build the afternoon news program's audience to record levels. The show grew from six million listeners in 1989 to nearly 10 million listeners by spring of 2001, making it one of the top afternoon drive-time, news radio programs in the country. Wertheimer's influence on All Things Considered — and, by extension, all of public radio — has been profound.
She joined NPR at the network's inception, and served as All Things Considered's first director starting with its debut on May 3, 1971. In the more than 40 years since, she has served NPR in a variety of roles including reporter and host.
From 1974 to 1989, Wertheimer provided highly praised and award-winning coverage of national politics and Congress for NPR, serving as its congressional and then national political correspondent. Wertheimer traveled the country with major presidential candidates, covered state presidential primaries and the general elections, and regularly reported from Congress on the major events of the day — from the Watergate impeachment hearings to the Reagan Revolution to historic tax reform legislation to the Iran-Contra affair. During this period, Wertheimer covered four presidential and eight congressional elections for NPR.
In 1976, Wertheimer became the first woman to anchor network coverage of a presidential nomination convention and of election night. Over her career at NPR, she has anchored ten presidential nomination conventions and 12 election nights.
Wertheimer is the first person to broadcast live from inside the United States Senate chamber. Her 37 days of live coverage of the Senate Panama Canal Treaty debates won her a special Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award.
In 1995, Wertheimer shared in an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award given to NPR for its coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, the period that followed the 1994 Republican takeover of Congress.
Wertheimer has received numerous other journalism awards, including awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for her anchoring of The Iran-Contra Affair: A Special Report, a series of 41 half-hour programs on the Iran-Contra congressional hearings, from American Women in Radio/TV for her story Illegal Abortion, and from the American Legion for NPR's coverage of the Panama Treaty debates.
in 1997, Wertheimer was named one of the top 50 journalists in Washington by Washingtonian magazine and in 1998 as one of America's 200 most influential women by Vanity Fair.
A graduate of Wellesley College, Wertheimer received its highest alumni honor in 1985, the Distinguished Alumna Achievement Award. Wertheimer holds honorary degrees from Colby College, Wheaton College, and Illinois Wesleyan University.
Prior to joining NPR, Wertheimer worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in London and for WCBS Radio in New York.
Her 1995 book, Listening to America: Twenty-five Years in the Life of a Nation as Heard on National Public Radio, published by Houghton Mifflin, celebrates NPR's history.
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The Mountain Goats' early albums were recorded on a boombox and released on cassette tapes. While their production values have changed, their evocative, pocket-narrative lyrics are the same. Members of the band join Linda Wertheimer for an interview and performance.
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The prospect of a pending tour by the Rolling Stones prompts thoughts on growing older to a rock 'n' roll beat. Do Baby Boomers still dance like they used to do? Does it really matter?
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A new exhibit in Washington, D.C., features portraits by Gilbert Stuart, best known for creating the painting of George Washington from which the image on the dollar is taken. Historian Gordon Wood and other experts talk about how Washington was depicted.
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At the annual Kids Philosophy Slam, this year's question was "which is more important in your life: truth or beauty?" Finalist Devin Toohey tells Linda Wertheimer why he chose beauty.
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Dr. Les Perelman, director of undergraduate writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells Linda Wertheimer why he thinks the new SAT essay misses the mark. For one thing, he says, too much emphasis is placed on length.
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Linda Wertheimer talks about the new movie Crash with film reviewer Joan Kaufman. A large and diverse cast and a script from Million Dollar Baby writer Paul Haggis make for a thoughtful look at a topic that makes so many people uncomfortable.
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Saturday marks the 131st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. William Nack, a former Sports Illustrated reporter, tells Linda Wertheimer that while Bellamy Road is the favorite, he thinks this year's run for the roses is any horse's game. And he'd pick Afleet Alex.
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Tyler Florence can regularly be seen on the Food Network, helping amateur cooks resolve cooking emergencies. His latest cookbook is a collection of recipes inspired from his travels around the world.
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At Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, the Army has created a new team to care for wartime amputees with different approaches and new technology.
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In the war in Iraq, no one is truly behind the front lines. A large number of women soldiers are among the wounded, suffering from burns and broken bones, lost limbs and disfiguring scars. We meet three such women at the Brooke Army Medical Center facility in San Antonio, Texas.
