Noah Adams
Noah Adams, long-time co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, brings more than three decades of radio experience to his current job as a contributing correspondent for NPR's National Desk., focusing on the low-wage workforce, farm issues, and the Katrina aftermath. Now based in Ohio, he travels extensively for his reporting assignments, a position he's held since 2003.
Adams' career in radio began in 1962 at WIRO in Ironton, Ohio, across the river from his native Ashland, Kentucky. He was a "good music" DJ on the morning shift, and played rock and roll on Sandman's Serenade from 9 p.m. to midnight. Between shifts, he broadcasted everything from basketball games to sock hops. From 1963 to 1965, Adams was on the air from WCMI (Ashland), WSAZ (Huntington, W. Va.) and WCYB (Bristol, Va.).
After other radio work in Georgia and Kentucky, Adams left broadcasting and spent six years working at various jobs, including at a construction company, an automobile dealership and an advertising agency.
In 1971, Adam discovered public radio at WBKY, the University of Kentucky's station in Lexington. He began as a volunteer rock and roll announcer but soon became involved in other projects, including documentaries and a weekly bluegrass show. Three years later he joined the staff full-time as host of a morning news and music program.
Adams came to NPR in 1975 where he worked behind the scenes editing and writing for the next three years. He became co-host of the weekend edition of All Things Considered in 1978 and in September 1982, Adams was named weekday co-host, joining Susan Stamberg.
During 1988, Adams left NPR for one year to host Minnesota Public Radio's Good Evening, a weekly show that blended music with storytelling. He returned to All Things Considered in February 1989.
Over the years Adams has often reported from overseas: he covered the Christmas Eve uprising against the Ceasescu government in Romania, and his work from Serbia was honored by the Overseas Press Club in 1994. His writing and narration of the 1981 documentary "Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown," earned Adams a Prix Italia, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award and the Major Armstrong Award.
A collection of Adams' essays from Good Evening, entitled Saint Croix Notes: River Morning, Radio Nights (W.W. Norton) was printed in 1990. Two years later, Adams' second book, Noah Adams on All Things Considered: A Radio Journal (W.W. Norton), was published. Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures (Delacore), Adams' next book, was finished in 1996, and Far Appalachia: Following the New River North in 2000. The Flyers: in Search of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Crown) was published in 2004, and Adams co-wrote This is NPR: The First Forty Years (Chronicle Books), published in 2010.
Adams lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where his wife, Neenah Ellis, is the general manager of NPR member station WYSO.
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The tobacco crop is quickly disappearing from the farm fields of Kentucky. But tobacco barns, in various states of repair, stand proudly on the landscape as icons of family farming.
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Many of the downed live oaks left by Katrina are now safely in storage at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The wood is invaluable for ship restoration, and the whaler Charles W. Morgan, built in 1841, will be the immediate beneficiary. -
Edwin Cardenas brought his family to America from Peru in 1985 and started work cleaning the Washington National Cathedral in 1990. Now he's the preservation technician, removing decades worth of grime from the building's limestone and marble interior, working with solvents and even a toothbrush. -
Ten-ounce cans of Budweiser aren't sold in many places in the United States. But in southern Maryland's St. Mary's County, the 10 is indeed the king of beers. Fans say beer from the smaller cans tastes better, stays colder longer, and that the cans feel better in the hand. -
Hancock County, Miss., has 8,000 temporary FEMA trailers with electricity, water and sewer. These are small travel units, with a kitchen and a bathroom but no washer or dryer, so keeping a family in clean clothes means a visit to a crowded laundromat. Rich man, poor man -- quarters are what really count. -
After Hurricane Katrina, all along the Gulf Coast came the questions: Can I rebuild? What's going to happen to my town? In Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Miss., residents wonder what their beachside communities will look like once they are rebuilt. -
Trains with steam engines have vanished in most parts of the country, replaced by diesel. But in parts of West Virginia, sounds of steam locomotive whistles can still be heard. In this edition of Lost and Found Sound, NPR’s Noah Adams said those sounds echo across the landscape like the sound of a century passing.
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Last year, Noah Adams reported on the St. Philip's Kids Cafe -- families gathering for a church cafeteria meal in the neighborhood that many New Orleanians call Desire. Last week, he returned to find a deserted, badly damaged church and desolate streets. -
In New Orleans' sprawling City Park, the Old Woman in a Shoe and other childhood characters await Storyland's reopening after Hurricane Katrina. But first, park officials are working on restoring the botanical gardens, a popular wedding venue. -
Dale Earnhardt's death on the final lap of the Daytona 500 four years ago broke the hearts of millions of NASCAR fans. His memory lingers in homes and racetracks across the country. Earnhardt's famous #3 logo is as prevalent as ever.
