Simone Popperl

Simone Popperl is an editor for NPR's Morning Edition and Up First. She joined the network in March 2019, and since then has pitched and edited stories on everything from the legacy of burn pits in Iraq, to never-ending "infrastructure week," to California towns grappling with climate change, to American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin's ascendance to the top of her sport. She led Noel King's reporting on the early days of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Steve Inskeep's reporting from swing states in the lead up to the 2020 Presidential Election, and Leila Fadel's field reporting from Kentucky on the end of Roe v. Wade.

In the first months of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, she helped edit NPR's evening live show "The National Conversation" that brought experts on air to answer listeners' urgent questions about the major disruptions to American life wrought by the novel pathogen.

Popperl received a Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine for research about how sinkholes in the Dead Sea basin are changing the lives of geologists, environmentalists, tourists, industrialists and local residents in Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. She's a founding member of the Middle East Environmental Worlds Working Group, and has edited and published ethnographic research in a variety of university presses.

Hrishikesh Hirway On Taking 'Song Exploder' To Netflix

Rachel Martin

The documentary series, an adaptation of Hirway's popular podcast, asks musicians including Alicia Keys and R.E.M to tell the step-by-step story of how a song was created.
Outside The Focus Of Major Parties, Black Pittsburghers Vow To Get Out The Vote

Simone Popperl

Both the Trump and Biden campaigns are competing for voters in key swing states like Pennsylvania. But is either of the major parties trying to engage Black voters in cities like Pittsburgh?
'It's Not Religion': In 'The Runaways,' Bhutto Examines The Lure Of Extremism

Steve Inskeep

"I was really trying to look at why a 19-year-old boy would give up everything ... in order, quite literally, to take up arms against the world," says novelist Fatima Bhutto.
Politics

In Ashtabula, Ohio, Young People Fight For The County's Political Future

Simone Popperl

Ashtabula County, Ohio, voted for Barack Obama in 2012, then for Donald Trump. New political leaders there hope a younger generation of voters will help decide the 2020 presidential election.