Ted Robbins
As supervising editor for Arts and Culture at NPR based at NPR West in Culver City, Ted Robbins plans coverage across NPR shows and online, focusing on TV at a time when there's never been so much content. He thinks "arts and culture" encompasses a lot of human creativity — from traditional museum offerings to popular culture, and out-of-the-way people and events.
Robbins also supervises obituaries or, as NPR prefers to call them, "appreciations," of people in the arts.
Robbins joined the Arts Desk in 2015, after a decade on air as a NPR National Desk correspondent based in Tucson, Arizona. From there, he covered the Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Robbins reported on a range of issues, from immigration and border security to water issues and wildfires. He covered the economy in the West with an emphasis on the housing market and Las Vegas development. He reported on the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six and injured many, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Robbins' reporting has been honored with numerous accolades, including two Emmy Awards—one for his story on sex education in schools, and another for his series on women in the workforce. He received a CINE Golden Eagle for a 1995 documentary on Mexican agriculture called "Tomatoes for the North."
In 2006, Robbins wrote an article for the Nieman Reports at Harvard about journalism and immigration. He was chosen for a 2009 French-American Foundation Fellowship focused on comparing European and U.S. immigration issues.
Raised in Los Angeles, Robbins became an avid NPR listener while spending hours driving (or stopped in traffic) on congested freeways. He is delighted to now be covering stories for his favorite news source.
Prior to coming to NPR in 2004, Robbins spent five years as a regular contributor to The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 15 years at the PBS affiliate in Tucson, and working as a field producer for CBS News. He worked for NBC affiliates in Tucson and Salt Lake City, where he also did some radio reporting and print reporting for USA Today.
Robbins earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology and his master's degree in journalism, both from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught journalism at the University of Arizona for a decade.
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President Bush flies to Yuma, Ariz., to talk about his plans for slowing illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Tighter border enforcement elsewhere has increased illegal crossings in this area not previously known as a hotbed of smuggling.
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The U.S. Border Patrol and some National Guard troops are already on duty along the U.S.-Mexico border. Some people in the Southwest think the border is already too militarized. Others welcome the effort to seal the border.
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In the area around Tucson, Ariz., the border has become much more militarized in recent years, with checkpoints, fences, and many more Border Patrol agents. A few members of the National Guard are there as well, but so far, they've played a minor role.
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Confronted with illegal border crossing in Arizona, the Maricopa County Sherriff's office has turned to a traditional Western solution: the posse. Wednesday night, sheriff's deputies and members of the department's 300-member reserve force were sent to patrol the desert and round up illegal immigrants.
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High gas prices have set off calls for conservation and investigation of price gouging. But among residents of Arizona, high gas prices have also provoked some less predictable reactions.
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How many illegal immigrants are in the United States? How many arrive each year? Where do we get these numbers and how reliable are they?
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Millions of people enter the United States by avoiding inhabited areas, crossing fragile desert and mountain ecosystems. Often, they burn wood, leave trash and create trails. And pursuing them, the Border Patrol chews up the landscape with motorcycles, ATVs and SUVs. -
Many wildfires in the Southwest have grown much more dangerous because of the spread of non-native grasses. These grasses grow thicker and burn hotter than native desert plants. The threat has led to serious weed-whacking in the Arizona desert. -
A coalition of botanists, farmers, chefs and anthropologists is working to catalog North America's native foods -- from the mule deer to the tepary bean. The goal is to preserve food traditions among local chefs and gardeners. -
Forty-six years after Frank Lloyd Wright's death, the architecture school and the fellowship that bear his name are fighting for their survival -- in part because of their unconventional nature. Ted Robbins visits Taliesin West -- Wright's home, school and studio in Scottsdale, Ariz.
