Jennifer Ludden
Jennifer Ludden helps edit energy and environment stories for NPR's National Desk, working with NPR staffers and a team of public radio reporters across the country. They track the shift to clean energy, state and federal policy moves, and how people and communities are coping with the mounting impacts of climate change.
Previously, Ludden was an NPR correspondent covering family life and social issues, including the changing economics of marriage, the changing role of dads, and the ethical challenges of reproductive technology. She's also covered immigration and national security.
Ludden started reporting with NPR while based overseas in West Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She shared in two awards (Overseas Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists) for NPR's coverage of the Kosovo war in 1999, and won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for her coverage of the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When not navigating war zones, Ludden reported on cultural trends, including the dying tradition of storytellers in Syria, the emergence of Persian pop music in Iran, and the rise of a new form of urban polygamy in Africa.
Ludden has also reported from Canada and at public radio stations in Boston and Maine. She's a graduate of Syracuse University with degrees in television, radio, and film production and in English.
-
Teenagers are having less sex and getting better about using contraceptives, a survey finds. Economic hard times also make it less likely that teens will want to become parents so early in life.
-
Despite the attention to lead in water, the biggest health risk to children is still from lead paint. The city of Baltimore banned lead paint way back in 1950, but children continue to be poisoned. -
One in four abortions is induced with medications rather than a surgical procedure. But the process faces a growing number of legal restrictions, including a law in Ohio. -
A growing number of states are giving public money to crisis pregnancy centers. But the centers are unregulated, and abortion rights groups accuse them of coercing women with misinformation.
-
Although the Republican-led House decided not to vote to ban abortions after 20 weeks, 10 states already have such measures and more states are considering them. -
If upheld, the law — which mandates stricter building codes for clinics that perform the procedure — could leave only six clinics open in the entire state of Texas. -
States have passed more than 200 abortion regulations since 2010, and the number is expected to rise. Abortion rights supporters say that could cause big geographical variations in access to care. -
Does telling your abortion story help end stigma about the procedure, or does it help opponents make the case against abortion? The answer to that question depends very much on whom you talk to. -
With 40 percent of college students binge drinking, efforts to get students to drink less may seem futile. But something as simple as encouraging beer stores to quit selling pingpong balls can help.
