Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
-
Data was released briefly, then rescinded. As NPR reported previously, there is already strong evidence pointing to these animals in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. -
Lentil soup is one of the staples that rescue worker are turning to in their efforts to feed hundreds of thousands of people after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
-
NPR follows one of the hundreds of building inspectors in Turkey's earthquake zone to learn about the massive challenge of figuring how who can return to their homes. -
One week after a massive earthquake struck eastern Turkey and northern Syria, residents are dealing with burying the tens of thousands of dead.
-
Millions of people are living in temporary shelters a week after an earthquake hit parts of Turkey and Syria. The death toll from the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake stands at more than 34,000 people.
-
Among the rescue teams dispatched to southern Turkey after last week's earthquake is a U.S. mission using sniffer dogs. Their work is turning toward respecting local customs as they recover the dead.
-
The vast destruction of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria is becoming clearer with each day. The scene in one flattened city that has a population over a million gives a glimpse at the scale.
-
One of the world's poorest countries, Somalia is coping with conflict, a historic drought and a devastating food crisis. But there's another side to the country. Just take a look at the capital city. -
Fighting between the government and the militant group is driving people from their homes and complicating efforts to get food aid to those who are on the verge of starvation.
-
Dusty camps of displaced people have sprung up on the outskirts of cities. They ran from their homes because of drought, famine and fighting that involves the militant group al-Shabaab.
