Rachel Faulkner White
Rachel Faulkner is a producer and editor for TED Radio Hour.
During her time at NPR, Faulkner has also helped create dozens of TED Radio Hour segments, including a long-form interview on navigating grief and hardship, a look at how family income affects childhood brain development, a conversation on loneliness and human connection and an exploration of outer space and gravitational waves. She also occasionally produces episodes of How I Built This, including fan favorites like The McBride Sisters, Rent The Runway, Bumble and filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
Faulkner is part of the TED Radio Hour team that received a 2018 Webby Award for their Manipulation episode. She also worked as a research assistant for Professor Steven V. Roberts, author of the memoir Cokie: A Life Well-Lived, about his wife (and one of NPR's Founding Mothers) Cokie Roberts.
Faulkner joined NPR in 2016 as an intern. She started producing while finishing college, coming into the office between classes, and joined NPR full-time after finishing her bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications from George Washington University.
-
Twenty years ago, Gene Luen Yang taught high school and wrote comics on the side. Now, he's the author of American Born Chinese and other bestsellers. He says comic books belong in every classroom.
-
Iranian artist Shirin Neshat is known for her images of women that pose probing questions about the female body within Islam and Iranian culture. This hour, she reflects on her life and work in exile.
-
When it comes to North American cuisine, Indigenous foods don't typically come to mind. Chef Sean Sherman is changing that by serving food that celebrates and preserves his ancestors' Lakota cooking.
-
MLK Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin are household names, but what about their mothers? This hour, author Anna Malaika Tubbs explores how these three women shaped American history.
-
Eli Pariser has an optimistic vision for our digital public spaces. He says that by structuring them like real-life parks, libraries, and town halls, we can create more welcoming, safe places online.
-
Cone snails are deadly sea predators; their venom can kill fish and even humans. But chemical biologist Mandë Holford says that powerful venom can actually be used for good — to treat human diseases.
-
An ear made from an apple, a spinal cord rebuilt using asparagus...it sounds like bizarre science fiction. But Andrew Pelling is working on a way to revive human tissue with a trip to the supermarket.
-
As a deaf person, Rebecca Knill is anti-noise and "neutral" on sound. She explains how technology allows her to hear what she wants to hear, and asks why our mindset about ability hasn't caught up.
-
In some rural African communities, elephants and humans are competing for space and resources like never before. Zoologist Lucy King shares her solution to the conflict: a simple beehive on a fence.
-
Water is life. Yet in the eyes of the law, it remains largely unprotected. Legal scholar Kelsey Leonard says granting water bodies legal personhood can transform how we value this vital resource.