Ari Shapiro The Best Strangers in the World

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Ari Shapiro was drawn to foraging mushrooms and looking through tidepools for bright-colored sea creatures. But when he got to Yale, he developed a passion for people – and he’s been demonstrating it ever since on National Public Radio as a regional reporter, Justice Correspondent, White House reporter, London correspondent and co-host of NPR’s flagship news program, All Things Considered.

In his first book, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening, Shapiro takes readers on the global journey those assignments offered him, from flying on Air Force One with President Obama to following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing their war-town country and reporting from the U.S.-Mexican border about the Trump Administration’s asylum policies.

He joins us to talk about that rich life covering those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad, drag shows in Florida, his own performances as a singer with the band Pink Martini and how he struggles to move listeners out of their self-reinforcing bubbles so we can begin to listen to one another again.

Ari Shapiro is the host of NPR’s All Things Considered, the most listened-to radio news program in the country, and winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Silver Gavel of the American Bar Association and the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. He will be in conversation with Benj Pasek, creator and producer.