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.
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Federal housing vouchers are the largest rental aid program, but many landlords reject them. Experiments will test whether cash helps more people sign a lease. -
In nearly half of metro areas, buyers must make more than $100,000 to afford a median-priced home, a Harvard University report finds. And home prices this year reached a new all-time high. -
A new poll finds white adults are more than twice as likely as others to get sizable financial help from parents or grandparents. By contrast, Black adults are more likely to give money to elders. -
There's still a shortage of child care teachers and that's keeping parents out of the workforce. Dozens of states are trying to lure back providers and lower costs for families. -
Rising mortgage rates and a wave of millennials put more pressure on the rental market. Rents have soared by double digits, but landlords say they're also struggling with higher costs. -
High food and gas prices are squeezing working families, sending some to food pantries for the first time. But providers are struggling with high costs, fewer donations and supply chain woes. -
In May, NOAA will release its once-a-decade update for the 30-year weather averages that local meteorologists use. In many places, it will mean far fewer days that are "above normal." -
Biden says he'll name someone to coordinate domestic climate policies across the government. Together with climate envoy John Kerry, it will give climate a higher profile than in past administrations. -
Federal officials have struck a deal to detain unaccompanied migrant children at an empty college in Lawrenceville, a town of 1,400 people. But local pushback has put the plan on hold. -
The number of fathers at home in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 1989. A desire among more men to stay home with the kids has a lot to do with that, but so does the inability to find a job.
