
Lulu Garcia-Navarro
Lulu Garcia-Navarro is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. She is infamous in the IT department of NPR for losing laptops to bullets, hurricanes, and bomb blasts.
Before joining the Sunday morning team, she served as an NPR correspondent based in Brazil, Israel, Mexico, and Iraq. She was one of the first reporters to enter Libya after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising began and spent months painting a deep and vivid portrait of a country at war. Often at great personal risk, Garcia-Navarro captured history in the making with stunning insight, courage, and humanity.
For her work covering the Arab Spring, Garcia-Navarro was awarded a 2011 George Foster Peabody Award, a Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club, an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Alliance for Women and the Media's Gracie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. She contributed to NPR News reporting on Iraq, which was recognized with a 2005 Peabody Award and a 2007 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton. She has also won awards for her work on migration in Mexico and the Amazon in Brazil.
Since joining Weekend Edition Sunday, Garcia-Navarro and her team have also received a Gracie for their coverage of the #MeToo movement. She's hard at work making sure Weekend Edition brings in the voices of those who will surprise, delight, and move you, wherever they might be found.
Garcia-Navarro got her start in journalism as a freelancer with the BBC World Service and Voice of America. She later became a producer for Associated Press Television News before transitioning to AP Radio. While there, Garcia-Navarro covered post-Sept. 11 events in Afghanistan and developments in Jerusalem. She was posted for the AP to Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion, where she stayed covering the conflict.
Garcia-Navarro holds a Bachelor of Science degree in international relations from Georgetown University and an Master of Arts degree in journalism from City University in London.
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The South American country was the last place in the Americas to abolish slavery and that period coincided with a boom in the then new medium of photography. what resulted is arguably the largest archive of photographs of slavery in the world, and that is giving new insight to academics and ordinary Brazilians on the country's brutal past.
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Once among the richest men on the planet, Eike Batista's wealth has evaporated. From a net worth of $34.5 billion last year, the Brazilian businessman is now worth less than 1 percent of that. Many observers see Batista's fall as a parable for the nation's economic woes.
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Latin America has some of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the world. Many countries in the region have a total ban. In Brazil, abortion is illegal, but there are some exceptions. A new bill is trying to roll those exceptions back.
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Protesters are dressing up as superheroes to demonstrate in Rio de Janeiro, but that's not the only place caped crusaders have taken to Latin American streets.
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Not only are Brazilian artists now getting big play in major museums around the world, but something new is happening inside Brazil: There's a burgeoning appetite for art.
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Brazil's banks started giving easy credit about eight years ago. The country was booming, and a new consumer class was created, fueling growth. But that boom is now over, and Brazilians are some of the most indebted people in the world.
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Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, has been widely practiced by people of African descent in Brazil but mostly in secret — until now. After centuries of slavery and discrimination, Brazil's Afro-Brazilian community is proudly celebrating its African roots.
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Growing numbers of Brazilians are visiting the U.S.; last year, they spent $9 billion. It's a sign of a changing Brazil — more affluent, more outward looking. Most of those getting visas to the U.S. are going to shop or do business, and the economic impact has been palpable.
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Brazilian police are preparing to occupy one of the deadliest shantytown complexes in Rio de Janeiro, hoping to drive out drug gangs ahead of next year's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. But in Mare, the vast, poor and dangerous home to 75,000 people, some fear the police more than the drug gangs.
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The visit by Pope Francis was marred by security lapses, traffic chaos and other logistical snafus. The event, World Youth Day, was seen as a test for Rio, which hosts the World Cup next year and the summer Olympics in 2016.