Ari Shapiro is an award-winning anchor of NPR's All Things Considered, one of the most listened-to radio news programs in the United States, as well as a host of NPR’s daily afternoon news podcast, Consider This. He has been a question on Jeopardy and an answer in the New York Times crossword puzzle. His debut memoir, “The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening,” was an instant New York Times bestseller. As a singer, he has performed in some of the world’s most storied venues, from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl.

Ari has reported from above the Arctic Circle and aboard Air Force One. He has covered wars in Iraq, Ukraine, and Israel, and he has filed stories from five continents and most of the 50 states. Before becoming a host in 2015, he was NPR’s international correspondent based in London. Shapiro took on that role after four years as White House Correspondent during the Obama presidency. In 2012, he embedded with the presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney. He was NPR’s Justice Correspondent for five years during the George W. Bush administration.

His work has been consistently recognized by his peers. He has won three national Edward R. Murrow awards; one for a global series that connected the dots between climate change, migration, and far-right political leaders; another for his reporting on the life and death of Breonna Taylor; and the third for his coverage of the Trump Administration’s asylum policies on the US-Mexico border. He was named “Journalist of the Year” in 2023 by NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ+ journalists. The Columbia Journalism Review honored him with a laurel for his investigation into disability benefits for injured American veterans. The American Bar Association awarded him the Silver Gavel for exposing the failures of Louisiana’s detention system after Hurricane Katrina. He was the first recipient of the American Judges’ Association’s American Gavel Award for his work on U.S. courts and the American justice system. And at age 25, Shapiro won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for an investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission.

Shapiro also makes frequent appearances as a guest singer with the “little orchestra” Pink Martini. The band’s recent albums feature him on several tracks, singing in multiple languages. Since his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009, Shapiro has performed live at many of the most iconic venues across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.

In 2019, he created the stage show, Och and Oy: A Considered Cabaret, with Tony Award winner Alan Cumming. They have performed together around the country, including a sold-out two week run at the Café Carlyle in New York. Ari has shared a stage with both Chita and Rita (Rivera and Moreno), among many others. He was featured in the American debut of the play Request Concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He was also a guest singer in the Washington Ballet’s original production of The Sun Also Rises and a soloist at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Chorus in Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. He has created two original solo shows and performed them at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, and other renowned cabaret venues.

Shapiro was born in Fargo, North Dakota, and grew up in Portland, Oregon. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale. He began his journalism career as an intern for NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg, who has also occasionally been known to sing in public. He lives in Washington, DC, with his husband and two dogs.