NPR's 2022 Wrapped

By Sommer Hill,

Hassan Burke, Hassan Burke

Published January 4, 2023 at 11:30 AM EST

2022 was a busy year for NPR. All across the network, we have continued to tell stories, cover the news, enlighten and entertain our audiences while continuing to grow in different directions. To celebrate our successes, we wanted to share some of 2022's key moments from NPR Music, our podcasts, and our newsroom.

NPR Music:

Usher's Tiny Desk

NPR Music celebrated Black Music Month with an array of brand new Tiny Desk concerts — both from home and from behind our beloved Desk. Together, artists represented the past, present and future of Black music. Some of these artists included: Usher, Maverick City Music, Monica, Ravyn Lenae, FKA Twigs, Larry June, James Francies, J'Nai Bridges, Adekunle Gold, Naira Marley & Denzel Curry. Usher's performance garnered particular attention, becoming a viral sensation on Twitter and other social media.

The Lion King on Broadway's Tiny Desk

Actors and musicians on Broadway have a grueling performance schedule: eight shows a week with only Mondays off. Yet the band and cast of The Lion King were ecstatic to spend their one free day traveling from New York to Washington, D.C. to celebrate 25 years of the iconic musical with a performance at NPR's Tiny Desk.

El Tiny returned

For the second year in a row, Tiny Desk celebrated Latinx Heritage Month with an "El Tiny" takeover of the concert series. The all star Latinx lineup included:Omar Apollo, Carin León, Girl Ultra, Trueno, Jessie Reyez, Susana Baca, Tokischa, Carla Morrison and Farruko.

NPR Music celebrated the 1,000th Tiny Desk concert

NPR Music celebrated its 1,000th Tiny Desk concert with a performance from singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo. The intimate video concert series started in 2008 as an opportunity for producer Bob Boilen to feature acoustic versions of his favorite artists and performers. The concerts have now achieved global fame with artists from all over the world wanting to play at the workplace whose shelves are filled with years of awards and music collectibles.

NPR Music's 15th Anniversary

NPR Music celebrates 15 years with Cimafunk, Bartees Strange, Leikeli47, and Cory Henry at 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on November 28, 2022. (Eric Lee for NPR)

NPR Music celebrated 15 years with two nights of concerts at Washington, D.C.'s historic 9:30 Club, featuring performances from long-time team favorites as well as some of the latest artists we've fallen in love with:

Cimafunk, Leikeli47, Amber Mark, Bartees Strange, Hurray for the Riff Raff, YEИDRY and Cory Henry, plus special surprise guests and sets by DJ Cuzzin B (a.k.a. Tiny Desk producer Bobby Carter).

Jazz Night in America's first-ever Youngbloods class

Jazz Night in America introduced its first-ever class of Youngbloods, a sub-series featuring five up-and-coming jazz geniuses who are revolutionizing the genre. The series premiered on September 1st. Jazz Night in America's Youngbloods followed Immanuel Wilkins, Samara Joy, Isaiah J. Thompson, Sean Mason, and Sarah Hanahan through a series of interviews and concerts celebrating these jazz musicians, all of whom are under 30 years of age.

NPR Music x Complex Con

As part of this year's ComplexCon, the clothing brand Commonwealth and NPR's Tiny Desk hosted a booth in the design of the iconic Tiny Desk performance space.

"This Tiny Desk x Commonwealth collaboration was a long time coming. We are grateful for their staunch support of NPR and the Tiny Desk over the years. With the ComplexCon juggernaut wanting to get in on the action, we figured there's no better time than now to partner up," said Bobby Carter, the Tiny Desk's series producer.

NPR Music's Best Of 2022

Consider this your disco ball, a reflection on the year that reveled in cacophony rather than trying to boil things down into a single authoritative point of view. Throughout December, this page illuminated the best music of 2022, a few glittering facets at a time.

NPR Podcasts:

NPR launched 'State of Ukraine' daily podcast

A podcast that brings listeners everything they need to know about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched March 2nd, 2022 . With several new episodes per day, State of Ukraine featured reporting from NPR journalists on the ground, as well as conversations with officials, experts, and other newsmakers. The podcast considered the conflict's past, future consequences, and what each new development means for the rest of the world.

Throughline won a Peabody Award for their series Afghanistan: Center of the World

This award-winning series aired in 2021, twenty years after 9/11, and just weeks after US troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took control of the country. Many other outlets focused coverage on this pivotal moment from a U.S. perspective. Throughline took a different approach, shifting the narrative to center Afghanistan and its people in this award-winning series.

Read an interview with hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah about winning this award.

NPR won at the iHeart Radio Podcast Awards

The winner of Best Spanish Language Podcast was Radio Ambulante.

The winner of Best History Podcast was Throughline.

The winner of Best Business & Finance Podcast was How I Built This.

Up First celebrated 5 years

NPR's Up First shares the three biggest stories of the day, with reporting and analysis from NPR News — in 10 minutes. It is available weekdays by 6 a.m. ET, with hosts Leila Fadel, Steve Inskeep, Rachel Martin and A Martinez.

NPR launched The Limits with Jay Williams

In a rapidly-changing world of celebrity, The Limits with Jay Williams explored how some of today's biggest personalities navigate the personal-brand-as-celebrity dynamic––for all of its hardships, vulnerabilities, and rocky paths to success. Few understand the art of rebounding your life better than Williams, now an author, entrepreneur, and ESPN host.

NPR won Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for "Waste Land" Investigative Series

NPR was announced as a winner of a 2022 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for "Waste Land," a Planet Money and PBS Frontline collaboration that explains how big oil misled the public into believing plastic would be recycled.

Planet Money Live: A Superhero... and Musical!

NPR's Planet Money teamed up with some of New York's most talented musical theater performers for a live podcast taping and the world premiere of a musical on May 10 in Brooklyn at the Roulette Theatre.

Code Switch published a limited-run collaboration with Brooklyn Deep's School Colors

Code Switch, NPR's flagship podcast on race and identity, announced a limited-run narrative collaboration with School Colors, produced by Brooklyn Deep. In its acclaimed first season, School Colors analyzed how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools; in season two, hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman took listeners to the most diverse place in the planet – New York City School District 28 in Queens–to find out why the area's parents opposed a suggested school diversity plan.

NPR launched The Last Cup with Futuro Studios

The 2022 World Cup has ended. With his left foot, Messi wrote a more spectacular finale than we could have imagined. What's it like to be one of the world's biggest soccer stars and doubted by many in your home country? That's the question Lionel Messi faces in The Last Cup. Not only is this year's World Cup his last chance to bring home the coveted trophy – it's his last chance for vindication. Hosted by Argentine journalist Jasmine Garsd, The Last Cup is much more than a sports story. It's a tale of immigration and race, of capitalism and class, of belonging and identity. A story for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider in their own home.

Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! launched a stand-up comedy tour

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! launched a stand-up comedy tour! In the fall, NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program traveled to ten cities across the U.S. for nights of stand-up comedy featuring Wait Wait's funniest panelists. Wait Wait was in Ann Arbor, MI on October 21 at the Michigan Theater and in Kalamazoo, MI on October 22 at the Kalamazoo State Theatre.

Youtube and NPR partnered to bring podcasts to more users

NPR began a partnership with YouTube to bring over 20 top-performing podcasts to the streaming platform, including fan favorites such as Up First, Fresh Air, and The Limits with Jay Williams, among many others. The relationship connects NPR's diverse collection of podcasts with YouTube's audience of over 2 billion monthly logged-in users and brings new viewers to these popular shows.

NPR podcast subscription platform launched

There are now even more ways to support the NPR podcasts you love. Paid subscriptions for select NPR shows are available to listen in most podcatchers, including Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast and more. Subscribing supports the shows you love and unlocks access to their sponsor-free feeds. NPR podcasts are still available for free everywhere you already listen — subscribing is just one more way to support public radio.

NPR Newsroom Updates

A tough, challenging year for a modern newsroom

In her year-end note to the newsroom, Interim SVP of News and Editorial Director Edith Chapin said: "Every year we are challenged to make sense of the complex, difficult and often emotionally draining and incomprehensible. Each year we meet that challenge. This year was no exception." Those complex, difficult, emotionally-draining stories in 2022 included a closely-contested set of midterm elections; the fallout of the reversal of Roe v. Wade; shootings in Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, N.Y. and Charlottesville, Va.; the continuing effects of the COVID pandemic; an economy teetering on the edge of recession and a war in Europe.

Disinformation Team launched Democracy Reporting Initiative

The spread of mis- and disinformation has emerged as one of the great civic challenges of our time. From the lies about the 2020 election to the growing influence of anti-vaccine activists, to the enduring influence of climate-change denialism, lies and conspiracy theories have seeped into nearly all aspects of modern-day life, both in the US and around the globe.

The mandate is to seek out original, high-impact stories and to work closely with the many beat reporters in the newsroom and at member stations whose work involves disinformation.

NPR Climate Desk announced

In October, NPR launched a new Climate desk that harnesses the strengths of existing national and international coverage and builds greater local coverage capacity across the network. The Climate desk is led by Andrea Kissack, the former head of NPR's Science desk.

This desk currently has ten reporters and editors and manages a station topic collaborative and a new training program for stations that are just getting off the ground.

New International Bureaus in Kyiv, Lagos and Dubai

Chief International Editor Didrik Schanche announced two new international correspondents in October – Middle East correspondent Aya Batrawy and West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu. Emmanuel is based in Lagos, Nigeria and came to NPR from The Guardian. Aya came to NPR from The Associated Press, where she has worked as an editor and a reporter for 11 years, and is based in Dubai.

In November, NPR News announced the opening of a Ukraine Bureau in Kyiv that is led by Joanna Kakissis, who continues her poignant storytelling of a conflict that has upended millions of lives, affected global energy and food supplies and pitted NATO against Russia.

Books We Love celebrated 10 years

NPR's interactive reading guide came back for its 10th year, with recommendations for over 400 books published in 2022! Mix and match tags including "Book Club Ideas," "Eye-Opening Reads," and "Kids' Books" to browse titles hand-picked by NPR staff and trusted critics. For the first time, Books We Love also published a mid-year edition, featuring books published in the first half of 2022. Click back through a decade of recommendations to find more than 3,200 books – we've got your next favorite read for the new year. Discover the books that comforted, challenged and captivated us last year.

All Things Considered was Inducted Into NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame

All Things Considered, the flagship news program of NPR, was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcasting Hall of Fame at the 2021 NAB Show, held October 9–13 in Las Vegas. Executive producer Cara Tallo and host Ailsa Chang accepted the award at the NAB Show Welcome event on Monday, October 11.

Tamara Keith was elected President of the White House Correspondents Association, first time an NPR journalist leads this organization!

ATC won a National Press Club award

The National Press Club seeks to recognize and honor professional journalists who produced outstanding work for the public, either independently or as employees of editorially independent news entities.

In the category: Breaking News, NPR's All Things Considered wins for Jan. 6 coverage.