Pien Huang
Pien Huang is a health reporter on the Science desk. She was NPR's first Reflect America Fellow, working with shows, desks and podcasts to bring more diverse voices to air and online.
She's a former producer for WBUR/NPR's On Point and was a 2018 Environmental Reporting Fellow with The GroundTruth Project at WCAI in Cape Cod, covering the human impact on climate change. As a freelance audio and digital reporter, Huang's stories on the environment, arts and culture have been featured on NPR, the BBC and PRI's The World.
Huang's experiences span categories and continents. She was executive producer of Data Made to Matter, a podcast from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and was also an adjunct instructor in podcasting and audio journalism at Northeastern University. She worked as a project manager for public artist Ralph Helmick to help plan and execute The Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi and with Stoltze Design to tell visual stories through graphic design. Huang has traveled with scientists looking for signs of environmental change in Cameroon's frogs, in Panama's plants and in the ocean water off the ice edge of Antarctica. She has a degree in environmental science and public policy from Harvard.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accepted a controversial recommendation from outside vaccine advisers to tighten guidelines for the COVID vaccine. -
In 2024, 7,100 pedestrians were killed on the road, and in recent years, more than 1,000 cyclists have been hit and killed annually. Safety experts explain how bikers and walkers can stay safe. -
A federal vaccine advisory committee signaled a new approach to U.S. vaccine policy after a two-day meeting.
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The group voted to require people who want a shot to be briefed on harms and benefits and tried but failed to pass a requirement for a prescription. -
The group was chosen by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amid controversy. It's changed guidance for for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox shots and deferred proposed changes to hepatitis B. -
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chose everyone in the group. Their votes could affect vaccine access for certain childhood vaccines and and the COVID shots. Here's what's at stake. -
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picks more new vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, days before a two-day meeting to consider COVID and hepatitis B shots. -
For the first time since 2020, COVID is not one of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. -
U.S. consumers spend more than $10 billion a year on sports drinks, according to Beverage Industry, a trade publication. And we can’t lie that sometimes a Gatorade or electrolyte tablet sounds really appealing in the quest to hydrate daily – especially since it’s been a very hot, long summer. But the question is: Are we even sweating enough to warrant all these sugary electrolyte-filled drinks? NPR health correspondent Pien Huang has been on the case, and she brings us answers she’s racked up in her reporting today. Read more of Pien’s reporting on electrolytes and hydration. Interested in more consumer health or human biology stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org – we may feature it in an upcoming episode! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. -
As federal health agencies change their approach to vaccine policy leaving access for COVID shots uncertain, some states are taking things into their own hands.
