Selena Simmons-Duffin
Selena Simmons-Duffin reports on health policy for NPR.
She has worked at NPR for ten years as a show editor and producer, with one stopover at WAMU in 2017 as part of a staff exchange. For four months, she reported local Washington, DC, health stories, including a secretive maternity ward closure and a gesundheit machine.
Before coming to All Things Considered in 2016, Simmons-Duffin spent six years on Morning Edition working shifts at all hours and directing the show. She also drove the full length of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014 for the "Borderland" series.
She won a Gracie Award in 2015 for creating a video called "Talking While Female," and a 2014 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for producing a series on why you should love your microbes.
Simmons-Duffin attended Stanford University, where she majored in English. She took time off from college to do HIV/AIDS-related work in East Africa. She started out in radio at Stanford's radio station, KZSU, and went on to study documentary radio at the Salt Institute, before coming to NPR as an intern in 2009.
She lives in Washington, DC, with her spouse and kids.
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American life expectancy in 1960 was almost ten years shorter than it is today. And the leading causes of death were chronic diseases. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. frequently tells a different story. -
WorldPride is being celebrated in Washington, D.C., this year, with a parade being held today near the White House. But the president's policy on DEI and transgender rights is making some participants nervous.
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Legislation working its way through Congress to codify President Trump's tax cuts would also make big cuts to Medicaid if it is passed. We look into what the bill proposes, and what the impacts would be. This podcast: White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh, and health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin. This podcast was produced by Bria Suggs, and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced tough questions from senators about a lead poisoning crisis in public schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. -
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is standing firm on the sweeping cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, cuts he says were suggested by Elon Musk and his DOGE team. -
On Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifys before the House Appropriations committee in the morning and the Senate HELP committee hearing in the evening.
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On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. goes to Capitol Hill to promote and defend his massive overhaul of HHS, and President Trump's plans to change it even more. -
President Trump called for the report in an executive order, titled "Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation." -
In its first 100 days, the Trump administration — specifically, the Department of Government Efficiency — shuttered agencies and slashed budgets pertaining to foreign aid, scientific research, food safety and more. How will this impact people's health and well-being both in the U.S., and around the world? To answer that question, we're calling in our colleagues: global health correspondent Gabrielle Emmanuel and health policy reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin. (P.S. If you liked this episode, check out the breakdown of health and science policy changes we did after Trump's first 50 days — with different NPR reporters — here.) Want to hear more about how policy changes affect scientific research and discovery? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org.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. -
NPR correspondents recap how funding cuts, layoffs and leadership and policy changes in the second Trump administration are affecting the Departments of Defense, State and Health and Human Services.
