Federal Event: TONIGHT--Health of the Economy/Economics of Health

Federal Event: The Health of the Economy / The Economics of Health
Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 6:00 p.m at Wechsler Theater, American University School of Communication

This Bishop McCabe event is cosponsored by the American University School of Communication.
A conversation focused media coverage of the U.S. health care reform debate and economic recovery initiatives with Adam Davidson and David Kestenbaum, two of the voices and creative minds behind NPR’s Planet Money multimedia project. The conversation will be moderated by American University creative writing professor and NPR correspondent Rachel Louise Snyder.
Adam Davidson has reported on international business and economics for NPR's National Desk since December 2004. His reports can be heard on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Day to Day, as well as NPR newscasts. He is also editorial director for NPR's multimedia project covering the global economy, Planet Money.

Davidson's reports focus on the effects of increased global trade on the U.S. economy, U.S. workers, and U.S. competitiveness. After the deadly tsunami that hit Southeast Asia, he covered the aftermath of the disaster in Banda Aceh. Davidson spent two weeks there, living in a concrete bunker and filing several reports a day. Davidson has visited countries that are undergoing dramatic economic change, such as China, to help listeners make sense of the sometimes overwhelming and confusing phenomenon of globalization. By introducing listeners to the people most affected by globalization, Davidson says he hopes to help listeners "better understand the profound changes happening in every part of the world."

Before coming to NPR, Davidson was Middle East correspondent and general assignment reporter for PRI's Marketplace. He won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize in 2004 for covering corruption in the reconstruction of post-war Iraq. His work has also been heard on This American Life and WBEZ in Chicago, and read in magazines such as the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, GQ, Rolling Stone, and many others.

David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. Kestenbaum worked briefly on the show This American Life, and set up a radio journalism program in Cambodia on a Fulbright fellowship. He also teaches a journalism class at Johns Hopkins University.
Kestenbaum has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. In his years at NPR, Kestenbaum has covered science's discoveries and its darker side, including the Northeast blackout, the anthrax attacks and the collapse of the New Orleans levees. He has also reported on energy issues, particularly nuclear and climate change.

Kestenbaum has won awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Rachel Louise Snyder is an author, journalist and public radio contributor. Her first book, Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade was published by WW Norton and came out in paperback in April 2009. Library Journal called it one of the “best business books” of the year. Her work has also appeared in numerous magazines and on national public radio. Before settling in Washington, D.C., she lived in London and Cambodia.