"All Things Considered" hosts Robert Siegel and Melissa Block covered the massive Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, along with reporters Anthony Kuhn, Louisa Lim and producers Andrea Hsu, Art Silverman, Joy Ma, Brendan Banaszak, Xiaoyu Xie and engineer Stacey Abbott. They were preparing for a special week of China coverage when the quake struck and they were forced to shift gears.
Brendan Banaszak is an associate producer and director with All Things Considered. He started his career in public radio as the local ATC host at member station WGLT in Normal, Ill. As a director, Brendan has been in the middle of the live broadcasts of many NPR programs, as well as news specials and live music performances. As a producer, Brendan has worked on stories ranging from the phenomenon of online virtual economies to the conflict in Iraq.
Andrea Hsu is a producer with All Things Considered.She joined NPR as a booker in 2002, and has since worked as both a field producer and a reporter for the show. Hsu has been the producer behind many memorable host pieces. She produced Melissa Block's profile of the burn unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, which treats soldiers and marines who suffered severe burn injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hsu also produced coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, from both Mississippi and New Orleans. In 2007, Hsu traveled with NPR's Rob Gifford along China's Yellow River, producing radio pieces and creating audio slideshows of the journey. In 2008, she returned to China with host Michele Norris to produce stories on climate change for the Climate Connections series. Before NPR, she worked for the BBC in Beijing and London, and for National Geographic Television in Washington, D.C.
Art Silverman is a senior producer with All Things Considered. Silverman meshes ideas in the real world with imaginative concepts that clutter up his head. Over the years, Silverman has dabbled in satire, song, documentary, field reporting and writing. His work for NPR takes him on the road across America quite a bit, but he is based in Washington, D.C. With NPR's Linda Wertheimer, he drove from Ohio to Colorado along old Route 50, filing stories about the political mood of the country. Silverman also produced stories about Mississippi River floods and the Oklahoma City bombing. He went to Cuba with Andrei Codrescu, to Hungary with Robert Siegel, and to Belfast with Noah Adams. In 1983, he helped produce the "Challenge of China and Japan" series. In 1980, he spent three months in the mountains of Nepal creating a series about the environment. Silverman has been creating content for NPR News since 1978, when All Things Considered was the network's only newsmagazine.
