WAMU 88.5 Contributors

Emily Berman

Reporter

Berman is a reporter for WAMU 88.5’s Metro Connection. Berman is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and the University of Michigan. Her stories have aired nationally on NPR's Weekend Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, Latino USA, The Animal House, Deutsche Welle, and Making Contact. Her reporting has earned honors from the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association, and she been featured on How Sound: The Backstory to Great Radio Storytelling. Berman is a member of the DC Listening Lounge and organizer of Hear Now! She lives happily in Washington, DC.


Articles Written by Emily Berman

WAMU 88.5
The government shutdown is hitting local families whose children attend preschools in federal buildings — buildings that are now closed. And it’s also having an impact on Head Start, the early-childhood education program started in 1965 to help low-income families. Head Start provides more than 1 million children with structured education, play, healthy food and free medical care...
WAMU 88.5
On any given Sunday morning at River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, the minister is giving her sermon, the churchgoers are swaying to the music, and downstairs, in the Sunday school, the 8th grade class is learning about sex. That's right, sex. It's a local example of the Unitarian Universalists' nationwide OWL program. It's short for 'Our Whole Lives,...
WAMU 88.5
Michael Banks is a returning veteran. He grew up in Oklahoma City, and served in the Army for six years. He was deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, as a truck driver, and the military is — professionally speaking — all he's ever known. He's also not a real person. He's the main character in the interactive simulation called "Reinventing Michael Banks." It's a choose-yo...
WAMU 88.5
This weekend a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela will be dedicated outside the South African Embassy in Northwest Washington. It’s the United States’ first statue of the man who inspired people around the world to push for civil rights in South Africa. That effort was especially pronounced in D.C. African Americans had been staging protests against Ap...
WAMU 88.5
As the investigation continues, we're learning more about how emergency officials responded to the Navy Yard attack. D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier says years of training and planning lead to yesterday's "nearly flawless emergency response.""Two minutes after the call was dispatched, we had officers at the gates arriving at the scene," Lanier says. "Within 7 minute...
WAMU 88.5
After more than 10 years in Arlington's music scene, Andy Zipf has earned his fame and name recognition the hard way: with long drives, and hundreds of shows across the country. With his latest album, Reunion, he's tossing his name recognition out the window, recording for the first time under the name The Cowards Choir. ...
WAMU 88.5
As D.C. looks back on the March on Washington, Emily Berman brings us the story of two D.C. locals who took part in this historic event. We hear from Wilbur Wright, who spent the day with A. Phillip Randolph, the man who had first come up with the idea of a march on the nation's capital. We'll also talk with Irma Salley, for whom the march was her first-ever foray into civil rights ac...
WAMU 88.5
Thousands of people are gathering this morning on the National Mall for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Back on August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people amassed at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial to push for jobs, freedom and the equal treatment of African Americans. Among those were two Washingtonians who who found themselves a part of that historic day. ...
WAMU 88.5
At 42 years old, Twanda Washington is about to become a first-time mother. She shares the experience with us as she records herself, her family, friends and new baby in a radio diary. Emily Berman brings us the story....
WAMU 88.5
Dameion Agee is 17 years old and recently graduated from Cardozo High School in Northwest D.C. He's also the boyfriend of fellow student Diamond Fields, and a father. Emily Berman joined Dameion and Diamond in their last week of school, and learns how parenthood motivated them to finish high school with flying colors. ...
WAMU 88.5
For the past 13 years, ever since the day he retired as a government engineer, Wallace Kornack has made daily trips into Rock Creek Park to document migrant birds. He carries a small white note card in his front pocket, and each time a new bird flies by, he notes is down. During the weekends, he's surrounded by as many as 30 or 40 birders, all looking up into the trees and pointing ou...
WAMU 88.5
Langston Terrace, D.C.'s first public housing project designed and built by African Americans, is turning 75 years old. When it was first built, more than 2,200 families applied to live in the 274 homes. Emily Berman digs into Langston's past with Smithsonian historian Kelly Quinn, and speaks with former residents who say Langston was more than just low-rent housing; it was home....
WAMU 88.5
The flu isn't generally front-page news in late July. But in China, a new strain called H7N9 has crossed from chickens to humans, and has killed more than 40 people. The latest case was confirmed just this week.  Those deaths are being closely watched by ...
WAMU 88.5
A few years ago, the the area just north of Massachusetts Avenue near Union Station was a no man's land of warehouses and parking lots, with a handful of public housing high rises. Today, it's called NoMa and it's a sea of construction cranes and scaffolding. It's home to the new NPR headquarters, a Harris Teeter, many cafes, even a Bikram yoga studio, but it's also been the s...
WAMU 88.5
In the bustling kitchen of Whisked, a 3-year-old company run by Jenna Hunstberger, already the cookies are cooling, quiches are in the oven, and blueberry pies are getting their crumble topping. The sun is barely up and Huntsberger is half way through her workday. She's preparing her goods for the three farmers markets she sells at every weekend. She also runs a pie CSA, wh...
WAMU 88.5
Puppetry is showing up at theaters all over the Washington region, and it's not the sort you'd find at a kid's birthday party. Emily Berman meets artists involved in Strathmore's summer-long puppet festival, as well as puppeteers performing in the Capital Fringe Festival, to uncover one of this year's theater trends — puppetry for adults. If you're looking to see some puppets, check...
WAMU 88.5
Lauren Talley grew up sewing. She made sleeping bags for her Beanie Babies, and even designed her own prom dress. Now, a decade later, Talley says she's alarmed at the poor quality and high price of much of the fashion industry's offerings. So she's decided to go off the grid, fashion-wise. No clothes buying, for a full year. "I calculated how much I spent [on cl...
WAMU 88.5
Dameion Agee met Diamond Fields when they were in seventh grade. "I ain't never know a girl's name could be Diamond!" Agee recalls. They became best friends, and were together for four years, when Fields called Agee and told him she was pregnant. "I was surprised when she told me," Agee remembers. "Like, 101 questions came up to my head." Questions such as: how...
WAMU 88.5
Tami Lee Hughes grew up listening to lots of classical music. Her parents, both pianists and music teachers, were pretty much the only people in their African American neighborhood who listened to classical music. Hughes started playing violin at the age of 4, and says her parents taught her the discipline and dedication it takes to play in an orchestra — a longtime dream that's com...
WAMU 88.5
Karen Mata never expected to be a caregiver, especially not at 30 years old. She'd just finished law school, was hired by a firm in D.C., and got married when her mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She took time off work, and moved to her parent's home in rural Virginia. Every day was about making her mom more comfortable. "I'd get up, check on her, I'd make sure she'd get...