Noel King, one of the co-hosts of NPR's Morning Edition, is leaving the network to become co-host of the Vox daily news podcast Today, Explained.
King's last day on Morning Edition will be December 10. Here is part of NPR's announcement about King's departure: "Noel has hosted Morning Edition and Up First with acuity and grace for almost four years. During her time in the chair, she has delighted and challenged audiences with a diverse array of stories – from her remarkable coverage of the refugee crisis from the border, to her incisive interviews with Janet Yellen, her thoughtful stories taking in a range of voices on racial justice – and who could forget her wonderful interview with Amythyst Kiah.
Noel joined NPR in 2016 from Marketplace as a correspondent for Planet Money, where she reported stories about victims of police brutality who were coerced into false confessions, institutions that benefited from slavery now atoning to the descendants of enslaved Americans, a giant Chinese conglomerate which invested millions of dollars in her small, rural hometown."
King's new assignment hosting Vox's podcast will also bring her back to public radio in early 2022. WNYC/New York Public Radio will begin distributing the podcast for public radio stations. Here's part of the WNYC press announcement:
"In addition to hosting the show that tackles domestic policy, the Fyre Festival of vaccine rollouts, falling in love with a bot, and everything in between, King will help set its direction on a new chapter of growth, developing special series, reporting ambitious stories, and more. King (a WNYC alum) will partner with Today, Explained co-host and Vox Audio creative director (and former WNYC alum) Sean Rameswaram; the two will share hosting duties. King starts at Vox on January 3, 2022, and she will begin appearing on the program early next year.
Today, Explained launched in 2018 and has released nearly 1,000 episodes. It was named Best News Podcast in the Podcast Academy’s inaugural Ambie Awards and the 2021 Webby Awards. The podcast has launched special series, including Today, Explained to Kids, Infrastructure Week, and the Future of Work. It has also helped incubate new shows from Vox Audio, including Unexplainable, a science podcast about everything we don’t know."