Guy Raz is an acclaimed radio and podcast personality and creator of the popular podcasts “How I Built This,” and “TED Radio Hour,” which have found a consistent home on the top charts. “How I Built This” is a podcast about the greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the move- ments they built. Guy is also the creator of NPR's first-ever podcast for kids, “Wow in the World” as well as Spotify’s “The Rewind” and Luminary’s “Wisdom From The Top.” His shows are heard by more than 19 million people each month around the world. “How I Built This” and “TED Radio Hour” have been named top podcasts by Apple Podcasts, and Inc. Magazine has called “How I Built This” “the best podcast to take on the New Year.”
IN DETAIL:
Guy Raz is the co-creator of three NPR programs, including two of its most popular ones: TED Radio Hour and How I Built This. He is the host and editorial director of How I Built This, and served in that same capacity for the TED Radio Hour until March of 2020. Both shows are heard by more than 19 million people each month around the world. He is also the creator and co-host of NPR's first-ever podcast for kids, Wow In The World, which quickly became the #1 children’s podcast.
How I Built This is a podcast about the greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity, and insight — told by the founders of some of the world’s best-known companies and brands. In 2016, it was named one of the top ten podcasts of the year by iTunes, and Inc. Magazine called it “the best podcast to take on the New Year.”
Wow in the World is a show about science, wonder, discovery and the amazing things happening in our world. It’s for kids ages 5-10 and marks NPR’s first-ever foray into children’s programming. The Guard- ian called it “a kids podcast with plenty for parents, too!”
In October of 2018, Raz debuted as the host of a fourth podcast, the Spotify original series The Rewind with Guy Raz. The Rewind takes listeners inside the minds of today’s biggest music stars, including David Guetta, Kelly Clarkson, and Shawn Mendes. The acclaimed host unpacks what they love, what they fear, and the ways fame forever transformed their lives.
In April of 2019, Luminary launched a new podcast hosted by Raz, Wisdom From The Top, which brings listeners into conversations with the leaders helming today‘s most powerful corporations and organi- zations, offering direct access to the secrets, mistakes, regrets, and wins that define modern leadership.
In 2017, Raz became the first person in the history of podcasting to have three shows in the top 20 on the Apple Podcast charts.
Previously, Raz was weekend host of NPR News’ signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Consid- ered. During his tenure, he transformed the sound and format of the program, introducing the now-sig- nature “cover story” and creating the popular “Three-Minute Fiction” writing contest.
Raz joined NPR in 1997 as an intern for All Things Considered and has worked virtually every job in the newsroom from temporary production assistant to breaking news anchor. His first job was the assistant to NPR’s legendary news analyst Daniel Schorr.
In 2000, at the age of 25, Raz was made NPR’s Berlin bureau chief where he covered Eastern Europe and the Balkans. During his six years abroad, Raz covered everything from wars and conflict zones to sports and entertainment. He reported from more than 40 countries on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Macedonia, and the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Raz also served as NPR’s bureau chief in London, and between 2004-2006 he left NPR to work in television as CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent. During this time, Raz chronicled everything from the rise of Hamas as a political power to the incapacitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Raz returned to NPR to serve as defense corre- spondent where he covered the Pentagon and the US military.
For his reporting from Iraq, Raz was awarded both the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Daniel Schorr Journalism prize. His reporting has contributed to two duPont awards and one Peabody award- ed to NPR. He’s been a finalist for the Livingston Award four times. He’s won the National Headliner Award and an NABJ award, in addition to many others. In 2008, he spent a year as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University, where he studied classical history.
As a host and correspondent, Raz has interviewed and profiled more than 6,000 people including Christopher Hitchens, Condoleezza Rice, Jimmy Carter, Shimon Peres, General David Petraeus, Al Gore, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Eminem, Taylor Swift, and many, many others.
Raz has anchored live coverage on some of the biggest stories in recent years, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Newtown School Shootings, and the 2012 presidential election.
He has also served as a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University, a Shapiro fellow at George Washington University, and an adjunct professor of journalism at Georgetown.
Most importantly, Guy is a father. He’s performed in DC children’s theater as the narrator in Cat in the Hat. He helped design the local playground in his neighborhood. And Guy was also known as the “Cokie Roberts for the 4-8-year-old crowd” as the news analyst for the Breakfast Blast Newscast on Kids Place Live on SiriusXM radio. His work on the Breakfast Blast Newscast was named “Best Children’s Radio Program” of 2016 by the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs.
Guy is also an avid cyclist who commutes to work on his bike year-round. From early April to late September, you can find him at Nationals Park watching baseball.
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