Rob Schmitz
Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.
Prior to covering Europe, Schmitz provided award-winning coverage of China for a decade, reporting on the country's economic rise and increasing global influence. His reporting on China's impact beyond its borders took him to countries such as Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand. Inside China, he's interviewed elderly revolutionaries, young rappers, and live-streaming celebrity farmers who make up the diverse tapestry of one of the most fascinating countries on the planet. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road (Crown/Random House 2016), a profile of individuals who live, work, and dream along a single street that runs through the heart of China's largest city. The book won several awards and has been translated into half a dozen languages. In 2018, China's government banned the Chinese version of the book after its fifth printing. The following year it was selected as a finalist for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award, Poland's most prestigious literary prize.
Schmitz has won numerous awards for his reporting on China, including two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Education Writers Association Award. His work was also a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. His reporting in Japan — from the hardest-hit areas near the failing Fukushima nuclear power plant following the earthquake and tsunami — was included in the publication 100 Great Stories, celebrating the centennial of Columbia University's Journalism School. In 2012, Schmitz exposed the fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's supply chain on This American Life. His report was featured in the show's "Retraction" episode. In 2011, New York's Rubin Museum of Art screened a documentary Schmitz shot in Tibetan regions of China about one of the last living Tibetans who had memorized "Gesar of Ling," an epic poem that tells of Tibet's ancient past.
From 2010 to 2016, Schmitz was the China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace. He's also worked as a reporter for NPR Member stations KQED, KPCC and MPR. Prior to his radio career, Schmitz lived and worked in China — first as a teacher for the Peace Corps in the 1990s, and later as a freelance print and video journalist. He also lived in Spain for two years. He speaks Mandarin and Spanish. He has a bachelor's degree in Spanish literature from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
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SpaceX launched its massive Starship rocket from Boca Chica, TX and successfully caught the booster portion of the two-stage rocket back at the launch pad, amid concerns about the environmental impact of Starship launches.
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Guest host Rob Schmitz speaks with cookbook author Luisa Weiss about her upcoming book, Classic German Cooking.
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In Norway, one man's solution to the threat posed by farmed salmon and the impact on the fjords they swim in.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Jesse Rudoy, director of the documentary "Dusty & Stones," about the African country music duo of the same name.
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NPR's Rob Schmitz speaks with Sarah Al-Charif, Lebanon director of the Ruwwad Al-Tanmeya organization, about the displacement that people there are experiencing as a result of Israeli strikes.
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The far-right Freedom Party of Austria has won the most votes in national parliamentary elections but has fallen short of an absolute majority.
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German Chancellor Scholz’s liberal party narrowly beat the country’s largest far-right party in a regional election seen as a litmus test for where politics are headed in Europe’s biggest economy.
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Germany's far-right party is campaigning with AI-generated videos warning of the supposed dangers of migration for the upcoming regional vote. Critics call the ads racist.