Covering the Biden-Putin Summit in Geneva, Switzerland for NPR with host Mary Louise Kelly in June, 2021.
Sam Gringlas
I'm a politics reporter at WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate, covering elections, voting, public policy, the state legislature, demographics and law. I also co-host the podcasts Georgia Votes and Gold Dome Scramble.
I regularly report for NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. I've also contributed to UpFirst, the NPR Politics Podcast and Consider This.
Before WABE, I was a producer based in Washington, D.C. for NPR's flagship program All Things Considered where I covered elections, immigration, impeachments, the pandemic and all kinds of breaking news from across the country and around the world. I also helped cover the 2020 election as a hybrid reporter-producer with NPR's politics desk.
I've also worked with NBC News in Washington and WDET, Detroit's public radio station.
I'm a native Michigander and earned a B.A. in public policy from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where I was elected Managing News Editor of The Michigan Daily.
When I'm not reporting, you can find me by Lake Michigan, hiking in the north Georgia mountains or hanging out with my rescue hound.
Over more than five years at All Things Considered, I served as field producer for Ari Shapiro, Ailsa Chang, Mary Louise Kelly and Audie Cornish. I've also done rotations as live broadcast director, update producer and line producer in charge of the daily show.
Since 2021, I've been based in Atlanta for WABE. The Peach State constantly seems to be in the center of the most important stories facing the country. I've covered the Fulton County special grand jury investigation into former President Trump, fast-changing Sunbelt demographics, fallout from the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, critical races for Governor and Senate, the rise of the EV industry, the gun industry, mental health reform and voting rights. I zoom back and forth between local, community journalism and reporting for a national audience.
Reporting Projects
China
NPR dispatched a team to China in the fall of 2019 to cover the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. We reported from inside a dog poop bag factory in Dongguan to better understand the trade war, discretely interviewed activists for democracy and women's rights in Beijing and Hong Kong and convened a roundtable of young professionals educated in the U.S. at a trendy cat cafe to talk about the country's future.
U.S.-Mexico Border
NPR set out to chronicle fallout from the Trump Administration's "family separation policy." We filed from a busy bus station in McAllen, Texas where newly reunited mothers and children were catching buses to destinations around the country. We reported from a migrant shelter in Matamoros, Mexico, a butterfly sanctuary caught up in the fight over the border wall and a newly re-opened ICE private detention facility.
Pacific Northwest
A year-long investigation into immigration enforcement in the interior of the country under the Trump Administration led to a small city in the Pacific Northwest. We chronicled the experience of one family as they navigated months of court hearings, detention and many twists and turns.
Michigan
As a native Michigander, I'm passionate about covering the Great Lakes State. In addition to award-winning reports on the early days of the Flint Water Crisis, I have returned to Michigan to cover the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential primary. In my opinion, Michigan is up there with Georgia as one of the most fascinating and important states in the nation.