Neda Ulaby
Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.
Scouring the various and often overlapping worlds of art, music, television, film, new media and literature, Ulaby's stories reflect political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions and transitions.
A twenty-year veteran of NPR, Ulaby started as a temporary production assistant on the cultural desk, opening mail, booking interviews and cutting tape with razor blades. Over the years, she's also worked as a producer and editor and won a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation for hosting a podcast of NPR's best arts stories.
Ulaby also hosted the Emmy-award winning public television series Arab American Stories in 2012 and earned a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. She's also been chosen for fellowships at the Getty Arts Journalism Program at USC Annenberg and the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.
Before coming to NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago's Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What's Coming Out at the Movies. A former doctoral student in English literature, Ulaby has contributed to academic journals and taught classes in the humanities at the University of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University and at high schools serving at-risk students.
Ulaby worked as an intern for the features desk of the Topeka Capital-Journal after graduating from Bryn Mawr College. But her first appearance in print was when she was only four days old. She was pictured on the front page of the New York Times, as a refugee, when she and her parents were evacuated from Amman, Jordan, during the conflict known as Black September.
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Jiffy corn muffins are an iconic, low-cost pantry staple that's been a part of family dinners for 75 years. Thanksgiving is peak season for the company, and the world's top-selling muffin mix, which has been run by the same family for five generations.
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The company's first permanent in-person space is a former Lord & Taylor department store in the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia. Locations are on the way in Dallas and Las Vegas. -
Twenty-nine sailors drowned when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in the Great Lakes' icy waters on Nov. 10, 1975. The ship was immortalized in a surprise hit 1976 folk ballad by Gordon Lightfoot. -
The Hungarian writer, known for his apocalyptic works, has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in literature. He joins the ranks of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Toni Morrison. -
Rocky Horror aficionados used to attend screenings of the film over and over to take notes on the details. Accurately mirroring every line and dance move has gotten easier over time. -
In HIM, Withers plays a rising quarterback. His on-screen mentor, Marlon Wayans, had some real-life advice — and a reading list — for the young actor. -
In HIM, Withers plays a rising quarterback. His on-screen mentor, Marlon Wayans, had some real-life advice — and a reading list — for the young actor.
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Summer in Ann Arbor, Mich., means thousands of people hunting for hidden codes around the city and reading books to earn points. It's part of a popular game organized by the public library. -
Yemen is an ancient birthplace of the coffee trade, and immigrants fleeing its civil war have brought their culture here in the form of cafes. Hundreds of Yemeni coffee shops have opened in the U.S. -
There are 25 new additions to the Library of Congress collection. They include albums by Elton John, Miles Davis, Amy Winehouse, and the original cast recording of Hamilton.
