Susan Stamberg's legacy of visual storytelling

By Sacha Pfeiffer,

Neda Ulaby, Bob Mondello, Linah Mohammad

Published October 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM EDT

NPR's Neda Ulaby and Bob Mondello reflect on Susan Stamberg's lasting influence on arts reporting, sharing how her inventive use of sound, vivid writing, and curiosity taught generations of journalists to make listeners see what they could not watch.

Sacha Pfeiffer

Sacha Pfeiffer is a correspondent for NPR's Investigations team and an occasional guest host for some of NPR's national shows.

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Neda Ulaby

Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR's Arts Desk.

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Bob Mondello

Bob Mondello, who jokes that he was a jinx at the beginning of his critical career — hired to write for every small paper that ever folded in Washington, just as it was about to collapse — saw that jinx broken in 1984 when he came to NPR.

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Linah Mohammad

Prior to joining NPR in 2022, Mohammad was a producer on The Washington Post's daily flagship podcast Post Reports, where her work was recognized by multiple awards. She was honored with a Peabody award for her work on an episode on the life of George Floyd.