Meredith Rizzo
Meredith Rizzo is a visuals editor and art director on NPR's Science desk. She produces multimedia stories that illuminate science topics through visual reporting, animation, illustration, photography and video. In her time on the Science desk, she's reported from Hong Kong during the early days of the pandemic, photographed the experiences of the first patient to receive an experimental CRISPR treatment for sickle cell disease and covered post-wildfire issues from Australia to California. In 2021, she worked with a team on NPR's Joy Generator, a randomized ideas machine for ways to tap into positive emotions following a year of life in the pandemic. In 2019, she photographed, reported and produced another interactive visual guide exploring how the shape and size of many common grocery store plastics affect their recyclability.
Her video work has included science explainer videos on the physics of bullets to how long you can be contagious with the flu, and an animated series on the science of invention. As an art director, she helped build NPR's network of freelance illustrators and animators, growing the community through NPR's Illustration Tumblr. She has also art directed for three seasons of the NPR podcast Invisibilia.
Rizzo holds a master's degree in New Media Photojournalism from Corcoran College of Art + Design and a bachelor's degree in photography from Wolverhampton University in the U.K. Prior to joining NPR in 2013, she photographed artifacts from the Library of Congress' collections, contributing to a public archive of more than 150,000 images over four years.
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A shy woman becomes a brave warrior princess. A man calls on Captain America to help him lose 45 pounds. In costume role play they become part of a community where they can transform themselves. -
An architect looked at communities that serve older adults, and didn't like what he saw. By changing habits earlier in life, he says, we can create vibrant communities that will sustain us.
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Joel Green was just a baby when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. His dad, Ryan, used his skills as a video game developer to tell the story of the family's struggle with that dragon, cancer.
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Artist Rogan Brown peers into the invisible worlds of microbes, then uses their forms as the inspiration for large paper sculptures that seem at once familiar and profoundly alien.
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Hispanics are less likely to get cancer than non-Hispanic whites, but they're more susceptible to gallbladder, liver and stomach cancer. And country of origin affects cancer risk, too. -
How beneficial are some of the sports that we play? We follow the average American woman to see how many calories she burns while breaking a sweat.
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Sports can burn a lot of energy. But vacuuming the carpet burns calories, too. The question is, how much? We checked out the numbers and found surprises. -
There are many different ways to be transgender. For some people that includes sex reassignment surgery. A young filmmaker follows two people who made that choice through their year of transition.
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Aficionados of fine weed describe the effects as if they're talking about vintage wine. But how to know which medicinal or recreational strain to choose? This field guide cuts through the haze. -
Artist Jennifer Rodgers' father was hospitalized for seven months with sepsis before he died. She used the creative process to try to comprehend his suffering and her loss.
