Karen Brown
Reporter/Producer/HostKaren is a radio and print journalist who focuses on health care, mental health, children’s issues, and other topics about the human condition. She has been a full-time radio reporter for NEPM since 1998. Her features and documentaries have won a number of national awards, including the National Edward R. Murrow Award, Public Radio News Directors, Inc. (PRNDI) Award, Third Coast Audio Festival Award, and the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize.
Karen’s work has appeared on NPR, in The New York Times, and other outlets. She previously worked as a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She earned a Masters of Journalism from the University of California at Berkeley in 1996.
She can be reached at karen_brown [at] nepm.org.
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World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma has just wrapped up a week-long residency in western Massachusetts — called We The People — to explore America’s past, present, and future. As is his style, he brought together different musical genres and historical conversations in a setting not normally focused on current affairs: the classical music venue of Tanglewood. -
The Trump Administration's financial threats against hospitals providing gender-affirming care to youth have not come to fruition, after court action by states. But Baystate Health is still not restarting its treatment. -
Neal had refused to take part in a community forum in mid-August, but has instead agreed to a televised primary debate on WWLP-TV with Whalen on Aug. 26. -
Public health leaders sued the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2024 because player data from casinos were not yet made available to researchers, as required by law. But in July, the commission created a portal for researchers. -
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has invited other performing artists and public intellectuals to his August residency at Tanglewood, including civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. -
An estimated 200,000 Massachusetts residents could lose health benefits if they're not able to show they meet the new work rules and eligibility requirements, which begin on January 1, 2027. -
Chestnut River Power and Infrastructure, the Boston-based developer that had wanted to build a data center in Holyoke, says they will not fight the city council's ban. -
![The UMass campus overlooking academic buildings and the W.E.B. Du Bois library [far left].](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b041c84/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+0/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa9%2F56%2F25581c7a4eb1bd73805ad27419e4%2Fimg-0521.jpg)
The Trump administration has proposed regulations to control billions of dollars in federal research funding, which it says will reduce "fraud and abuse." Scientists in Massachusetts and beyond say they could set back research in the U.S. by decades. -
A lawsuit by national medical groups has forced the Trump administration to revert to previous vaccination guidelines, but the strained relationship between pediatricians and the new CDC continues in western Massachusetts and beyond. -
Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, speaking at the summit for the Health Equity Compact on June 2, 2026, said the Trump Administration's cuts in health care are "mean and dumb." She said Massachusetts leaders will do their best to mitigate the harms.
![The UMass campus overlooking academic buildings and the W.E.B. Du Bois library [far left].](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/27e95cf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4032x2246+0+0/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa9%2F56%2F25581c7a4eb1bd73805ad27419e4%2Fimg-0521.jpg)
