Laura Sydell
Laura Sydell fell in love with the intimate storytelling qualities of radio, which combined her passion for theatre and writing with her addiction to news. Over her career she has covered politics, arts, media, religion, and entrepreneurship. Currently Sydell is the Digital Culture Correspondent for NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and NPR.org.
Sydell's work focuses on the ways in which technology is transforming our culture and how we live. For example, she reported on robotic orchestras and independent musicians who find the Internet is a better friend than a record label as well as ways technology is changing human relationships.
Sydell has traveled through India and China to look at the impact of technology on developing nations. In China, she reported how American television programs like Lost broke past China's censors and found a devoted following among the emerging Chinese middle class. She found in India that cell phones are the computer of the masses.
Sydell teamed up with Alex Bloomberg of NPR's Planet Money team and reported on the impact of patent trolls on business and innovations particular to the tech world. The results were a series of pieces that appeared on This American Life and All Things Considered. The hour long program on This American Life "When Patents Attack! - Part 1," was honored with a Gerald Loeb Award and accolades from Investigative Reporters and Editors. A transcript of the entire show was included in The Best Business Writing of 2011 published by Columbia University Press.
Before joining NPR in 2003, Sydell served as a senior technology reporter for American Public Media's Marketplace, where her reporting focused on the human impact of new technologies and the personalities behind the Silicon Valley boom and bust.
Sydell is a proud native of New Jersey and prior to making a pilgrimage to California and taking up yoga she worked as a reporter for NPR Member Station WNYC in New York. Her reporting on race relations, city politics, and arts was honored with numerous awards from organizations such as The Newswomen's Club of New York, The New York Press Club, and The Society of Professional Journalists.
American Women in Radio and Television, The National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and Women in Communications have all honored Sydell for her long-form radio documentary work focused on individuals whose life experiences turned them into activists.
After finishing a one-year fellowship with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, Sydell came to San Francisco as a teaching fellow at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley.
Sydell graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor's degree from William Smith College in Geneva, New York, and earned a J.D. from Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law.
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Twitter is expected to lay off workers, on the heels of announcing its new CEO. What do Twitter's recent struggles say about the company — and Silicon Valley in general?
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Computer voices sound perfect in sci-fi films, but in the real world computer voices such as those used for Siri, Cortana and Google Now don't seem to be able to say some words correctly. -
In 2015, mobile games revenues are expected to hit more than $30 billion worldwide. Apple wants these casual gamers to play their mobile games on its streaming TV console. -
While Apple's new phones and tablet mostly follow the faster-bigger-sharper formula, Apple TV's voice functionality and app ecosystem could be a breakthrough. -
Alex Gibney's documentary joins a growing list of Steve Jobs biopics and biographies. The director's thesis seems to be that Jobs' flawed character was infused into the machines he made. -
A federal judge has allowed some drivers to proceed with a class-action suit against the ride-hailing service. The case could affect other companies in the sharing economy such as Airbnb and Lyft. -
Many popular videos on Facebook originated on YouTube, and YouTube stars say it means they're losing money. Facebook says it takes intellectual property rights seriously and is working on a solution. -
Like a lot of machines, tractors are increasingly run by computer software that has proprietary locks. But if farmers break those locks to fix their John Deere, they are also breaking the law. -
State officials say years of deregulation have made it nearly impossible for authorities to find out details from telecom companies.
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On Tuesday, the four major cell phone providers had an outage that effected tens of thousands. The cause is unclear, but experts say our wireless carriers still rely on aging phone infrastructure.
