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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It's been another tough pandemic year. Where did you find joy, delight or awe? Tell us what small corners, tiny moments, or specific rituals provide you refuge in stressful times. -
One day you're worrying about the regular old coronavirus. Then — seemingly out of the blue — there are variants. Worrisome variants! How did they come to be? And why are they likely more contagious?
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Celebrations, milestones and daily routines happen whether we're ready or not, and the summer of 2020 was no different. As Americans sought relief in an ongoing pandemic, they got creative. -
Family violence increases in places that have been severely burned in bushfires, Australian research finds. The isolation and financial stress of COVID-19 appear to be exacerbating the problem. -
Humans are adaptable, even in pandemic times. As the coronavirus spreads, ordinary citizens in several U.S. cities hit early say they are shifting daily routines to survive and thrive. -
After deadly 2009 wildfires, authorities offered to buy property to encourage people to move. Few accepted. The questions raised by Australia's experience are freshly urgent after its latest fires. -
Students, business owners, sanitation workers and doctors are all struggling to cope with the daily frustrations of living in a city of 7 million that's afraid of an outbreak of COVID-19. -
Heavy rains in eastern Australia are causing mudslides and debris flows in areas that burned. Scientists are trying to predict when and where slides are likely to happen. -
In the year since Paradise, Calif., was devastated by fire, certain flame-tinged objects — scorched pottery fragments or remnants of toys — have become talismans of resilience beyond pain. -
Not all bullets are created equal. This video compares the damage caused by different kinds of rounds.
