Krista Tippett (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Weedman; born November 9, 1960) is an American journalist, author, and

public intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

. Since 2003, she has served as creator and host of the

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

winning program '' On Being''. In 2014, Tippett was awarded the National Humanities Medal by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. Tippett is the author of ''The New York Times'' best selling books '' Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living'' (2016), ''Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit'' (2010), and ''Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters—and How to Talk About It'' (2008). In 2019 she was named the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In 2025 Tippett was named a Chubb Fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Career

Study and work abroad

After graduating from Brown University in 1983, Tippett was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at University of Bonn in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. There she worked in ''The New York Times'' bureau in Bonn. She wrote about her experiences in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

in "They Just Say 'Over There'" published by '' Die Zeit''. In 1984, she became a stringer for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' in divided Berlin, where she established herself as a freelance foreign correspondent. She reported and wrote for ''The Times'', ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, the ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

'', and ''Die Zeit''. In 1986, Tippett became a special political assistant to the senior United States diplomat in West Berlin, John C. Kornblum. The next year she became chief aide in Berlin to the U.S. ambassador to West Germany, Richard Burt. She has written that moral questions arising from that experience of seeing "high power, up close" eventually led to the spiritual, philosophical, and theological curiosities that have defined her work since.

Radio and non-profit media

Tippett received a Master of Divinity from

in 1994. While conducting a global oral-history project for the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. John's Abbey of Collegeville, Minnesota, she developed the idea for her radio show. Tippett proposed a show about religion to Minnesota Public Radio in the late 1990s. The radio program became a monthly series in 2001 and a weekly national program distributed by American Public Media in 2003. In 2013, Tippett left American Public Media to co-found the non-profit production company, Krista Tippett Public Productions, which she described as "a social enterprise with a radio show at its heart." Tippett is also the co-creator and convener of the Civil Conversations Project, which she has described as "an emergent approach to healing our fractured civic spaces."

Interview style

"The Tippett style," as described by the ''New York Times'', "represents a fusion of all her parts—the child of small-town church comfortable in the pews; the product of Yale Divinity School able to parse text in Greek and theology in German; and, perhaps most of all, the diplomat seeking to resolve social divisions."

Awards

In July 2014, Tippett was awarded the 2013 National Humanities Medal at the White House for "thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence." She received a George Foster Peabody Award in 2008, for "The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi,"and three Webby awards for excellence in electronic media. Her book, ''Einstein's God'' (2010), was a ''New York Times'' bestseller.

Personal life

Tippett grew up in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She has two children and is divorced.

Quotations

* "Anger is often what pain looks like when it shows itself in public." * "I can disagree with your opinion, it turns out," she says, "but I can't disagree with your experience."

Works

* ''Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters—and How to Talk About It'' (Penguin, January 29, 2008) * ''Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit'' (Penguin, February 23, 2010) *
On Being
' (radio program and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, formerly ''Speaking of Faith'') * '' Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living'' (Penguin, April 5, 2016)

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tippett, Krista 1960 births Living people People from Shawnee, Oklahoma American women radio journalists American radio producers Brown University alumni American radio journalists Yale Divinity School alumni American talk radio hosts American women radio hosts Webby Award winners Peabody Award winners National Humanities Medal recipients 21st-century American women American women radio producers