A Martínez
A Martínez is one of the hosts of Morning Edition and Up First. He came to NPR in 2021 and is based out of NPR West.
Prior to NPR, Martínez was the host of Take Two at KPCC in Los Angeles since 2012. During his tenure, Take Two created important forums on the air and through live events that elevated the voices and perspectives of Angelenos, and provided nuanced coverage of the region's challenges including homelessness, climate change and systemic disparities in health and education. He is also a familiar voice to sports-talk radio listeners in Los Angeles as a former host of 710 KSPN's In the Zone, and he was a longtime pre- and post-game show host for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers.
Before he joined KPCC, Martínez had never listened to public radio. He views his path in public radio as proof that public radio journalism can be accessible, relatable and understandable to anyone, regardless of their background or educational pedigree, and says it has changed both his career and his perspective on life.
With a career that has lately been focused on Southern California, Martínez is excited to get to know the rest of the U.S. through Morning Edition.
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R. Kelly will be sentenced in a New York courtroom on Wednesday. The disgraced R&B star was found guilty of crimes including violating the Mann Act, an anti-sex trafficking law.
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In an interview with Morning Edition, rapper Logic explains the central message of his new album, Vinyl Days: "I rap good! Let's just be honest here."
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Musician and producer Adrian Quesada has released a collection of songs that nods to a 50-year old genre blending Latin traditional music and psychedelic rock. It's called Boleros Psicodelicos.
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Cypress Hill's '90s sensational hit "Insane in the Brain" is also the title of a new Showtime documentary out this week about the hip-hop group.
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Tejano singer Selena died in 1995. NPR's A Martinez talks to Maria Garcia, creator and host of the podcast Anything for Selena, about projects that will keep Selena's music alive for new generations.
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After a global dance hit, the country star returns from lockdown with an intimate new album — and a new son, who helped inspire it.
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Rivers Cuomo, songwriter of Weezer, talks about looking to Vivaldi for inspiration in announcing a quartet of seasonal releases this year and navigating three decades spent in the same band.
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For the occasion of its half-centennial, cultural critic and poet Hanif Abdurraqib takes the measure of Stevie Wonder's unmatchable artistic achivements in the early-to-mid '70s.
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Shamir's new album, 'Heterosexuality,' confronts how the public viewed him back in 2014, when his debut single nearly made him a pop star at the age of 19.
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Pianist Lara Downes' latest mini-album traces the story of the Great Migration of Black Americans from the south in the early to mid-20th century, with music by Florence Price and Harry T. Burleigh.