Ann Heppermann

Ann Heppermann is a Brooklyn-based, independent radio/multimedia documentary producer and educator.  A Peabody Award-winning producer, she also has received awards from the Associated Press, Edward R. Murrow, and Third Coast International Audio Festival. From 2010-11, she was a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism fellow, reporting on perinatal depression.  In 2011, she was named a United States Artists (USA) Fellow with Kara Oehler. She is also a faculty member teaching radio writing and radio drama at Sarah Lawrence College.

Ann Heppermann appears in the following:

American Icons: Native Son

Thursday, July 20, 2017

The story of a young man in the ghetto who turns to murder was an overnight sensation. But some think "Native Son" exploited the worst stereotypes of black youth.

American Icons: Monticello

Thursday, March 09, 2017

This is the home of America’s aspirations and its deepest contradictions.

Imaginary Friends Forever

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Children with imaginary friends can be more empathetic and social, but does that mean they’re more creative than other kids?

Comment

Does Your Zombie Have Rabies?

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Some of our culture’s most enduring monsters transmit their contagion through biting — werewolves, zombies, and vampires. Could these myths actually be about rabies?

Comment

Reconstructing Viruses

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Why do scientists want to recreate viral monsters like the 1918 Spanish flu? And if they do, should they be allowed to publish the instructions?

Comment

The Flame Alphabet

Thursday, September 08, 2016

In his novel “The Flame Alphabet,” Ben Marcus imagines what would happen if children’s speech made their parents sick.

Comment

American Icons: 'Untitled Film Stills'

Thursday, May 05, 2016

Photographer Cindy Sherman’s pioneering series "Untitled Film Stills" transformed what self-portraits could be. 

Comment

American Icons: Native Son

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The story of a young man in the ghetto who turns to murder was an overnight sensation. But some think "Native Son" exploited the worst stereotypes of black youth. 

Comment

The Flame Alphabet

Friday, September 12, 2014

William S. Burroughs famously said that “language is a virus.” In his novel The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus imagines what would happen if children’s language made their parents sick.

Comment

Does Your Zombie Have Rabies?

Friday, September 12, 2014

Some of our culture’s most enduring monsters transmit their contagion through biting — werewolves, zombies, and vampires. Are these myths really about rabies?

Comment

Reconstructing Viruses

Friday, September 12, 2014

Why do scientists want to recreate viral monsters like the 1918 Spanish flu? And if they do, should they be allowed to publish the instructions?

Comments [1]

How to Fly to Alpha Centauri

Friday, July 18, 2014

It’s a staple of sci-fi, but the realities of interstellar travel are grim: it would take tens of thousands of years to get to our nearest neighbor in the galaxy using current technol...

Comments [2]

American Icons: Untitled Film Stills

Friday, May 16, 2014

Cindy Sherman launched her career by placing herself in photos that look like movie stills for imaginary movies. With Untitled Film Stills, she also created some of the most recogniza...

Comments [1]

Aha Moment: Mary Karr's "Entering the Kingdom"

Friday, May 09, 2014

Ten years ago, Beth Greenspan put a poem in her wallet that she’s carried ever since.

Comments [4]

Alex Timbers and Here Lies Love

Friday, April 25, 2014

The director Alex Timbers has carved out a unique niche as a director of historical musicals, including the critically acclaimed Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. Last year, Timbers direc...

Comment

American Icons: Untitled Film Stills

Friday, October 11, 2013

In the 1980s, Cindy Sherman began taking self-portraits that showed her in costumes and scenarios that looked just like movie stills, although they were her own inventions. In a media...

Comments [3]

American Icons: Native Son

Friday, September 06, 2013

The story of a young man in the ghetto who turns to murder was an overnight sensation. But some think Native Son exploited the worst stereotypes of black youth. We trace the line from...

Comments [8]

The Flame Alphabet

Friday, March 08, 2013

William S. Burroughs famously said that “language is a virus.” Novelist Ben Marcus took Burrough's line as inspiration for The Flame Alphabet. In the book, the language of children ha...

Comments [1]

Reconstructing Viruses

Friday, March 08, 2013

Vincent Racaniello of Columbia University did groundbreaking research on reconstructing the DNA of viruses (sort of like microbial Jurassic Park). The method was used to re-create the...

Comment

Does Your Zombie Have Rabies?

Friday, March 08, 2013

Long before science explained rabies, the virus showed up in folklore and literature. "The vampire myth, the werewolf myth, and the zombie myth," Bill Wasik tells Kurt Andersen, "are ...

Comments [1]