Matthew Schuerman

Senior Editor, WNYC

Matthew Schuerman has worked at WNYC since December 2007, as reporter, newscast editor, and most recently, senior editor with a special focus on housing, the urban environment, sustainability, transportation and infrastructure.

In 2017, a multimedia series Schuerman oversaw in conjunction with other nonprofit partners, The Harlem Heat Project, won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation from the RTNDA. A week-long collaboration Schuerman undertook with CityLimits.org in 2015, The Cost of Our Water, won a second-place Headliner Award from the Atlantic City Press Club in the radio documentary category. He co-produced a two-part story on construction worker deaths with Cindy Rodriguez in 2008 that won a a Best Enterprise Reporting prize from Public Radio News Directors Inc. Schuerman has also contributed to other public radio shows, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Marketplace and Reveal.

He is also the author of the forthcoming Newcomers: Gentrification and Its Discontents (University of Chicago Press, November 2019), a chronicle of gentrification in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. An article he wrote on the de-industrialization of New York City was included in the 2007 book, The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town? (Princeton Architectural Press). 

Schuerman came to radio from The New York Observer, where he covered economic development. Earlier, he was an associate editor at Worth Magazine, and freelanced for The Village Voice, Fortune, City Limits, and other publications. He began his journalism career at The Day, a daily in New London, Connecticut, covering town news, schools and higher education.

A native of Chicago, Schuerman graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude. He received a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Matthew Schuerman appears in the following:

'Cabaret' comes back to Broadway starring Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin

Saturday, April 20, 2024

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin, who star in the new Broadway revival of "Cabaret."

Comment

Watership Down's latest iteration is a graphic novel. We revisit the enduring story

Sunday, October 29, 2023

We examine the origins and legacy of the 51-year-old children's classic as it comes out in graphic novel form.

Comment

A new podcast looks into how Michigan became home to some of the biggest pizza chains

Sunday, October 29, 2023

A new series from Michigan Radio explains why Michigan is the home to so many pizza chains.

Comment

A new graphic novel version of 'Watership Down' aims to temper darkness with hope

Sunday, October 22, 2023

A half-century after the book's publication, the author's daughters sought a team to render the children's classic in pictures but stay close to the text. Enter James Sturm and Joe Sutphin.

Comment

Where did 20,000 Jews hide from the Holocaust? In Shanghai

Sunday, August 06, 2023

An exhibit in New York explores a little-known chapter of World War II.

Comment

Meet the artist who just turned 100 years old — and is finally having his moment

Sunday, July 09, 2023

Jonah Kinigstein was a painter on the verge of making it big in the 1950s but then the tastes of the art world changed. He never quit. He still hasn't - and he just turned 100.

Comment

This artist stayed figurative when art went abstract — he's finally recognized, at 99

Sunday, January 01, 2023

Figurative painter Jonah Kinigstein was shut out of the art world when abstract expressionism came to prominence. Now he's finally getting some recognition.

Comment

Officials search for solutions to exploding electric bike batteries

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Electric bikes are catching on. But damaged or improperly charged batteries can explode and cause deadly fires, as has happened repeatedly in New York City. Officials are searching for solutions.

Comment

Fires from exploding e-bike batteries multiply in NYC — sometimes fatally

Sunday, October 30, 2022

New York City is on track this year to record twice as many fires caused by e-bike and e-scooter batteries as last year, and four times as many as the year before.

Comment

A Supreme Court artist retires after 45 years documenting judicial history up close

Saturday, October 08, 2022

With the Supreme Court chambers off-limits to cameras, Art Lien's sketches helped the public understand what it was like to hear arguments and decisions in the highest court of the land.

Comment

This artist gets up to her neck in water to spread awareness of climate change

Friday, September 09, 2022

Sarah Cameron Sunde brings her tidal cycle performance to New York City to cap off a nine-year global tour to spread awareness of sea level rise.

Comment

Professional landscapers are reluctant to plug into electric mowers due to cost

Saturday, July 30, 2022

A heavy duty commercial electric mower with long-lasting batteries can cost nearly $30,000, more than three times what a comparable gas-powered machine sells for.

Comment

What does a black hole sound like? NASA has an answer

Saturday, May 28, 2022

NASA began "sonifying" its famous photos of outer space to help people who are visually impaired enjoy the images. Recently, it recreated the sound of a black hole 240 million light-years away.

Comment

We never got good at recycling plastic. Some states are trying a new approach

Friday, May 27, 2022

New York is the latest, and largest, state to consider charging product-makers to dispose of their packaging. But lawmakers are clashing over how much to involve industry in creating a new system.

Comment

An interview 21 months delayed: Patti LuPone talks 'Company' back on Broadway

Saturday, December 04, 2021

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Patti LuPone, one of the stars of the revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical "Company" on Broadway.

Comment

New York Will Lose One Congressional Seat, But It Could've Been Worse

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

WNYC
Some political observers initially predicted New York would lose two seats.

Comment

Under Biden, Refugee Admissions In NY & NJ Plummet

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Former President Trump admitted refugees at a far higher rate than President Biden has, so far.  

Comment

Despite Working In Hotspots, Correctional Officers Fall Behind In COVID-19 Vaccination Rate

Monday, April 12, 2021

Staff at New York jails and prisons are taking the COVID-19 vaccines at a lower rate than similar front-line workers, raising concerns among health experts.

Comment

Former HUD Official Admits To Violating Hatch Act With RNC Video

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

A former Trump appointee admitted to violating federal law by producing a Republican National Convention video boasting that conditions at NYCHA had improved.

Comment

Comparing NY and NJ's Marijuana Legalization Efforts

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

On Wednesday morning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the historic marijuana legalization law that the New York state legislature passed overnight.

Comment