About Jeffrey
Jeffrey Brown is a senior correspondent and chief arts correspondent for the PBS NewsHour.
In his 30-year career with the NewsHour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Recently, Brown presented a multi-year series, "Culture at Risk," about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad. He created and hosts the NewsHour's online "Art Beat" and also hosts the monthly book club, "Now Read This," a collaboration with The New York Times.
Brown is author of a collection of poetry, titled "The News" and serves as an advisor to the Sun Valley Writers Conference. His numerous honors include a News & Documentary Emmy Award and multiple CINE Golden Eagle Awards. He earned a bachelor's degree in classics from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, an honorary degree (D.H.L) from Wesley College, and attended the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Jeffrey’s Recent Stories
Nation Sep 07
How winning the U.S. Open gave Arthur Ashe the spotlight to speak out against injusticeThe huge stadium where U.S. Open championships are won and lost is named for a tennis great who transcended the court and sport itself. In "Arthur Ashe: A Life," author Raymond Arsenault examines the athlete's journey and the connection between…
Nation Sep 04
Billie Jean King on athlete activism: ‘Our job is to lead’Billie Jean King, one of the most renowned and beloved athletes of our time, made her mark on the court as the top women’s tennis player in the world. Off the court, she continues her advocacy for equality. King joins…
Arts Aug 24
In rural Oregon, regional theater sparks a creative revivalA remote area of the Pacific Northwest might not sound like a top theater destination. But as Jeffrey Brown reports, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has sparked a wave of creative and economic growth in rural Ashland. One of the country’s…
Health Aug 14
A festering opioid crisis, worn-out families and ‘so much pain to process’In “Dopesick,” journalist and author Beth Macy takes readers to the front lines of the opioid epidemic in Roanoke, Virginia, and other nearby communities, telling the story of grieving families, exhausted medical workers and convicted heroin dealers. Jeffrey Brown reports…
Arts Aug 10
In a world full of surveillance, artist Trevor Paglen stares backWhen artist Trevor Paglen looks up at the night sky, there's beauty and wonder, but also a planet completely transformed by humans into a "landscape of surveillance." His new exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, “Sites Unseen,” offers a…
Arts Aug 07
Long-lost Hemingway story captures Paris liberationIn August 1944, Paris was liberated from Nazi occupiers, and embedded with the soldiers was a giant of American literature. More than a decade later, Ernest Hemingway captured the mood and the moment in a short story that bears the…
Arts Aug 03
‘Eighth Grade’ captures our need to connectFollowing a week in the life of a middle schooler, the new film "Eighth Grade" sets the familiar fumblings of adolescence against the constant glare of a glowing screen or Snapchat filter. Jeffrey Brown takes a look at why it’s…
Nation Aug 01
Unearthing Sally Hemings’ legacy at MonticelloVisitors have long come to Monticello to see and admire Thomas Jefferson's mansion, but a new silhouette and exhibition bring a largely hidden life into the open. No portrait exists of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman who had a decades-long…
Arts Jul 27
The wisdom of hip-hop gets respect in a new museum exhibitAt the Oakland Museum of California, a new exhibit traces decades of history of hip-hop, an industry and culture that's both mainstream and underground, global but rooted in the local. Jeffrey Brown reports.
Arts Jul 26
‘Writing out of a loneliness,’ novelist explores the range of native experiencesTommy Orange's acclaimed debut novel "There There" explores through a dozen characters what it means to be Native American in an urban setting. Jeffrey Brown reports.
