Bob Moon is Marketplace’s senior business correspondent and occasional fill-in host for Marketplace, Marketplace Morning Report and Marketplace Money. He previously served for five years as New York bureau chief.

Moon has reported from all 50 states and far-reaching international datelines. His career spans nearly four decades. Looking back, he has compared his broad experiences to movie character Forrest Gump’s uncanny knack of popping up at major historical events.

Before joining Marketplace in 2000, Moon spent two decades at The Associated Press, covering stories ranging from failed nuclear arms negotiations between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland, to global economic summits in Rome, Venice and Tokyo. As White House correspondent for The AP’s broadcast division, Moon witnessed Reagan’s famous “Tear down this wall!” speech. He covered national political campaigns over several decades, including George H. W. Bush’s “Read my lips, no new taxes!” convention speech in 1988, and Bill Clinton’s race to the White House in 1992.

Moon tracked the U.S. space program for over ten years, describing firsthand more than 50 shuttle launches and landings. His assignments have often taken him to the scenes of tragic events, including the Challenger explosion (he described the disastrous launch live and anchored six straight hours of special coverage); several weeks on the Texas prairie covering the FBI’s standoff with the armed Branch Davidian cult; the Columbine High School shooting rampage; the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center; and the mass evacuation of New Orleans residents to Houston after Hurricane Katrina (his  exclusive reporting of a remark by Barbara Bush, who suggested the evacuees were “better off,” sparked a widespread backlash).

Moon grew up in Southern California. He began his career at age 18 as a country music DJ in Cedar City, Utah, where the station owner asked him to cover local news as part of his duties. He went on to head radio news departments in Salt Lake City, and was lead evening anchor at WLEX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Lexington, Ky.