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Samantha Fields

Senior Reporter

SHORT BIO

Samantha Fields is a senior reporter at Marketplace.

She’s particularly interested in how the economy affects people’s everyday lives, and a lot of her coverage focuses on economic inequality, housing and climate change.

She’s also reported and produced for WCAI and The GroundTruth Project, the “NPR Politics Podcast,” NPR’s midday show, “Here & Now,” Vermont Public Radio and Maine Public Radio. She got her start in journalism as a reporter for a community paper, The Wellesley Townsman, and her start in radio as an intern and freelance producer at “The Takeaway” at WNYC. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Latest Stories (525)

Federal pandemic unemployment benefits expire nationwide

Sep 6, 2021
No more gig worker and self-employed benefits, no more extra $300 a week and no more extended aid for the long-term unemployed.
Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

What will it take to keep NYC's subway running after tropical downpours?

Sep 3, 2021
Major improvements to the subway itself — as well as everything above and around it.
NICHOLAS ROBERTS/AFP via Getty Images

Power in parts of Louisiana may not be restored for weeks

Aug 31, 2021
"The longer the power's off, the more of a threat to a person's life safety," a former FEMA administrator says.
“Next to water, I would say the air conditioning is probably the biggest issue because it’s just brutally hot," says Douglas Harris, a professor of economics at Tulane University, of conditions in New Orleans.
Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images

Wildfires have given parts of the West some of the worst air quality in the world

Aug 27, 2021
Even the East Coast has had air quality issues due to this summer's wildfire smoke.
The San Francisco skyline is only partially visible through smoky conditions in September 2020. Smoke from recent wildfires have caused Nevada and other parts of California to have unhealthy and hazardous air quality.
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images

Why governors and Congress members want a drought disaster declaration

Aug 26, 2021
Ranchers are hurting as 98% of the West experiences drought. A declaration could free up funds to help them.
A water crisis sign is seen in California's Kern County, one of the top agriculture-producing counties in the San Joaquin Valley, in April 2021.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Hospitals are short-staffed and running out of beds. Again.

Aug 17, 2021
With COVID-19 cases rising, at least a few hospitals in almost every state are dealing with critical staffing shortages, including nurses and custodians.
Nurses care for COVID-19 patients in a makeshift ICU at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, in January. Some seven months later, hospitals are once again running out of ICU beds.
Mario Tama via Getty Images

As wildfires rage, infrastructure bill aims to mitigate their impact

Aug 10, 2021
As it stands, the bill would fund several agencies' efforts to predict, control and plan for blazes caused by climate change.
"You can pay kind of a lot to get us where we need to be on the front end of a disaster...or you could pay twice or three times as much to rebuild and recover," said Mark Ghilarducci,  Director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.
David Odisho via Getty Images

Pause in federal student loan payments has been a "game changer"

Aug 9, 2021
The Biden administration has extended the moratorium on payments and interest accrual into next year.
Kameleon007 via Getty Images

As federal jobless benefits cutoff looms, millions still unemployed

Aug 5, 2021
Many states ended pandemic-related federal unemployment programs early, but there's no evidence it sent more people back to work.
Despite a dip in unemployment claims, 13 million Americans are receiving some form of benefits for being out of work.
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images