Reema Khrais

Host and Reporter

SHORT BIO

Reema Khrais is the host of the Marketplace podcast, “This is Uncomfortable,” a narrative show about life and how money messes with it.

Reema first joined Marketplace in 2016 as a general assignment reporter where she covered everything from immigration and education to retail and employment. In the summer of 2018, she was selected as an ICFJ Bringing the World Home Fellow and traveled to Turkey to report on the economic lives of Syrian refugees for Marketplace. Prior to that, she covered education policy for North Carolina Public Radio as the station’s Fletcher Fellow. Reema got her start in audio as an NPR Kroc Fellow, which included a reporting stint at WNYC. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is fluent in Arabic.

She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she spends her free time hiking, making ceramics and spoiling her orange cat.

Latest Stories (217)

2 years after release, exonerated man fights for a settlement, aids "brotherhood" of exonerees

Oct 11, 2022
Kevin Harrington spent 17 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Now, he's waiting for a form of financial justice.
Kevin Harrington in 2020. "I don't believe there's monetary funds they can give someone for kidnapping, essentially, taking someone away from a family of loved ones and essentially stopping their life," he said.
Courtesy Daniel Harrington

How long can the job market stay this hot?

Some laid-off workers are surprised at how fast they were able to find new positions, says Sarah Chaney Cambon of The Wall Street Journal.
"The job market is still this bright spot really and it's overall outperforming kind of the rest of the economy," said Sarah Chaney Cambon, an economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Why is modern interior design so gray?

Aug 29, 2022
Amid the rise of HGTV after the real estate meltdown of 2008, investors have remodeled a vast swath of properties to look alike.
The drive to make money from housing, rather than live in it, has entrenched a handful of design tropes that include gray floors and mosaic tiles, observes Amanda Mull of The Atlantic.
kobzev3179/Getty Images

Business school felt like a better bet than art, but an adviser encouraged her to take the plunge

Aug 5, 2022
"I know that art is something that I'm very interested in, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make money doing it," says Devin Tormey.
Devin Tormey paints wedding scenes live.
Casey Durgin Photo

How teen mall hot spot Claire’s went from bankruptcy to IPO filing

Aug 5, 2022
The chain has benefited from '90s fashion trends, a good supply chain and looking outside of malls, says Elizabeth Segran of Fast Company.
Claire's has a team of "trend spotters" who travel the world looking for the next popular thing, says Elizabeth Segran of Fast Company. 
David McNew/Getty Images

FX series "The Bear" reminds some chefs why they left the restaurant industry

Aug 4, 2022
"A lot of people romanticize restaurant work" and don't realize how stressful it can be, says Genevieve Yam, assistant editor at Epicurious.
The after party for the Los Angeles premiere of FX's series "The Bear" at Goya Studios on June 20.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Crypto for kids?

Apr 14, 2022
A conversation with Rebecca Jennings of Vox on the growing new industry that teaches children about cryptocurrency, NFTs and Web3.
Internet culture reporter Rebecca Jennings says a growing cohort of camps, startups and media aim to prepare children for the future of the internet. What lessons are the kids learning?
Chaloner Woods/Getty Images

Why are there so many celebrity beauty brands?

Jan 17, 2022
Beauty reporter Cheryl Wischhover says social media and industry profits are behind the abundance of celebrity makeup and skincare lines.
A display of Fenty Beauty products, a brand launched by Rihanna, is seen in the United Kingdom.
Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

The creative force behind a viral corporate TikTok account

Jan 17, 2022
Duolingo’s social media coordinator on their big green owl, the “Wendy’s effect” and changing the voice of brands online.
Thanks to its Gen Z social media coordinator and big green owl, the official TikTok account for language learning company Duolingo recently blew up.
Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Former restauranteur manages challenges with sauce business venture

Dec 24, 2021
Kiki Aranita turned to focus efforts on growing the Poi Dog Sauces brand after she decided to close her Philadelphia restaurant during the pandemic.
After closing her Philadelphia restaurant, Kiki Aranita launched a sauce company called Poi Dog Sauces.
Poi Dog