Sam Baker

Senior Editor and Morning Edition Host

Sam Baker currently serves as Senior Editor of News and Public Affairs and as local host for Morning Edition on KERA. The Beaumont, Texas, native also edits and produces radio commentaries, edits Art & Seek reports for radio broadcast, and has produced KERA versions of the NPR series This I Believe and StoryCorps. He also was the longtime host of KERA 13’s Emmy Award-winning public affairs program On the Record, which addressed a wide range of issues from a North Texas perspective. He won an Emmy in 2008 for KERA’s Sharing the Power: A Voter’s Voice Special, and also has earned honors from the Associated Press and the Public Radio News Directors, Inc.

Sam worked in commercial television at NBC and CBS affiliates for six years before moving to public broadcasting. He was News Director and Morning Edition host at KWGS-FM in Tulsa, Oklahoma for three years and joined KERA in 1991. He has served on the Board of Public Radio News Directors, Inc. and is a member of the Dallas-Fort Worth Association of Black Communicators.

As a volunteer, Sam produces a weekly series, Jazz in Words and Music, for Reading and Radio Resources, an agency serving the visually impaired. He also serves on the board of Southwest Transplant Alliance, a private non-profit organization that provides organs and tissues for transplantation.

Health Checkup
1:00 am
Mon April 9, 2012

Stroke: Responding Quickly Reduces Lasting Effects

Liz Henry / flickr

It’s the fourth leading cause of death in the country behind heart disease, chronic lung disease and cancer. Stroke occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain stops. It’s sometimes called a brain attack, but stroke is often preventable.

Read more
Health Checkup
12:00 am
Mon December 19, 2011

Dealing With Holiday Depression

Tis the season for good cheer. But, for some, the holidays can bring about the opposite. In our KERA Health Checkup, Sam Baker talked with Dr. Randy Basham, an associate professor of social work at U.T. Arlington, about holiday depression and what can be done about it.

Dr. Basham: For the most part, around the holidays, people are concerned about a lot of things: End of the year, comparing themselves to where they were the year before. If they've had any loss in their life, it's become an anniversary season. There's commercialization.

Sam: We're putting too much pressure on people, maybe?

Read more
Health Checkup
9:22 am
Mon December 12, 2011

Nutrition Labels Don't Tell Whole Story

The Food and Drug Administration requires makers of most prepared foods to list nutritional information on the package. In our KERA Health Checkup, Sam Baker talked to a registered dietician with U.T. Southwestern Medical Center about how to make sense of what's on the label.

Read more
Health Checkup
12:44 pm
Mon December 5, 2011

Health Officials Battle Misconceptions About Blood Donation

Dallas, TX – In a KERA Health Checkup, Sam Baker talks with Dr. Jeanie Chiu of Carter BloodCare about the importance of blood donations.

Read more
Health Checkup
10:46 am
Mon November 21, 2011

Health Checkup: Cholesterol

Dr. Jeff Schussler

Dallas, TX – In a KERA Health Checkup, Sam Baker talks about cholesterol with Dr. Jeff Schussler, a cardiologist at Baylor Medical Center.

Read more
%s1 / %s2