Sonari Glinton
Sonari Glinton is a NPR Business Desk Correspondent based at our NPR West bureau. He covers the auto industry, consumer goods, and consumer behavior, as well as marketing and advertising for NPR and Planet Money.
In this position, which he has held since late 2010, Glinton has tackled big stories including GM's road back to profitability and Toyota's continuing struggles. In addition, Glinton covered the 2012 presidential race, the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as well as the U.S. Senate and House for NPR.
Glinton came to NPR in August 2007 and worked as a producer for All Things Considered. Over the years Glinton has produced dozen of segments about the great American Song Book and pop culture for NPR's signature programs most notably the 50 Great Voices piece on Nat King Cole feature he produced for Robert Siegel.
Glinton began his public radio career as an intern at Member station WBEZ in Chicago. He worked his way through his public radio internships working for Chicago Jazz impresario Joe Segal, waiting tables and meeting legends such as Ray Brown, Oscar Brown Jr., Marian MacPartland, Ed Thigpen, Ernestine Andersen, and Betty Carter.
Glinton attended Boston University. A Sinatra fan since his mid-teens, Glinton's first forays into journalism were album revues and a college jazz show at Boston University's WTBU. In his spare time Glinton indulges his passions for baking, vinyl albums, and the evolution of the Billboard charts.
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Promoting a future of electric cars, the U.K. will ban sales of new gas and diesel vehicles by 2040. Many European politicians and regulators see electric autos as critical for reducing air pollution.
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Tesla's first Model 3 comes off the assembly line Friday, a pivotal moment for the company. It's Tesla's mass-market electric car — with a $35,000 price. But it faces challenges ramping up production.
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After two record sales years, investors are worrying about the health of the auto industry, especially as automakers are looking toward the future.
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A car design school confronts the challenge of getting people to overcome their misgivings about driverless cars. Many Americans are not comfortable with self-driving cars, despite the fact that the industry is spending billions on the new technology.
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The popular video messaging service Snapchat went public Thursday under the name Snap Inc. It's the largest tech IPO since Alibaba in 2014. But Snap faces big obstacles, including how to broaden its audience, boost advertising sales and fend off competitors.
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Being the state capital, home to Ohio State University and attractive to younger workers has made Columbus a nearly recession-proof economic hub of Ohio. Can its success be replicated elsewhere?
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The LA area is home to the most manufacturing jobs in the U.S., from clothes to metal parts to new aerospace tech. Companies have reinvented themselves, even as they struggle to find skilled workers.
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For Detroit automakers, there's likely no bigger prize than being the No. 1 truck. The Detroit three — GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler — are essentially truck companies that sell cars.
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Profits for the nation's carmakers are on the rise, but after years of doing more with less, higher profits are unlikely to translate into significant numbers of new jobs. There are eight fewer plants and hundreds of thousands fewer workers in the industry than before the Great Recession.
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The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for 31 years. Amid rumors of a new version of the Ford truck, GM is readying pickup launches of its own as signs of a housing industry comeback signal increased demand for the heavy-duty vehicles.