Sam Baker
Senior Editor and Morning Edition HostSam Baker is KERA's senior editor and local host for Morning Edition. The native of Beaumont, Texas, also edits and produces radio commentaries and Vital Signs, a series that's part of the station's Breakthroughs initiative. He also was the longtime host of KERA 13’s Emmy Award-winning public affairs program On the Record. He also won an Emmy in 2008 for KERA’s Sharing the Power: A Voter’s Voice Special, and 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, Okla., for three years and moved to 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 for seven years produced a weekly series, Jazz in Words and Music, for Reading and Radio Resources, an agency serving the visually impaired. He is also a former member on the board of Southwest Transplant Alliance, a private nonprofit organization that provides organs and tissues for transplantation.
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Texas children need vaccinations against measles, pertussis, hepatitis, and other diseases to attend school. But Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Health and a Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, tells KERA’s Sam Baker why he is concerned about this school year. -
KERA’s Sam Baker talked about the virus with Dr. Trish Perl, a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in general infectious diseases.
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Stroke is the second leading cause of death and a major cause of disability and dementia worldwide. But a new study found those at high genetic risk for stroke could reduce their chances through better lifestyle choices. KERA’s Sam Baker talked about some recommendations from the American Heart Association with Dr. Ryan Cheung of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano.
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Cases of uterine cancer are increasing so rapidly that it’s expected to displace colorectal cancer by 2040 as the third most common cancer among women. A recent study also found sharp spikes in mortality rates among Asian, Hispanic, and the highest among Black women. KERA’s Sam Baker talked about this with Dr. Jayanthi Lea. She’s an OB-Gyn and Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
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Part of the platform from the recent Texas Republican Party convention opposes using race, origin, creed, sexuality, or lifestyle choices to create voting districts. So, the platform urges repealing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mimi Marziani doubts Congress would do it or that Texans overall would favor such a move. But the president of the Texas Civil Rights Project admits efforts to chip away at the Act have worked.
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A report from UT Southwestern Medical Center says two omicron sub-variants, BA.4 and BA.5, account for more than 75% of the COVID samples tested by its researchers. Dr. James Cutrell, Program Director of the center's Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program, said the resurgence wasn’t a complete surprise, but there were some unexpected aspects of BA.4 and BA.5.
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Removing a child’s tonsils for recurrent throat infections or obstructive sleep-disordered breathing is a common procedure. About 350,000 tonsillectomies are performed each year. But complications can occur in some cases, even death. KERA’s Sam Baker discussed a new study about this with Dr. Romaine Johnson, an Associate Professor of Pediatric Otolaryngology at UT Southwestern Medical Center who is Director of both the Children's Health Airway Management Program and the Pediatric Voice and Swallowing Clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas.
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The CDC continues to rank heart disease as the leading cause of death in Texas. But that and other chronic diseases don’t have to be killers. So said Dr. David Winter with Baylor, Scott and White. The internal medicine specialist explained why to KERA’s Sam Baker.
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The CDC has given final approval to COVID vaccines for children younger than 5. The agency's backing followed an earlier FDA recommendation of the Pfizer and Moderna versions. Dr. Philip Huang, Health Director for Dallas County Health and Human Services, talked with KERA’s Sam Baker about how vaccinating kids so young will impact local efforts to control COVID.
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The seven-year study of about 120,000 middle-aged people suggested those who drank coffee with or without sugar over that time had a lower risk of death than non-coffee drinkers. Dr. Ruby Shah, an internist and obesity expert with Texas Health Plano, told KERA’s Sam Baker the results didn’t surprise her.
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Liver cancer is one of the hardest diseases to detect. KERA’s Sam Baker talked with Dr. Yujin Hoshida, a professor of internal medicine and head of the Liver Tumor Translational Research Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center, about the significance of the project he leads.
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Researchers have tried for nearly three decades to prove the environmental toxin sarin gas caused Gulf War illness in about 250,000 service members from the Persian Gulf War. KERA’s Sam Baker talked about the study with Dr. Robert Haley, director of the epidemiology division and a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
