NPR has lost one of its finest journalists.
For 15 years, Rose Friedman was an editor and reporter who helped shape NPR's arts and cultural coverage. She was one of the co-creators of the popular Books We Love reading guide and, most recently, helped lead NPR's America 250 series.
Friedman died at home, of cancer, in New York City on Sept. 17 at the age of 38.
Rose Friedman was an editor to the end. She said she wanted the second line of her obituary to acknowledge her role as a shop steward for SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents NPR's editorial workers. She wanted the line to say that her "proudest achievement" was helping convince NPR to increase its paid parental leave.
Not the second line but still pretty high up in the story. Rose would understand.
Rose Friedman was in her early 20s when she landed her first position as an editorial assistant at NPR Books. She became deeply sourced in the publishing industry and seemed to have read everything.
She edited book reviews and features such as This Week's Must Read. She wrote numerous appreciations of authors, including Herman Wouk and the legendary editor Sonny Mehta.
For the Book Concierge, which was later renamed Books We Love, Rose helped pore over hundreds of titles nominated by NPR staff and critics, and whittle them down into a robust reader's guide.
"She was voracious," said novelist Meg Wolitzer, who worked with Rose on a number of NPR reviews and features. "What a gifted, delightful, brilliant, deeply kind person. And I would say a true enthusiast. I got so much working with Rose."
Even as a young staffer in the NPR newsroom, Rose had an old school journalist's sensibility. She was endlessly curious but always skeptical. She strived for clarity and depth but also humor and surprise.
Food was one of her favorite subjects. The first thing we hear her say in her profile of chef Bill Buford: "I have to tell you — this does not smell very good."
For many years Rose was my editor. When I once pitched her a story on an artist who was trending, Rose scoffed, "Isn't she just for Instagram?"
She always pushed back on "hot takes" and stories that she didn't think had substance. But sometimes that pushback was intended to make reporters work harder. Not kill an idea altogether.
"She had so much integrity," said Theo Balcomb, a former supervising editor for NPR's All Things Considered and now a senior editor at The Atlantic. She and Rose met early in their careers at NPR and became close friends.
"She would care more about 'Was this true?' or as holistic as we could get than, 'Is it buzzy?'" Balcomb said. "She had a strong sense of purpose."
In 2020, Rose was NPR's lead reporter on the sexual assault trial of former movie executive Harvey Weinstein. The testimony from Weinstein's alleged victims haunted her.
Rose edited numerous #MeToo stories. In 2018, we shared a National Headliner Award for our feature "Women Are Speaking Up About Harassment And Abuse, But Why Now?"
Rose Friedman grew up in Newton, Mass. She studied labor history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
For her dissertation she researched worker solidarity across ethnic lines at an iron range in Minnesota. Her paper won the Barbara Wertheimer Prize in Labor History from the New York Labor History Association.
Rose brought her passion for labor rights to NPR. She and NPR correspondent Tom Dreisbach were on the SAG-AFTRA committee that convinced the company to increase its paid parental leave.
"Rose's thought was, 'let's go big,'" Dreisbach remembered.
Rose loved being a mom to her two children. "She said having babies is the best thing in the world and that the first six months with a baby, you don't get it back," said Dreisbach.
Rose and her partner, Andrew Anastasi, were avid travelers and daring foodies. Balcomb remembered them ordering an entire pig's head at a beer garden in Washington, D.C. On a visit with Rose and Andrew when they were living in Italy, Dreisbach said she "insisted" they order the "spleen sandwich" at a certain market in Palermo.
Dreisbach said he will remember Rose as someone who was "able to find more delight in life than almost anyone. Every day is a new adventure."
Her friend and colleague Natalie Winston agreed: "No one lives in the moment more than Rose." Winston visited Rose in the spring of 2025 after she'd had surgery. She figured they would stay home and that she would cook for Rose and help clean their apartment.
"And she's like, 'We're going to Chinatown to get dumplings, eat them on a park bench, take the ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn.' She just wanted to explore everything," said Winston.
In addition to her children and her partner, Rose is survived by her parents Carolyn and Jerry Friedman, her sisters Sophie and Nina and numerous admiring friends and colleagues.
We will miss her wisdom, generosity, infectious humor and, above all, her voice.
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