Joshua Johnson (born March 22, 1980) is an American journalist. He is the former host of '' 1A'', which is produced by

WAMU WAMU (88.5 FM) is a public news– talk station that services the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area. It is owned by American University, and its studios are located near the campus in northwest Washington. WAMU has been the primary Nati ...

and nationally distributed by

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. In 2019, he joined

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

and hosted ''The Week with Joshua Johnson''; he later hosted ''Now Tonight with Joshua Johnson'' on

NBC News Now NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

. In 2024, he appeared in a few videos for

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is currently based in Chicago, but originated as a weekly print publication ...

, a news satire organization.

Early life

Johnson was born and raised in

West Palm Beach, Florida West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lag ...

, the only son of a public school teacher and

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

veteran. He became interested in journalism as a child, inspired by African American journalists such as Ed Bradley,

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

, and

Dwight Lauderdale Dwight Lauderdale (born in Columbus, Ohio) is a former TV news anchor. He was the first African American news anchor in South Florida and became one of the state's most watched and longest running anchors.

Career

Johnson graduated from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

and began his career in public radio working for a collaborative project between WLRN and the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...

''from 2004 to 2010. In 2010, Johnson relocated to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to work for KQED, an NPR affiliate, where he served as morning newscaster until early 2016. In 2016, he hosted the radio series ''Truth Be Told,'' produced by KQED and distributed by

Public Radio International Public Radio International (PRI) was an American public radio organization. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, PRI provided programming to over 850 public radio stations in the United States. PRI was one of the main providers of programmi ...

. ''Truth Be Told'' addressed race-related issues in America, with four episodes aired nationwide. He was also a substitute host of KQED's ''

Forum Forum or The Forum may refer to: Common uses *Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States *Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city **Roman Forum, most famous example * Internet forum, discussion board ...

'' and taught courses in

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

ing at the

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is a graduate professional school on the campus of University of California, Berkeley. It is designed to produce journalists with a two-year Master of Journalism (MJ) degree. It also offers a minor i ...

. In September 2016, he guest-hosted ''

The Diane Rehm Show ''The Diane Rehm Show'' was a call-in show based in the United States that aired nationally on NPR (National Public Radio). In October 2007, ''The Diane Rehm Show'' was named to the Audience Research Analysis list of the top ten most powerful na ...

'' for two days, and in November, Rehm announced Johnson would be taking over her time slot. Johnson served as the host of '' 1A'', which was distributed by NPR, from 2017 through 2019. In late 2019, he announced that he would be leaving ''1A'' on December 20 to become an anchor for

in 2020. In November 2022, Johnson left ''Now Tonight'' on

. Since 2024, he has appeared in the

Onion News Network ''Onion News Network'' is a parody television news show produced by ''The Onion'' that originated as a YouTube video series in 2007 and was further developed into a 22 minute television program in 2011, with two seasons of ten episodes aired on ...

as anchor Dwight Richmond.

Personal life

Johnson declines to discuss his own opinions, and says he has been called both conservative and liberal. Johnson is a member of the

National Association of Black Journalists The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is a 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational and professional organization of African Americans, African American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 197 ...

and the

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to coverage of LGBTQ+ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, educators, ...

References

External links

Joshua Johnson
on NPR * {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Joshua American talk radio hosts American radio journalists Living people African-American journalists American LGBTQ journalists African-American LGBTQ people LGBTQ people from Florida American male journalists People from West Palm Beach, Florida University of Miami alumni NPR personalities African-American radio personalities Journalists from Florida 21st-century American journalists American LGBTQ broadcasters Radio personalities from San Francisco Radio personalities from Florida 1980 births 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people