Joyce Hackel

Producer

Joyce Hackel is a producer at The World who aims to find the right voice for stories that will make you stop and listen.

Joyce Hackel spends much of her day tracking down the right person to tell the nuanced stories that help explain the world today.  
Joyce started out writing deadline copy from a DC sweatshop called States News Service in the mid-80s.  After reporting one story too many about Congressional dysfunction (it was bad even then) , she ditched the Capitol Hill press pass and bought a one-way ticket to El Salvador. There she wrote for The Christian Science Monitor and filed freelance radio pieces from a closet lined with egg cartons.  (She also met a British guy she’d eventually marry, but that’s another story…) Eventually she became a staff correspondent for Monitor Radio and was dispatched to Africa for four years.  She filed from more than a dozen African countries, reporting on clan warfare in Somalia,  genocide in Rwanda, and Nelson Mandela's landmark election.  She won a few awards for her Africa radio pieces, and in 1996 headed to the University of Michigan as a journalism fellow.   Since then,  Joyce has worked as a Senior Editor at Living on Earth, and has edited WBUR’s Morning Edition. Some day she and her journalist hubby vow they'll get back on the road.

Group of people detained in a truck

Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez on Haiti crisis: 'There is no interlocutor on the other side'

The Dominican Republic has stationed 10,000 soldiers on its border with Haiti. Officials there are worried that chaos in Haiti will send migrants streaming into their country. The Dominican Republic’s Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez tells The World’s Carolyn Beeler his country’s national security is his top priority, and he doesn’t back the establishment of a humanitarian corridor into Haiti. 

Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez on Haiti crisis: 'There is no interlocutor on the other side'
Haitians who were detained hold up their immigration status documents to prove they have work permits, in Haina, Dominican Republic, March 16, 2024.

'We have different cultures, but we share the same island': Dominican Republic priest says his country should do more to help Haiti

'We have different cultures, but we share the same island': Dominican Republic priest says his country should do more to help Haiti
Secretary Blinken and the US ambassador to Jamaica shake hands

'Frank, difficult conversations': State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel speaks on Haiti, Gaza

'Frank, difficult conversations': State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel speaks on Haiti, Gaza
A view of the process on a montior as lab staff use a microscope stand and articulated hand controls to extract cells from 1-7 day old embryos that are then checked for viability at the Aspire Houston Fertility Institute in vitro fertilization lab in Hous

Why an international court struck down Costa Rica’s IVF ban

Why an international court struck down Costa Rica’s IVF ban
Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland speaking at a Senate Committee hearing

What options does the US have following Navalny's death?

What options does the US have following Navalny's death?
parent holds child in doctor’s office

Why kids struggle with long COVID

When children contract COVID-19, they aren’t as likely to get severely ill as adults. But long COVID can have a severe impact on kids, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. Dr. Ziyad al-Aly, chief of research and development at the V.A. St. Louis Health Care System, talks with The World’s Carolyn Beeler about how and why kids' immune systems struggle with the condition.

Why kids struggle with long COVID
People board a truck as they leave Khartoum, Sudan, on June 19, 2023.

'I no longer have a dream': Sudan has the largest displacement of children in the world

Telecommunications and internet connectivity were cut off again across Sudan as millions of people face an ongoing civil war. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder just returned from Darfur, a particularly troubling epicenter of the violence, and spoke to The World's host Marco Werman about the latest conditions.

'I no longer have a dream': Sudan has the largest displacement of children in the world
Yousef Hammash with his wife and children, Elia and Ahmad.

‘I don't know what's waiting for us in the next minute’: A father tries to protect his family in Gaza

Israel has signaled that it's planning to expand operations in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. About a million Palestinians are crammed into the city near the Egyptian border after repeatedly being told to move south, and now they say they have nowhere left to flee. The World’s host Carolyn Beeler speaks to Yousef Hammash, who works with the aid group the Norwegian Refugee Council, and moved there months ago with this family.

‘I don't know what's waiting for us in the next minute’: A father tries to protect his family in Gaza
Haiti's annual PapJazz Festival brings together local and international audiences for rich and diverse musical experiences.

'It's an act of resistance': Haiti's jazz festival opens in Port-au-Prince despite security challenges

This week, jazz fans in Haiti will once again gather for the 17th annual PapJazz Festival. The event draws enthusiasts from across the island, as well as international jazz aficionados. Festival organizer Milena Sandler says the gathering in Port-au-Prince is "an act of resistance" amid security and economic challenges in Haiti.

'It's an act of resistance': Haiti's jazz festival opens in Port-au-Prince despite security challenges
A woman in the forefront and Palestinians running on the Al-Aqsa Hospital grounds in Gaza

Dire conditions in Gaza's few functioning hospitals, UK doctor says

Healthcare professionals are struggling to treat a staggering number of patients in Gaza. The World's Carolyn Beeler speaks with Nick Maynard, a surgeon who recently returned to the UK after leading an emergency medical team in Al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza.

Dire conditions in Gaza's few functioning hospitals, UK doctor says
Activists from the Standing Together Movement play drums at a demonstration.

Standing Together leaders discuss attempts to open Jewish-Arab dialogue amid Gaza war

As political and military leaders negotiate over the fate of civilians on both sides of the war in Gaza, there are Israeli and Palestinian people who are working together to search for common ground. The World's host Marco Werman had a discussion with two leaders from Standing Together, the largest Jewish-Arab grassroots organization in Israel. They are both Israeli citizens. Sally Abed is Palestinian and lives in Haifa. Alon-Lee Green is Jewish and lives in Tel Aviv.

Standing Together leaders discuss attempts to open Jewish-Arab dialogue amid Gaza war
Bodies of Palestinians killed by an explosion at the Ahli Arab hospital are gathered in the front yard of the al-Shifa hospital, in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023.

Gaza's infrastructure near collapse as Israel-Hamas war continues

In Gaza on Tuesday, a hospital was struck by a bomb, killing hundreds of people. Hospitals in Gaza were already at a breaking point, straining under an overwhelming stream of injured patients and dwindling fuel and supplies. Tanya Hari, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights organization in Israel, spoke with The World's Marco Werman about humanitarian aid.

Gaza's infrastructure near collapse as Israel-Hamas war continues
Rubble from destroyed building and homes in Gaza

Gaza resident: 'We all have the feeling we won't make it until tomorrow'

Longtime Gaza resident and journalist Hind Khoudary is in Gaza City. She describes to The World’s Marco Werman a city of flattened neighborhoods, where doctors are treating patients on the floor.

Gaza resident: 'We all have the feeling we won't make it until tomorrow'
A portrait of the owner of private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin lays at an informal memorial next to the former 'PMC Wagner Centre' in St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug. 24, 2023.

Reported death of Wagner Group leader 'strengthens Putin's hold on power,' analyst says

Many questions remain a day after the reported death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash. The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Kimberly Marten, who has studied the Wagner Group and testified about it on Capitol Hill. She is also a professor at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Reported death of Wagner Group leader 'strengthens Putin's hold on power,' analyst says
The site at Campus Galli near the German-Swiss border where carpenters are erecting a medieval utopia.

A group of carpenters in Germany is erecting a medieval utopia using only 9th-century tools

Archeologists and craftspeople are building a village and monastery following, for the first time, the only blueprint that survived the early Middle Ages — a medieval plan for a utopian community sketched on calfskin.

A group of carpenters in Germany is erecting a medieval utopia using only 9th-century tools