Portrait of Michal Ruprecht

Photo by Maansi Srivastava

Mental health reporter NPR

Hiya!

My name is Michal Ruprecht, and I’m a medical student. I’m also a journalist, covering mental health for NPR as a Rosalynn Carter Fellow. I report on how power, misinformation and prejudice shape who gets care and who is left behind. I leverage my medical training to inform the types of stories I write. I focus on nuanced issues affecting patients and providers, rather than flashy medical breakthroughs that rarely reach the communities that need them most.

Along the way,

I’ve received several reporting fellowships that have given me the time and support to produce deeply reported stories. I even took time away from medical school to pursue some of them.

  • Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health Stanford Global Health Media Fellowship
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
  • The Carter Center Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism

Also worth a footnote

  • Runner-Up, Nicholas Kristof’s Win-a-Trip Contest
  • Global Health Advocacy Incubator Reporting Fellowship
  • Association of Health Care Journalists American Cities Health Journalism Fellowship
  • STAT News Travel Fellowship

Organizations that have supported my reporting

  • The Carter Center
  • Pulitzer Center
  • The Kresge Foundation
  • Association of Health Care Journalists
  • Association of American Medical Colleges
  • American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health

Journalism training

  • Graduate-level journalism training at the Stanford Journalism Program
  • Hostile Environment and First Aid Training (HEFAT)

Where I have worked

  • NPR
  • CNN
  • ABC News
  • MedPage Today
Michal Ruprecht with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a CNN studio
CNN With Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, whom I worked with while at CNN.
Michal Ruprecht standing in front of NPR’s Tiny Desk holding yellow maracas
NPR’s Tiny Desk Gloria Estefan and the Doobie Brothers were two of my favorite Tiny Desk concerts.

Places I have reported from

  • Uganda
  • New York City
  • Atlanta
  • Michigan
  • San Francisco
  • Washington, D.C.
Michal Ruprecht holding a microphone and wearing headphones on a boat on Lake Victoria in Uganda
Lake Victoria, Uganda Reporting from some of the country’s most remote islands. Photo by Stuart Tibaweswa

Reporting

View

Blue ceramic model of the E. coli fluoride channel Science communication, in clay Visit my ceramics portfolio

Off deadline

  • Listening“How I Built This” podcast. Guy Raz and my headphones are well acquainted.
  • ReadingOlga Tokarczuk. Weird, wandering and worth it.
  • CookingRecipes from New York Times Cooking. My editor Marc keeps my recipe queue full.
  • RunningFive half-marathons down and counting. Take that, asthma.
  • TravelingSix continents visited. Antarctica is still to come. Until then, it travels with me on a signet ring from a Polish expedition scientist.