Giles Snyder

The main thing you should know about Giles Snyder is that he is an extreme commuter. He drives 90 miles from his home to the NPR newsroom, usually in the middle of the night.

After Snyder accepted his job as an NPR newscaster in the summer of 2004, he and his family never quite made it all the way to Washington, DC. They got as far as Martinsburg in their home state of West Virginia, looked around, and decided to stay.

Martinsburg is in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. It's on the outer edges of DC's bedroom communities, but Snyder's NPR colleagues are often wide-eyed when they find out where he lives and how much time he spends behind the wheel.

Snyder is from the more southern region of West Virginia. He grew up in the state capital of Charleston and went to Marshall University in the Ohio River town of Huntington. Before coming to NPR, he spent 16 years working for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the statewide public radio and television network.

Since journalists like nothing better than to brag about the awards they've won for their work, Snyder is most satisfied by the recognition he received for the humor column he used to write for his local newspaper in Martinsburg. His column was recognized twice by the West Virginia Press Association, and he once received an honorable mention from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

When he's not on the road making his way to and from the NPR newsroom, Snyder still occasionally writes humorously about his personal life.