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Reema Khrais

Host and Reporter

SHORT BIO

Reema Khrais is the host of the Marketplace podcast, “This is Uncomfortable,” a narrative show about life and how money messes with it.

Reema first joined Marketplace in 2016 as a general assignment reporter where she covered everything from immigration and education to retail and employment. In the summer of 2018, she was selected as an ICFJ Bringing the World Home Fellow and traveled to Turkey to report on the economic lives of Syrian refugees for Marketplace. Prior to that, she covered education policy for North Carolina Public Radio as the station’s Fletcher Fellow. Reema got her start in audio as an NPR Kroc Fellow, which included a reporting stint at WNYC. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is fluent in Arabic.

She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where she spends her free time hiking, making ceramics and spoiling her orange cat.

Latest Stories (218)

President Donald Trump is considering eliminating diversity lottery visas. What would be the economic impact?

Nov 22, 2017
Today is the last day for people around the world to apply to what’s known as the diversity lottery program. That’s the program that gives U.S. visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration. The recent round of applications is for fiscal year of 2019. The program made recent headlines after a recipient […]

Here’s how homebuyers and brokers are reacting to the tax bill

Nov 21, 2017
Real estate brokers say the proposed tax changes would hit expensive cities the hardest.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Historically black colleges and universities add $15 billion a year to the economy, study shows

Nov 14, 2017
Fifteen billion dollars a year. That’s about how much historically black colleges and universities contribute to the U.S. economy each year, according to a new study released today by the United Negro College Fund and conducted by the University of Georgia. As Marketplace’s Reema Khrais reports, it’s part of a bigger strategy to highlight the relevance […]

Buried in the tax bill: provisions to woo social conservatives

Nov 7, 2017
The 400-plus-page bill has some provisions that may have less to do with actual taxes, and more to do with winning over conservatives.
House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) keeps a stack of books that document the current federal tax code and related regulations on his desk.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The health insurance exchanges were meant to lower premiums through competition. So what happened this year?

Oct 30, 2017
It’s sign up season for the Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment starts on Wednesday. Government numbers out today show that almost half of the population live in places where they can only choose from three or fewer insurers. Not much competition, so you’d expect premiums to be high. But in other places, there’s seven, eight or even […]

There are longer lines ahead as TSA tightens security

Oct 26, 2017
Restrictions on electronic devices carried by travelers coming from some countries have been rolled back. But now U.S. officials are requiring any person traveling to the country be subject to new, tighter screenings.  Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

For two DACA entrepreneurs, it may be the end of business as usual

Oct 25, 2017
One couple in San Diego confronts an uncertain future for themselves and the businesses they've built
Dulce Garcia and Luis Tinoco have been dating for more than 15 years. They're both DACA recipients who own businesses just a few blocks away from each other.
Reema Khrais/Marketplace

Mnuchin heads to Middle East focused on disrupting terrorist financing

Oct 25, 2017
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks in Saudi Arabia today at the launch of what’s being called the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center. Mnuchin’s leading a weeklong delegation to the Middle East to meet with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Israel and Qatar to talk about ways to combat terrorist financing.  Click the audio player above to hear […]

Walmart deal would put Lord & Taylor merch on the discounter's website

Oct 20, 2017
Pressure from Amazon has Walmart.com looking for new kinds of customers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the giant discount store is close to landing a deal with Lord & Taylor, one of the oldest luxury department stores in the country.  Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate threatens in-state tuition discounts

Oct 19, 2017
In Pennsylvania, a budget stalemate — one that’s been going on for more than three months now — is threatening millions of dollars that some universities count on to lower their in-state tuition. The state’s legislature adopted the budget over the summer, but it still hasn’t agreed on how to pay for it. Meanwhile, four schools — […]