Steve Inskeep
Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
Known for interviews with presidents and Congressional leaders, Inskeep has a passion for stories of the less famous: Pennsylvania truck drivers, Kentucky coal miners, U.S.-Mexico border detainees, Yemeni refugees, California firefighters, American soldiers.
Since joining Morning Edition in 2004, Inskeep has hosted the program from New Orleans, Detroit, San Francisco, Cairo, and Beijing; investigated Iraqi police in Baghdad; and received a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for "The Price of African Oil," on conflict in Nigeria. He has taken listeners on a 2,428-mile journey along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 2,700 miles across North Africa. He is a repeat visitor to Iran and has covered wars in Syria and Yemen.
Inskeep says Morning Edition works to "slow down the news," making sense of fast-moving events. A prime example came during the 2008 Presidential campaign, when Inskeep and NPR's Michele Norris conducted "The York Project," groundbreaking conversations about race, which received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for excellence.
Inskeep was hired by NPR in 1996. His first full-time assignment was the 1996 presidential primary in New Hampshire. He went on to cover the Pentagon, the Senate, and the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he covered the war in Afghanistan, turmoil in Pakistan, and the war in Iraq. In 2003, he received a National Headliner Award for investigating a military raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. He has twice been part of NPR News teams awarded the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for coverage of Iraq.
On days of bad news, Inskeep is inspired by the Langston Hughes book, Laughing to Keep From Crying. Of hosting Morning Edition during the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, he told Nuvo magazine when "the whole world seemed to be falling apart, it was especially important for me ... to be amused, even if I had to be cynically amused, about the things that were going wrong. Laughter is a sign that you're not defeated."
Inskeep is the author of Instant City: Life and Death in Karachi, a 2011 book on one of the world's great megacities. He is also author of Jacksonland, a history of President Andrew Jackson's long-running conflict with John Ross, a Cherokee chief who resisted the removal of Indians from the eastern United States in the 1830s.
He has been a guest on numerous TV programs including ABC's This Week, NBC's Meet the Press, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, CNN's Inside Politics and the PBS Newshour. He has written for publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.
A native of Carmel, Indiana, Inskeep is a graduate of Morehead State University in Kentucky.
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Rudy Giuliani helped lead efforts to try to reverse the 2020 election loss of former President Donald Trump. Giuliani's attorneys say he is the target of the Georgia investigation.
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A hot, dry summer has made parts of one of Europe's most important waterways, the Rhine River, too shallow for fully laden ships to pass.
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An update in the Georgia probe against former President Trump and his allies. Sarah Palin faces Alaska voters again in a special election for Congress. William Ruto wins Kenya's presidential election.
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In rural Wardak province, some Afghans celebrated the return of the Taliban. One year later, here's what they want from the new government. -
It's been a year since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Threats against the FBI from Trump supporters are up. Fighting near a Ukrainian nuclear power plant raises fears of a nuclear accident.
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People of Afghanistan's Tangi Valley celebrated the Taliban takeover one year ago. Now, what do they want from their government?
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More than seven decades ago, colonial India was partitioned into two new nations — Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. There was a massive migration between the two — and bloodshed.
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One year ago, the Taliban raised their white flag over Afghanistan's capital for the second time. NPR toured the country and spoke to the Taliban and residents about what has happened since.
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When the Taliban took power nearly a year ago, many Afghan women found their rights had changed — as well as their status among male co-workers. How work has changed for women in Afghanistan.
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Once a mortal threat, the Taliban have let Afghanistan's leading news channel stand. But every day is a struggle for the journalists who still work there.
