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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Women who say they've been harmed by Tennessee's abortion bans will be in court on Thursday. Plaintiff Nicole Blackmon says she endangered her life carrying a fetus that had no chance to live.
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Popular Israeli lawmaker calls for new elections. Tuesday marks 75th anniversary of NATO's founding. Concrete structures meant to protect the collapsed Baltimore bridge appear unchanged for decades.
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A new poll from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist examines how Americans view the presidential election — where they agree, and where they disagree.
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Taiwan is hit by its strongest earthquake in nearly 25 years. Wisconsin's "uninstructed" voters sent President Biden a strong message on the war in Gaza. A Texas immigration law faces crucial test.
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President Biden was campaigning Tuesday, but made time to call China's leader. It's the first time the two have talked since November, when they met in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Boeing announced a series of staff shakeups following an in-flight door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 in January. CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of the year.
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Israel's defense minister is in Washington Monday. Russia marks national day of mourning after concert hall attack. Former president Trump faces a deadline to post bond in New York civil fraud trial.
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Earlier this month while speaking to the auto industry, former President Trump predicted a "bloodbath" if he loses the November election. How might his rhetoric apply to Jan. 6 cases?
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Former President Trump stands to make over $3 billion as the company behind his social media platform Truth Social — Trump Media & Technology Group — can now be traded publicly.
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It's a crucial time for former President Trump's New York trials: Will his hush money trial be delayed any further? Will he pay the half a billion dollar penalty by the Monday deadline?