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.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with the outgoing U.S. ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. He says China faces certain challenges, like a slowing economy and a declining population.
-
As Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas prepares to leave office, NPR sits down for an exit interview. He tells us the border is more secure now than before the pandemic. -
Seven of Trump's Cabinet nominees face confirmation hearing Wednesday, an update on the latest from the LA-area wildfires, South Korea's impeached President Yoon detained over martial law declaration.
-
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin talks about why he and many of his Republican colleagues believe fire aid for California should only come if there are some strings attached. -
"The New York Times" and other publishers have sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, saying they did not grant the ChatGPT-maker the right to use their material.
-
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a challenge to a Texas law requiring adults to verify their identity before accessing porn online.
-
The DOJ released its election interference report against President-elect Trump, LA wildfires taking toll on mental health of survivors, NPR tracks actual prices of dozens of Walmart products.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in part 2 of his exit interview.
-
Already the subject of much public scrutiny, President-elect Trump's pick to lead the U.S. military, Pete Hegseth, appears on Capitol Hill today for the opening of Senate confirmation hearings.
-
Today marks one week since the big fires in Los Angeles started. The disaster is taking a toll on peoples' mental health, but LA is working to help with their immediate- and long-term needs.
