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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Israeli forces take control of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Russian President Putin is being inaugurated for a fifth term. The House could vote soon to oust Speaker Johnson.
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Ryan Riccucci, a 17-year agency veteran, says he feels the agency is misunderstood by the U.S. public.
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Israelis mark Holocaust Memorial Day amid a spike in antisemitic incidents, pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses worldwide and an impasse in Gaza cease-fire talks.
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Boeing is set to launch humans to space for the first time Monday night aboard its Starliner capsule. This mission is years behind schedule and over budget.
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China's president is in Europe for the first time in five years, at a point when Sino-European relations are particularly frosty. Will a Beijing charm offensive turn things around?
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The Israeli military urges civilians to leave Rafah. China's president begins a five-day European tour. NASA and Boeing are set to launch astronauts to the International Space Station Monday night.
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Morning Edition spoke to migrants hoping to enter the U.S. and the border agents tasked with keeping them out.
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President Biden addresses pro-Palestinian protests. Monopoly trial between DOJ and Google is wrapping up. Protesters in the Caucasus nation of Georgia say Russia-style draft law will hurt free speech.
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Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep and NPR's Renee Montagne, who hosted the show with Steve for more than a dozen years, look back on some of their most memorable moments.
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After three weeks in the spotlight of the national debate on abortion, Arizona lawmakers voted to repeal the law banning almost all abortions. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs promised to sign it.