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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In the U.S., more people are hospitalized for COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic. The omicron variant has slammed ERs, but doctors say this surge feels different than earlier ones.
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The U.S. hits another COVID record. NATO officials meet with a Russian delegation to try to prevent another invasion of Ukraine. Pressed on election lies, ex-President Trump cuts NPR interview short.
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The former president blasted Republicans who have crossed him and kept up repeated election lies in an NPR interview.
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Rapid COVID-19 tests are in short supply and prices are increasing. The Supreme Court will review two of Biden's vaccine rules for workers. Not many Republicans attended Jan. 6 events on Capitol Hill.
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Members of Congress mark the attack on the U.S. Capitol a year ago. Experts monitoring extremist worry the U.S. is in a more dangerous place than a year ago. Examining the CDC's messaging problems.
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President Biden and Russian President Putin on Thursday are expected hold their second call this month — amid Russia's continued military build-up near its border with Ukraine.
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The U.S. hits a record number of COVID-19 cases. A British socialite is found guilty of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls. President Biden and Russia's Putin are to speak on the phone.
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As omicron continues to spread, the CDC loosened isolation guidelines. Some infectious disease experts say the revisions should come with stronger mask and testing requirements.
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The new CDC isolation guidelines raise concerns among health experts. NFL Hall of Fame coach and iconic sports broadcaster John Madden dies at 85. Consumers are having a tough time buying new cars.
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The CDC cuts the recommended isolation time for COVID infections. Schools will usher in another new year defined by the pandemic. Winter Olympic officials put stringent COVID measures in place.
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School leaders say the pressures of the pandemic had already made this school year the most challenging of their lives. Then came the omicron variant.
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Over the next month, scientists estimate that the U.S. could face a record-breaking 400,000 new cases each day — powered by the omicron variant. Hospitalizations in some areas already are rising.