
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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A judge blocks Donald Trump's bid to keep the public from seeing what he did Jan. 6. Troops prevent migrants from crossing into Poland from Belarus. Sixteen U.N. staffers in Ethiopia are detained.
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The Jan. 6 House panel issues more subpoenas for ex-Trump officials. A look at two cases before the Supreme Court Tuesday. And, India's rapid development has left it with many environmental issues.
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In the final week of the climate summit, there are more demands for change. Officials in Houston are investigating a deadly music festival. Daniel Ortega has won unscrupulous elections in Nicaragua.
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The Biden administration says millions of U.S. workers must be vaccinated by Jan. 4. Young people are protesting at the climate summit. Some police have ties to a far-right anti-government militia.
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Linguistics professor John McWhorter's new book is Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America. He says some in the U.S. cultural left have taken "anti-racism" efforts to extremes.
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Young environmentalists are protesting at the U.N. climate summit in Scotland. They want countries to move faster to reduce carbon emissions in an attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change.
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Democrats say they are closing in on turning much of President Biden's domestic agenda into law. The Federal Reserve plans to scale back some economic support. COVID-19 cases are rising in Europe.
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Record numbers of COVID-19 deaths in Russia are being blamed on low vaccination rates. At the same time in Germany, which has a high vaccination rate, breakthrough infection rates are rising.
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Voters in Virginia have elected Republican Glenn Youngkin as the next governor after years of Democratic control. The GOP win could signify a hard road to 2022 for Democrats nationwide.
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The Supreme Court hears a case that could decide whether people can carry concealed guns into airports, churches, schools, and shopping centers — without a special license.
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The Atlanta Braves are again World Series champions. It's been a long wait for the team that last won it all back in 1995.They defeated the Houston Astros 7-0 in Game 6 to take the series, 4-2.
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The GOP wins the governor's mansion in Virginia. Kids ages 5-11 can now get shots to protect them from COVID-19. The Supreme Court hears the first major gun rights case in more than a decade.