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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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Republican political strategist Rina Shah about Vice President Harris' efforts to attract GOP voters.
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Jurors at the federal civil rights trial of three former Memphis police officers convicted them on some charges but not the most serious in the death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols.
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Dockworkers' strike is suspended. Harris campaign tries to show it's on top of October surprises. Memphis jury convicts three ex-police officers on some charges in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with David Schenker of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about the situation in the Middle East, and U.S. interests in the region.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Elaina Plott Calabro of The Atlantic about her profile of Kash Patel, a key figure in former President Trump's plans for a return to the White House.
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Prosecutors reveal new details in the Trump election interference case. Hezbollah gives media tours of sites hit by Israeli strikes. A jury deliberates Tyre Nichols police brutality case in Memphis.
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Decades after writing “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell says he's less optimistic. He tells NPR's Steve Inskeep he reexamined his book about social epidemics, and rewrote it with darker themes.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to former Israeli deputy national security adviser Chuck Freilich about Israel's military strategies and regional risks following Iranian missile attacks on Israel.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Republican strategist Ron Bonjean and Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright about the vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz.
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Israel vows retaliation after an Iranian missile attack. What went right and wrong for the VP candidates in Tuesday night's debate. And after Hurricane Helene, neighbors are helping neighbors.