
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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Israel hits targets in Gaza as truce with Hamas collapses. Why U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel is held up in the House. GOP Florida Gov. DeSantis and Democratic California Gov. Newsom held a debate.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel in an effort to further extend the ceasefire and secure the release of more hostages.
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A record number of seniors struggle with housing costs. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies says it's going to get worse as the baby boomer generation starts to turn 80 in a few years.
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The relationship between the U.S. and India took a hit after the Justice Department announced charges against an Indian national for allegedly taking part in a murder-for-hire scheme on U.S. soil.
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Secretary of State Blinken is in Israel. New York Rep. George Santos may be expelled from Congress. U.S. charges Indian national in alleged assassination plot of Sikh separatist in New York City.
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Ukraine enters the winter months with stalled front lines and uncertainty about continued Western support for its war with Russia. Congress is debating whether to approve a new bloc of funding.
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A small town near California's border with Mexico is home to an open air camp with few amenities — hundreds of migrants have been placed there while awaiting processing by U.S. officials.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Ukraine. Many migrants enter the U.S. illegally and land at makeshift camps in California. TSA braces for record air travelers.
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Russia and Ukraine are fighting a war on multiple fronts, including in cyberspace. A secretive Ukrainian hacktivist group says it is carrying out cyber missions against Russia.
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Former first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96. Israel and Hamas appear to inch toward a possible deal to release some hostages. An ultra-conservative economist won Argentina's presidential election.