Mary Louise Kelly
Mary Louise Kelly is a co-host of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine.
Previously, she spent a decade as national security correspondent for NPR News, and she's kept that focus in her role as anchor. That's meant taking All Things Considered to Russia, North Korea, and beyond (including live coverage from Helsinki, for the infamous Trump-Putin summit). Her past reporting has tracked the CIA and other spy agencies, terrorism, wars, and rising nuclear powers. Kelly's assignments have found her deep in interviews at the Khyber Pass, at mosques in Hamburg, and in grimy Belfast bars.
Kelly first launched NPR's intelligence beat in 2004. After one particularly tough trip to Baghdad — so tough she wrote an essay about it for Newsweek — she decided to try trading the spy beat for spy fiction. Her debut espionage novel, Anonymous Sources, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2013. It's a tale of journalists, spies, and Pakistan's nuclear security. Her second novel, The Bullet, followed in 2015.
Kelly's writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Washingtonian, The Atlantic, and other publications. She has lectured at Harvard and Stanford, and taught a course on national security and journalism at Georgetown University. In addition to her NPR work, Kelly serves as a contributing editor at The Atlantic, moderating newsmaker interviews at forums from Aspen to Abu Dhabi.
A Georgia native, Kelly's first job was pounding the streets as a political reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 1996, she made the leap to broadcasting, joining the team that launched BBC/Public Radio International's The World. The following year, Kelly moved to London to work as a producer for CNN and as a senior producer, host, and reporter for the BBC World Service.
Kelly graduated from Harvard University in 1993 with degrees in government, French language, and literature. Two years later, she completed a master's degree in European studies at Cambridge University in England.
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A new study analyzed the sleep patterns of jellyfish and sea anemones and found they share some sleep traits with humans. The research could provide insight into the origins and function of sleep.
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For artist Thomas McKean, the New York City MetroCard was anything but mundane. He used cut-up bits of the cards to create hundreds of sculptures and collages, and still has a stockpile to work with.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, about what Congress may do in response to the Trump administration's actions in Venezuela.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with bourbon expert Fred Minnick on what Jim Beam's halting distillation at main distillery reveals about the challenges facing the bourbon industry and the year ahead.
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President Trump issues his first vetoes of his second term.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben about their thriller, Gone Before Goodbye.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to Virginia's Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger about her priorities and being the first woman to lead the Commonwealth.
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Throughout the year, Vanity Fair writer Chris Whipple interviewed some of the people closest to President Trump. We speak with Whipple about his talks with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. -
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former NPR host David Greene who is set to take over LNP, the Pennsylvania newspaper where he was once an intern.
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President Trump has been bullish on stopping the flow of drugs from Latin America. What exactly is this administration's strategy for stopping drug trafficking?
