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 Heather Conley, former deputy assistant secretary of State for European Affairs, about the peace talks in Florida that seek to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep looks back at President Trump's behavior over the past week with Jonathan Karl of ABC News. He's the author of "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America."
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Rep. Mike Lawler says House Speaker Mike Johnson is correct in saying the health care system isn't working, but allowing ACA subsidies to expire without a plan to address rising costs is "idiotic." -
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Leon Panetta, who served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, about Susie Wiles and her approach to the role in the Trump administration.
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Years before his arrest, Nick Reiner had been candid about addiction, recovery, and a film he co-wrote based on his life. -
FDA Commissioner Martin Makary discusses vaccine policy, COVID-era decisions and the erosion of trust in government health guidance. -
The House is expected to vote this week on several proposals this week to avert rising costs as the deadline for the Affordable Care Act subsidies fast approaches.
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NPR'S Steve Inskeep speaks with Cook Political Report elections analyst David Wasserman about Indiana Republicans' rejection of a redistricting bid backed by the White House.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with FDA Commissioner Martin Makary about the decline in testosterone in men in the U.S. and what his agency wants to do about it. -
With ACA tax credits set to expire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen says premiums are "doubling, tripling" and warns "millions" could lose coverage if Congress fails to act.
