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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Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon says he doesn't believe the president-elect will listen to "tech oligarchs" over the right-wing populist movement that helped him secure another White House term. -
Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns discusses the challenges diplomats and business leaders face in China with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep. -
As Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas prepares to leave office, NPR sits down for an exit interview. He tells us the border is more secure now than before the pandemic. -
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin talks about why he and many of his Republican colleagues believe fire aid for California should only come if there are some strings attached. -
Drinking alcohol raises the risk of developing seven types of cancer, according to a new advisory from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. -
In the wake of Jimmy Carter's death, biographer Kai Bird, author of 'The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter' discusses the late president's successes and failures. -
Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida tells Morning Edition that members of his party need to be in the room when conversations about cutting government spending and efficiency are happening. -
Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society helped overturn abortion rights. He spoke to Morning Edition about the Teneo Network's plan to disrupt Hollywood and other perceived centers of liberal thinking. -
The SS United States, a record-breaking 1950s ocean liner, may soon sail from Philadelphia to the Gulf. NPR explored this ship, a relic of the grand liners that once connected North America with Europe. -
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to America First Policy Institute spokesman Marc Lotter about President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks and policies. The group has been advising the incoming administration.
