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.
-
Ashtabula County, Ohio, voted for Barack Obama in 2012, then for Donald Trump. New political leaders there hope a younger generation of voters will help decide the 2020 presidential election.
-
Big tech faces lawmakers' questions about whether they're trying to squash competition. House Democrats square off with Attorney General William Barr. And, the political future of an Ohio County.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, about how the county has become a hotspot.
-
After delays, Republicans roll out a pandemic relief bill. MLB postpones three games after a coronavirus outbreak. And the pandemic is overwhelming public health capacity in many states.
-
Shannon LaNier is the sixth great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. He talks to NPR about the founding father's complicated history, and how that should be reflected in his memorial.
-
The UK government has decided that British telecom companies can no longer buy equipment from Huawei, the controversial Chinese telecom giant, for development of 5G beginning next year.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Mississippi state Sen. Derrick Simmons, a Democrat, after lawmakers in that state voted on Sunday to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.
-
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Josie Johnson reflect on the civil rights movement and the protests following the death of George Floyd. "We're not going to give up. We're not going to stop," Jackson says.
-
Protesters cleared to make way for President Trump's church visit, and he threatened to send troops to states to end protests. And, store owner wishes clerk wouldn't have called 911 on George Floyd.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep visits a food distribution center just outside Washington, D.C., where recently laid off or furloughed people struggling to make ends meet can find food.
-
China considers controversial Hong Kong security laws. Colleges prepare to reopen in the fall. And, COVID-19 delays trials at Guantanamo Bay.
-
WHO's general assembly meets for second day. President Trump says he is taking a drug to protect against COVID-19. And, the Fed chairman and Treasure secretary will testify before a Senate panel.