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.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with investigative reporter Ronan Farrow of "The New Yorker" about Elon Musk's influence on U.S. government affairs.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Republic Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida about what went right for Republicans in the 2024 election.
-
Donald Trump built a broad coalition to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to win non-consecutive terms.
-
A deeper dive into Wednesday's post-election interview with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his skepticism of public health expertise.
-
NPR's Michel Martin talks with Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, about the role of female voters in the 2024 election.
-
With his election victory, Donald Trump will be able to make at least two of his criminal prosecutions go away by Inauguration Day -- if not before.
-
Stocks are climbing on hopes that Donald Trump's election will boost economic growth. But bond prices are falling, on fears he'll add trillions of dollars to the federal debt.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Daniel McCarthy — editor of "Modern Age: A Conservative Review" — about his argument that the election was really about Trump verses everyone else.
-
Donald Trump won reelection after building a broad coalition. The win makes at least two of his criminal prosecutions go away. Stocks climb on hopes that his re-election will boost economic growth.
-
NPR’s Pien Huang weighs in on RFK Jr.’s skepticism of conventional public health expertise and his recommendation to remove fluoride from the drinking water.