
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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Four things NPR's Steve Inskeep learned from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in their discussion of his latest book, "Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right With Our AI Future?"
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with MSNBC presenter Chris Hayes about his new book, "The Siren's Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource."
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with author Eric Dezenhall about "Wiseguys and the White House," a new book on the interplay between organized crime and our presidents.
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Many people will embark on Dry January this month. NPR's life kit has tips on how to make the most of it.
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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.
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Love books? Get excited. NPR on Monday releases the latest edition of our Books We Love online platform, which lets you find the ideal book for you.
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StoryCorps founder Dave Isay talks about how to participate in "The Great Thanksgiving Listen," an initiative that encourages people to honor someone by recording their story for future generations.
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Author Michael Tackett speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about his book, "The Price of Power," a new biography on the personal and political life of Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Saad Mohseni, CEO of a media company in Afghanistan. His new book is called "Radio Free Afghanistan: A Twenty-Year Odyssey for an Independent Voice in Kabul."
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Decades after writing “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell says he's less optimistic. He tells NPR's Steve Inskeep he reexamined his book about social epidemics, and rewrote it with darker themes.