
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.
-
Ukraine's planned offensive creates range of expectations. Scientist near a breakthrough that could revolutionize human reproduction. Debt ceiling crisis would affect many Americans financially.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep interviews Rice as she leaves her job as top domestic policy adviser to President Biden. Rice says that on divisive subjects, the best hope was often to take the least bad option.
-
As the debt ceiling talks continue and the United States edges closer to a potential default on its debt, the nation is at risk of losing its prized AAA rating.
-
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to announce his presidential bid on Twitter. Are U.S.-China relations starting to warm up? The U.S. credit rating is at stake — if the debt ceiling isn't raised.
-
The Treasury Department prepares for the worst if the debt ceiling isn't raised. Colorado River states announce a breakthrough water sharing deal. TikTok sues Montana over its new law banning the app.
-
The Labor Department reports Wednesday on consumer prices for April. Inflation has cooled from a four-decade high last summer, but prices are still climbing too fast for comfort.
-
President Biden is expected to announce Tuesday he's seeking a second term. Jury selection is to start in E. Jean Carroll's rape lawsuit against Donald Trump. Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News.
-
Leaked U.S. intelligence documents suggest South Korea is in a bind over U.S. requests to export weapons to Ukraine, less than two weeks ahead of a U.S.-South Korean presidential summit.
-
There are signs the hot U.S. job market cooled off a bit last month. We'll get a temperature check when the Labor Department reports on job gains for the month of March.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Arin Dube, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, about how wage growth is breaking down some barriers in the job market.