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.
-
President Trump claims power over independent regulators in a new order. NPR asks Jane Manners, a law professor at Temple University, why independent agencies were created to be independent. -
Americans have lost their mobility, the thing that once made the country distinctive, open and prosperous, writes Yoni Appelbaum in his new book, Stuck. He spoke with NPR's Steve Inskeep.
-
Author Marc Dunkelman discusses how progressive policies have stifled the government's ability to carry out big infrastructure projects. -
Neither the public or the tech giants pushing artificial intelligence understand its long-term implications, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. -
As Trump surrounds himself with tech billionaires, NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with journalist David Hoffman about Russia's history, in which a few wealthy men grew very close to political power. -
President Trump wants to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. NPR's Steve Inskeep spoke with two economists who unpacked the repercussions for the United States. -
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?"
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, following the White House's withdrawal of an order to pause federal spending.
-
President Trump is trying to dramatically reshape the federal government, including remaking the federal workforce itself. While his directives are sweeping, they are facing legal challenges.
-
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."
