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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Steve Inskeep speaks with former Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt about the midair collision in Washington, D.C.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia about airport and air travel safety following the mid-air collision near D.C.'s closest airport.
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Authorities in Washington, D.C., say they believe no one survived a midair collision between a regional airliner and a U.S. Army helicopter.
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Rescuers search for survivors after midair collision in D.C. area, Trump plans to hold criminal migrants deported from U.S. at Gitmo, some pardoned Jan. 6 rioters have lengthy criminal records.
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A regional jet with 64 people aboard collided in midair with an Army Black Hawk helicopter as it was approaching a runway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night.
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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.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., about how Canadians think of Trump's approach and about the economic ties between the countries.
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Trump trying to dramatically reshape federal government, RFK Jr. faces Senate confirmation hearings for HHS secretary, national assessment on reading and math shows students struggling post-pandemic.
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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.
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NPR's Steve Inskeep asks former associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, James Capretta, what it means that the Trump administration tried to pause federal loans and grants.