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.
-
The chairman of the Federal Reserve acknowledges combating inflation with higher interest rates could lead to a recession. He argues a bigger risk would be to let high inflation become entrenched.
-
European leaders officially made Ukraine a candidate to join the EU. Yet, Ukraine is desperately trying to hold two cities under Russian assault.
-
The Supreme Court ruling that negates New York's concealed weapons law has divided the state. Some say it will endanger more people, others applaud the court's support of Second Amendment rights.
-
The Senate passes a gun control bill and sends it to the House. The Supreme Court strikes down New York's law restricting concealed carrying of guns. A recap of Thursday's House Jan. 6 hearing.
-
The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol siege will focus on efforts by former President Donald Trump to pressure the Justice Department to pursue baseless claims of election fraud.
-
The Jan. 6 hearing will outline pressure on the DOJ to help overturn the election. The death toll continues to climb after the earthquake in Afghanistan. President Biden will attend the G7 summit.
-
President Biden this weekend heads to Europe for the upcoming G7 and NATO summits. He is expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and the influence of China, among other issues.
-
Aid workers and Taliban officials have rushed to a remote southeastern corner of the country — where they are now assessing the damage caused by Wednesday's earthquake.
-
Federal Reserve Chairman Powell answers questions from a Senate committee Wednesday. He's sure to be asked about inflation and possible fallout from the Fed's efforts to bring prices under control.
-
A bipartisan gun safety bill, poised to pass the Senate, could be the first major gun measure in decades. It's a narrow bill that President Biden supports, even though he wants it to go further.