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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Republican convention to make the case: four more years for President Trump. FDA authorizes an emergency treatment for COVID-19. And, the shooting of a black man by Wisconsin police sparks protests.
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News Brief: Democratic Convention, California Fires, Flint Water CrisisIt was a big night at the Democratic convention for Kamala Harris. California fires push resources to the limits. And, Michigan reaches a settlement agreement with victims of the Flint water crisis.
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Author Richard Kreitner tells NPR he didn't write his book as a prescription, but that "if we are talking about the end of democracy in America ... I think we need to have all options on the table." -
Postmaster general suspends changes until after the election. Joe Biden is officially the Democratic presidential nominee. And, pressure mounts on Belarus' president to resign.
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Nearly 100,00 U.S. children tested positive for COVID-19 during last two weeks of July. Lebanon's government resigns. And, hundreds of young people go on a looting spree in downtown Chicago.
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More than 5 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with COVID-19. Federal and state eviction bans, put in place after the coronavirus, are lapsing. And, a media mogul in Hong Kong has been arrested.
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Even in financial uncertainty, some firms turn a profit. Major glitches reported in a federal government database for hospital data. And, the Census Bureau's door-knocking program will end early.
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Commerce Department expected to release grim economic report. Federal law enforcement officers are standing down in Portland, Ore. Four big tech CEOs testify before House panel's anti-trust hearing.
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Ashtabula County, Ohio, voted for Barack Obama in 2012, then for Donald Trump. New political leaders there hope a younger generation of voters will help decide the 2020 presidential election. -
Big tech faces lawmakers' questions about whether they're trying to squash competition. House Democrats square off with Attorney General William Barr. And, the political future of an Ohio County.
