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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NPR's Steve Inskeep asks Mayor Andy Schor of Lansing, Mich., about the potential impact of tariffs on the city that is home to two General Motors plants.
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The White House sets a swath of new tariff rates for dozens of countries, President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visits an aid site in Gaza, Jewish leaders from the U.S. sign a letter urging Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.
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President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visits an aid distribution site in Gaza, amid rising anger over a deepening hunger crisis in the territory.
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More than a thousand rabbis and other Jewish leaders from the U.S. and elsewhere have signed a public letter urging Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
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The former rabbi of Washington, D.C.'s largest synagogue denounces starvation in Gaza, joining more than 1,000 rabbis and Jewish leaders from across the world petitioning Israel. -
The Fed holds interest rates steady despite pressure from President Trump, Republicans in Texas release a proposal for a new congressional map, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East makes his first trip to Israel since May.
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Republicans in Texas have released a proposal for a new state congressional map. President Trump has said he wants a map that helps his party win five more House seats in next year's midterms.
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The Supreme Court majority is advancing a long-term goal of conservatives to strengthen presidential power. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with John Yoo, a proponent of "unitary executive theory."
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The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady this week, despite demands for lower rates from President Trump. The move comes as the Commerce Department reports modest growth in the U.S. economy.
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Facing low approval rates, after last year's electoral losses, the Democratic Party is working to figure out its strategy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
