![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8783450/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2925x3900+1138+0/resize/150x200!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2019%2F06%2F13%2Fnpr_66397756-5d6e1f4b21ed4608e4d7fdde0c08f63b53d66a50.jpg)
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 , a 2011 book on one of the world's great megacities. He is also author of , 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.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Mary Kate Cary, who wrote speeches for President George H.W. Bush, and Paul Orzulak, who was a Clinton administration peechwriter, about current presidential politics.
-
U.K.'s Labour Party sweeps to power in historic election win. American taxpayers are throwing money at the Colorado River. Florida voters consider climate change and candidates' proposed solutions.
-
Florida is the U.S. state most vulnerable to climate change. NPR's Ayesha Roscoe speaks with Republican voters about how that factors into their voting plans in November.
-
French voters could usher in the country's first far-right Parliament since one was installed in WWII, but candidates are dropping out of the race in an effort to try to stop it.
-
President Biden meets with Democratic governors amid questions about his candidacy. As Israel wages war in Gaza, it’s expanding settlements in the West Bank. Triple digit temps are back in Phoenix.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Bloomberg reporter and author Francis Barry about his travels along a route once known as the Lincoln Highway, and the people he met.
-
As America celebrates its 248th birthday, planning is already underway for the celebration of its 250th. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Rosie Rios, of the planning commission, America250.
-
As Israel wages war in Gaza, it’s also working to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Several moves are being described as the biggest seizure of land for the settlers in more than 30 years.
-
President Biden huddled with Democratic governors at the White House Wednesday, as he tries to contain the fallout from his bungled debate.
-
NPR’s Steve Inskeep talks with legal expert Kim Wehle about how the recent Supreme Court’s immunity ruling may shake up former President Trump’s criminal cases.
-
The ruling on presidential immunity vastly expands the power of a sitting president. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Will Scharf, an attorney who represented former President Trump in his immunity case.
-
NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Sports Illustrated journalist Jon Wertheim about the opening days of Wimbledon.