Mary Louise Kelly
Mary Louise Kelly is a co-host of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine.
Previously, she spent a decade as national security correspondent for NPR News, and she's kept that focus in her role as anchor. That's meant taking All Things Considered to Russia, North Korea, and beyond (including live coverage from Helsinki, for the infamous Trump-Putin summit). Her past reporting has tracked the CIA and other spy agencies, terrorism, wars, and rising nuclear powers. Kelly's assignments have found her deep in interviews at the Khyber Pass, at mosques in Hamburg, and in grimy Belfast bars.
Kelly first launched NPR's intelligence beat in 2004. After one particularly tough trip to Baghdad — so tough she wrote an essay about it for Newsweek — she decided to try trading the spy beat for spy fiction. Her debut espionage novel, Anonymous Sources, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2013. It's a tale of journalists, spies, and Pakistan's nuclear security. Her second novel, The Bullet, followed in 2015.
Kelly's writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Washingtonian, The Atlantic, and other publications. She has lectured at Harvard and Stanford, and taught a course on national security and journalism at Georgetown University. In addition to her NPR work, Kelly serves as a contributing editor at The Atlantic, moderating newsmaker interviews at forums from Aspen to Abu Dhabi.
A Georgia native, Kelly's first job was pounding the streets as a political reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 1996, she made the leap to broadcasting, joining the team that launched BBC/Public Radio International's The World. The following year, Kelly moved to London to work as a producer for CNN and as a senior producer, host, and reporter for the BBC World Service.
Kelly graduated from Harvard University in 1993 with degrees in government, French language, and literature. Two years later, she completed a master's degree in European studies at Cambridge University in England.
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"Carol of the Bells" is a Christmas staple in the U.S., but it was written by a Ukrainian composer and first came to the U.S. 100 years ago — when Ukrainians were fighting for freedom. -
On a new album, the classical stars revisit the concerto Williams composed specifically for Ma, as well as some of Williams' most affecting film scores.
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Hear the cellist talk about the purpose of music in the face of racial tension and health crises, plus his new album, Not Our First Goat Rodeo, which reunites him with old bluegrass buddies.
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As head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Verma says she's working to ease safety rules and lighten licensing requirements, to expand the number of hospital beds and health workers.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to the pop superstar and former One Direction member about the creative and commercial pressure behind making his sophomore album.
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While other sites keep updating, Craigslist just looks old. "It's like a shark that's never had to evolve," says Jessa Lingel, who's written about the history of Craigslist.
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More than a dozen ballistic missiles targeted two military bases in Iraq that house U.S. and coalition forces. The attack comes less than a week after a U.S. drone strike killed an Iranian commander.
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Following last week's killing of Gen. Qassim Sulemaini in a U.S. drone strike, his funeral procession has been moving from city to city. On Monday it reached the Iranian capital Tehran.
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It's the longest that the director of national intelligence role has been unfilled since its creation 15 years ago. And the delay has implications for the U.S. intelligence community and beyond.
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Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, sat down with NPR after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats would move forward with articles of impeachment.
