Rachel Martin
Rachel Martin is a host of Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
Before taking on this role in December 2016, Martin was the host of Weekend Edition Sunday for four years. Martin also served as National Security Correspondent for NPR, where she covered both defense and intelligence issues. She traveled regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan with the Secretary of Defense, reporting on the U.S. wars and the effectiveness of the Pentagon's counterinsurgency strategy. Martin also reported extensively on the changing demographic of the U.S. military – from the debate over whether to allow women to fight in combat units – to the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Her reporting on how the military is changing also took her to a U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico for a rare look at how the military trains drone pilots.
Martin was part of the team that launched NPR's experimental morning news show, The Bryant Park Project, based in New York — a two-hour daily multimedia program that she co-hosted with Alison Stewart and Mike Pesca.
In 2006-2007, Martin served as NPR's religion correspondent. Her piece on Islam in America was awarded "Best Radio Feature" by the Religion News Writers Association in 2007. As one of NPR's reporters assigned to cover the Virginia Tech massacre that same year, she was on the school's campus within hours of the shooting and on the ground in Blacksburg, Va., covering the investigation and emotional aftermath in the following days.
Based in Berlin, Germany, Martin worked as a NPR foreign correspondent from 2005-2006. During her time in Europe, she covered the London terrorist attacks, the federal elections in Germany, the 2006 World Cup and issues surrounding immigration and shifting cultural identities in Europe.
Her foreign reporting experience extends beyond Europe. Martin has also worked extensively in Afghanistan. She began reporting from there as a freelancer during the summer of 2003, covering the reconstruction effort in the wake of the U.S. invasion. In fall 2004, Martin returned for several months to cover Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election. She has reported widely on women's issues in Afghanistan, the fledgling political and governance system and the U.S.-NATO fight against the insurgency. She has also reported from Iraq, where she covered U.S. military operations and the strategic alliance between Sunni sheiks and the U.S. military in Anbar province.
Martin started her career at public radio station KQED in San Francisco, as a producer and reporter.
She holds an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and a Master's degree in International Affairs from Columbia University.
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A medical study aimed to find out whether meditation is as effective as an antidepressant medication commonly prescribed for generalized anxiety disorder. The findings were published this week.
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The veteran rock star speaks with Morning Edition about his new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story — and in particular, his deep-rooted spirituality.
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How might Americans' experience with inflation translate into votes? Putin raises the stakes as he watches Russia practice for nuclear war. Hospitals near capacity with severe virus patients.
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Throughout the pandemic, some people have avoided catching COVID — despite multiple exposures. Do their immune systems have some type of protection that others are missing?
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The White House is convening a day-long conference this week to review new proposals for tackling food insecurity and diet-related chronic disease.
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Morning Edition's Poet-in-Residence Kwame Alexander took poetry submissions from NPR listeners and turned them into a community-made poem for the new school year. -
U.S. public health experts are studying Canada's harm reduction programs which include supervised injection sites and legally prescribed drugs that people with addiction can use to get high.
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With a new school year underway, we're wondering what goals you might be setting for yourselves. NPR poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander asks you to write about one of your goals in the form of a poem. -
As the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan last year, Marine Corps veteran Elliot Ackerman was frantically rebuilding a network of old allies to help desperate Afghans escape. -
Morning Edition asked readers to submit poems in the form of letters, addressed to anyone. NPR poet-in-residence Kwame Alexander drew from the more than 600 responses to create a community poem.
