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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At the U.S. Capitol, Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president. NPR special coverage includes Lady Gaga singing the National Anthem, swearing in of Biden and Kamala Harris, and Biden's speech.
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Documentarian Ken Burns believed there were three major crises in the nation's past: The Civil War, the Depression and World War II. Now, he says, we are living through the fourth. -
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Morning Edition asks for you to write a poem that starts with the words "I dream a world." -
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was among the first to raise a red flag over the contamination of water in Flint, Mich., says the filing of charges "helps the city and the people move on and recover." -
Evangelicals, says Ed Stetzer of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, should start to reckon with their own behaviors and actions that may have helped fuel the insurrection at the Capitol. -
Electoral College votes to affirm Biden's election victory. Attorney General Barr is leaving the Justice Department. Plus, more shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine will be arriving across the U.S.
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Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the first African American to lead one of the U.S. armed forces, says he was compelled to speak out after the police killing of George Floyd. -
Writer Katherine May describes "wintering" as the times we feel frozen, hopeless cast out — but, she says, embracing that feeling will help us endure it better, and return to the world renewed. -
Dr. Abraar Karan of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston tells Morning Edition that it's frustrating that more than 250,000 Americans have died from the virus. -
Dr. Glenn Hurst says hospitalizations are growing in part because of a nursing home "bottleneck." Many people rehabilitate at nursing homes after leaving the hospital.
