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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The actors tell All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly that their close relationship as real-life friends helped them get through some of their most toxic moments on screen. -
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly introduces you to her new national security podcast, Sources & Methods. Each week digs into the biggest national security stories.
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The White House says CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired because she was not aligned with President Trump's mission to make America healthy again. What does the exodus mean for the agency?
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be facing a huge leadership vacuum, as Director Susan Monarez is forced out by RFK Jr. and the Trump administration.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Slate senior editor Jenny Zhang about the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha 2, which broke box-office records even before its U.S. re-release.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi about President Trump's threats to send the National Guard into Chicago.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly, who has covered her share of high stakes diplomatic meetings between some of the world's most powerful people, spoke with Scott Detrow about what was different during the recent Trump-Putin Alaska Summit.
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NPR's Hannah Chinn and Emily Kwong talk about the microbes behind great-tasting chocolate, possible reasons for daytime drowsiness, and a curious observation about the poop of seabirds.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to singer and songwriter Kathleen Edwards about her new album, Billionaire.
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Families and young women in the United States are paying upwards of $3,000 for the chance to get into the sorority of their choice. With the help of sorority rush coaches, they just might make it in.
