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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Margaret Atwood knows that she scares people. She opens up about that perception and also reflects on the bad advice she's received in her career and how she takes vengeance.
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Actor Terry Crews answers a Wild Card question about a time he experienced awe. He says as a Black kid growing up in struggling Flint, Mich., he never thought his life would be this good.
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Terry Crews went to college on an art scholarship, played football in the NFL and now stars in movies and hosts America's Got Talent. The key, he says, is to be really good at failure.
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'Reservation Dogs' creator Sterlin Harjo joins Rachel Martin for Wild Card. He talks about why people should go to more funerals and why Whole Foods makes him irrationally angry.
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When Sterlin Harjo was growing up, he didn't see many Native Americans in mainstream media. But Sterlin's TV show, Reservation Dogs, changed that, depicting the lives of four Native teenagers growing up in Oklahoma. Sterlin talks to Rachel about how he thinks fate has guided his life, why people should go to more funerals and how hunting feels like praying. To listen sponsor-free, access bonus episodes and support the show, sign up for Wild Card+ at plus.npr.org/wildcard
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Hanif Abdurraqib, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius" grant, said he just wants to be known as a good neighbor. He spent periods of his youth incarcerated and living on the streets in Ohio.
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Grammy-winning country star Kacey Musgraves draws a question from the Wild Card deck and tells NPR's Rachel Martin about a fundamental truth in her life that she began to question.
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Actor Jeff Goldblum joins NPR's Rachel Martin for a game of Wild Card.
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Comedian Rob Delaney draws a question from the Wild Card deck and tells NPR's Rachel Martin about a time when a stranger made him feel loved.