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.
-
Georgia is a key swing state — it carries a lot of electoral votes. Only seven states have more. The Harris and Trump campaigns see it as key to their path to the presidency.
-
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about her new book "The Art of Power."
-
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with CIA Director William Burns at the Aspen Security Forum about Russian attacks on Ukrainian port cities and about Ukraine using U.S.-supplied cluster bombs.
-
Today is Revolution Day in Iran, the anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah. This year, many Iranians are protesting the government that came to power. -
Filipe Ribeiro of Doctors Without Borders Afghanistan talks to NPR about the future of the country's health care system under Taliban rule. -
It's been two decades since the Taliban had full control of Afghanistan. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke to historian Carter Malkasian about who's running the Taliban now — and who's funding them. -
Over the years, Mitchell Garabedian has represented hundreds of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. His latest is a civil case against former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. -
The senator from Arizona has been leading bipartisan talks on infrastructure. Asked about criticism from fellow Democrats she's compromising too much, Sinema said she's focused on getting things done. -
In an exclusive NPR interview, CIA Director William Burns addresses Taliban advances in Afghanistan, and what U.S. intelligence can do once the U.S. military leaves the country.
-
In an NPR interview, William Burns says he has appointed a senior officer who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden to head the investigation into ailments that has afflicted U.S. officials worldwide.
