Rachel Martin
Rachel Martin is the co-creator and host of Wild Card, an interview game show about life's biggest questions. She invites notable guests to play a card game that lets them open up about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped their lives.
Martin spent six years as a host of Morning Edition, and was the founding host of NPR's award-winning morning news podcast Up First. She previously hosted Weekend Edition Sunday.
She served as National Security Correspondent for NPR, where she covered both defense and intelligence issues, and also worked as a NPR foreign correspondent, where she covered the London terrorist attacks, issues surrounding immigration and shifting cultural identities in Europe.
Martin worked extensively in Afghanistan, covering the reconstruction effort after the U.S. invasion and the country's first democratic presidential election. She 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. She traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2015 to report on women's rights, and in 2022, she reported from Ukraine's border with Belarus in the leadup to the Russian war.
Martin was part of the team that launched NPR's experimental morning news show, The Bryant Park Project, a live two-hour daily multimedia program that she co-hosted with Alison Stewart and Mike Pesca.
Martin also previously 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. In 2011, her story on racial discrimination in Hollywood won a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and her series on the effects of the opioid epidemic on children won a Gracie award in 2019.
She started her career at public radio station KQED in San Francisco as a producer and reporter.
She holds an undergraduate degree in political science and an honorary doctorate from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., and a Master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, two sons and dog named Lola F. Bear, Esq.
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In an interview on NPR's Wild Card podcast, Melinda French Gates reacts to her ex-husband, Bill Gates, being mentioned in the most recent release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. -
Oprah Winfrey paid a visit to the NPR podcast "Wild Card with Rachel Martin," and Rachel sent us a sneak preview.
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NPR's Rachel Martin is joined by Michele Obama to play the Wild Card game, in which guests randomly select questions from a deck of cards.
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In a nod to fond family traditions, a mother and son in upstate New York literally race to pick out a Christmas tree each year.
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A woman talks about how she and her siblings cracked a secret code their mother came up with to prevent them from figuring out the gifts left for them under the Christmas tree.
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A family in New Jersey observes the holidays by reading messages they wrote to themselves years ago, reminding them of how they celebrated the holidays in years past.
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In his book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution, Rainn Wilson, three-time Emmy nominee for his role in The Office, says the U.S. needs an awakening. -
NPR Poet in Residence Kwame Alexander asked listeners to write a poem about napping. We received 1,200 poems that talked about the importance of rest and relaxation. -
Maia Kobabe set out to express an experience with gender identity. The graphic memoir Gender Queer is now the most banned book in the United States, according to the American Library Association. -
The famed singer, songwriter and pianist covers some holiday classics as well as two originals that she hopes will extend the shelf-life of the holiday spirit.
