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 union representing Hollywood writers has reached a tentative deal with the major studios, potentially ending a months-long strike. What does this mean for the industry, and still-striking actors?
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, about his recent efforts to rally international support for the war-ravage country
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to Jane Mayer, Staff Writer at The New Yorker, about Justice Clarence Thomas and his relationship to the Koch brothers.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., about his efforts to avoid a possible government shutdown at the end of September.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Babak Namazi, whose brother was held captive by Iran.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Abram Paley, deputy special envoy for Iran, on the prisoner swap that allowed five Americans who'd been detained in Iran for years, to return to the U.S.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with economist Allison Schrager about why she thinks the UAW is wrong about asking to bring back the old-fashioned pension plan.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Iranian-born journalist Golnaz Esfandiari about the year since the death of a woman who died in police custody after allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly.
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Huda Akram is a doctor based in Benghazi, Libya, whose family hails from Derna. She spoke to NPR on Wednesday, describing the harrowing scenes and what is happening now. -
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Dr. Huda Akram, who is based in Benghazi, about the devastating storm that collapsed two dams and killed at least 5,000 people in Libya.
