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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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with TNT Sports sideline reporter and bracketology expert Andy Katz about final four predictions, championship X-factors and indelible moments from this year's bracket.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Sam McAlister, who persuaded Prince Andrew to go on record about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It's the subject of new movie: Scoop.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with bioethicist and professor at Lehigh University, Michael Gusmano, about the ethics of using cloned, genetically modified pigs for human organ transplants.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with open source researcher Connor Plunkett, about his report with Bellingcat titled "Kinahan Cartel: Wanted Narco Boss Exposes Whereabouts by Posting Google Reviews."
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Days after Israeli bombs hit World Central Kitchen aid workers, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly spoke with the Council on Foreign Relations ex-president Richard Haass about the U.S. and Israel's relationship.
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Taiwan was rocked Tuesday by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that hit off the coast. But the causalities and destruction are minimal compared to a devastating earthquake that the island nation in 1999.
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The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings in neighboring countries from Japan to the Philippines. Numerous aftershocks have hit.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with author Amor Towles about his new short story collection Table for Two and how his novella picked up Eve's story where he left off in Rules of Civility.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about the Baltimore Key Bridge which collapsed after being hit by a ship early Tuesday morning.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant about what to expect in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA's Division 1 women's basketball tournament.