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 talks with Democratic Congressman of Nevada Steven Horsford about police reform.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with College Board CEO David Coleman and director of Advanced Placement African American Studies Brandi Waters about curriculum changes that have drawn criticism.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Sadanand Dhume about a recent report accusing India's wealthiest businessman of fraud.
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Former President Donald Trump is holding a rally in South Carolina this Saturday, but he may not find the same level of support as before.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with historian Antony Beevor about the role tanks play in warfare and how Ukraine might benefit from them.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Politico's Rachel Bade about the infighting leading up to the RNC's election for committee chair on Friday.
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An associate professor at the prestigious Wharton School is not only allowing his students to use ChatGPT, they are required to. -
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks to John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesperson, about the administration's decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Wharton professor Ethan Mollick about his decision to embrace artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in the classroom.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Madeline Thigpen, a criminal justice reporter for Capital B Atlanta, about the city's "Stop Cop City" movement after a protester was killed and an officer was shot.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Maria Valdes of Chicago's Field Museum about a fresh haul of meteorites she and other scientists collected in Antarctica.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with co-authors Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy about their new book Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies.
