
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 Music's Felix Contreras wraps up the best Latin music entries in this year's Tiny Desk Contest.
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Taylor Swift's new album "The Tortured Poets Department" is out today. But there's more to Swift than just her music. NPR's All Things Considered examines her cultural impact.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with the Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, about their 1989 hit "Closer to Fine" being featured prominently in the Barbie movie, which is up for eight Oscars.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks to author Matt Hay, who has struggled with his hearing since he was a kid, about his new book Soundtrack of Silence.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with country artist Jessi Colter on her latest record, "Edge of Forever."
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with musician Melissa Etheridge about her new memoir Talking to My Angels.
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Blues legend Bobby Rush has been making music for more than six decades — now he's out with a new album, called All My Love For You.
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with the Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, about their 1989 hit "Closer to Fine" being featured prominently in the new Barbie movie.
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Kara Jackson is mostly known for her poetry. But singing was her first love, and she's now out with her debut album, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?
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NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Meghan Trainor about her new book Dear Future Mama. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter recently became a new mom.