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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On Wild Card, well-known guests answer the kinds of questions we often think about but don't talk about. Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan talks about what he calls the superpowers that come with depression and anxiety.
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Orville Peck is performing on Broadway as the Emcee in Cabaret. His winding path to his dream role included a stint as a punk drummer and hitting pause on his country career to get sober. -
"Weird Al" Yankovic has no trouble tapping into his dorkiness. Perhaps that's the secret to his decades-spanning appeal. On this week's Wild Card with Rachel Martin, he talks about aging into his weirdness. -
Erykah Badu opens up on Wild Card about wanting to live in a space shuttle, how music is the undertone to her life, and whether there's more to reality than we can see or touch. -
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Jack Antonoff has seemingly cracked the code for producing hit albums, winning Grammys for his work with artists like Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift. But for his own writing, he leans into the unknown. -
Rick Rubin could have written about the music industry and insider stories. Instead, he spent eight years writing what is basically a spiritual text about making something meaningful. -
Jeff Tweedy's new book is his tribute to the songs and songwriters that inspired him to start making music in the first place — and then to keep doing it for a long time. -
NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy about his new memoir World Within A Song and how he has found meaning through his favorite music.
