Brian Mann
Brian Mann is NPR's first national addiction correspondent. He also covers breaking news in the U.S. and around the world.
Mann began covering drug policy and the opioid crisis as part of a partnership between NPR and North Country Public Radio in New York. After joining NPR full time in 2020, Mann was one of the first national journalists to track the deadly spread of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, reporting from California and Washington state to West Virginia.
After losing his father and stepbrother to substance abuse, Mann's reporting breaks down the stigma surrounding addiction and creates a factual basis for the ongoing national discussion.
Mann has also served on NPR teams covering the Beijing Winter Olympics and the war in Ukraine.
During a career in public radio that began in the 1980s, Mann has won numerous regional and national Edward R. Murrow awards. He is author of a 2006 book about small town politics called Welcome to the Homeland, described by The Atlantic as "one of the best books to date on the putative-red-blue divide."
Mann grew up in Alaska and is now based in New York's Adirondack Mountains. His audio postcards, broadcast on NPR, describe his backcountry trips into wild places around the world.
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After an Afghan national was charged with shooting two National Guard members, veterans who worked closely with Afghan refugees who were once frontline allies are scrambling to respond to the blowback. -
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, is accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers on Nov. 26. One of those soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died from her wounds. -
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan man who allegedly shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., had served in one of Afghanistan's elite counterterrorism units, according to a nonprofit run by people who served in Afghanistan. -
Beckstrom, 20, was an Army specialist from Summersville, W.Va. She entered the service in 2023. President Trump said the second Guard member who was shot, Andrew Wolfe, "is fighting for his life." -
Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblymember, will make history as the first Muslim and South Asian person — as well as the youngest in over a century — to serve as New York City mayor. -
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a long list of accomplishments, many of them progressive. In the race for New York City mayor, that experience hasn't given him the boost he wanted. -
Many economists and business leaders are raising alarms about falling birthrates. But advocates for lower human populations say a less crowded world will be happier and more sustainable. -
Family size around the world is dropping. That choice by couples is triggering a population shift that's sending shock waves through economies. -
Newcomer Zohran Mamdani, age 34, has used social media and big progressive ideas to shoulder past Andrew Cuomo, who's 67 and long a member of Democratic Party royalty. -
Nabarun Dasgupta was recognized with a MacArthur "genius" award for work studying the deadly overdose crisis. He's also a front-line organizer, helping people survive.
