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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Fentanyl made from Chinese chemicals is killing tens of thousands of Americans. A House committee report found new evidence the Chinese government supports tax breaks to subsidize the drug trade.
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More people suffering from drug addiction are being forced into drug treatment and threatened with prison if they don't comply. Some say it's "tough love." Critics say it's unethical and ineffective.
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ISIS-K is one of the most militant jihadist groups in the world, often mounting attacks against other Islamist groups, while also targeting Russia and the U.S. -
Florida passed a red flag law after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland. During a visit to that site, Harris announced a new White House effort designed to get more states to put those laws to work. -
As the COVID pandemic faded in 2022, U.S. life expectancy rose by more than a year. But the virus and drug overdoses spurred by fentanyl still took nearly 300,000 lives. -
Jessie Diggins, age 32, won her first Olympic gold medal in 2018 in South Korea and has now captured two World Cup titles, blowing past European skiers who typically dominate cross-country skiing. -
Outdoor groups and state and local officials in northern parts of the northeastern US worry that a surge of eclipse-watchers could overwhelm backcountry first responders. -
The High Atlas Mountains run east to west across central Morocco. They're some of the wildest, most remote places in North Africa. Here's an audio postcard from a trek in the area.
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George Santos, disgraced and ejected from the House, says he will seek office again on Long Island. He'll face Rep. Nick LaLota in the GOP primary. -
Oregon's state legislature voted to reverse a measure that decriminalized personal drug use. What does the Oregon experiment and its likely overhaul mean in the wider context of the U.S. war on drugs?
