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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In Ukraine, news of the apparent death of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash is being greeted with satisfaction and gallows humor.
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Last night, eight of the Republican candidates running for president took the debate stage for the first time. They had one major point of disagreement: Russia's war on Ukraine.
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This summer Ukrainians are thumbing their noses at Putin by sunbathing and swimming on Black Sea beaches that have reopened despite the dangers of war.
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Ukraine and Bulgaria sounded a defiant tone on the future of grain and other shipments on the Black Sea. They say Russia's effort to strangle Ukraine with an embargo and missile strikes isn't working.
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Many residents had just finished a morning of festivities and were leaving church in Chernihiv, north of Kyiv, when a Russian missile struck the city's center, heavily damaging a theater building. -
Populist politicians and right-wing media have convinced many voters that U.S. aid for Ukraine is a waste of money. Domestic problems should take precedent, they say. -
New York's Adirondack Park used to be a political powder keg. Now factions are working to find common ground, while tackling some big problems. -
In New York's Adirondack Mountains a bipartisan group has reduced political polarization and boosted civility while helping preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness.
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Supreme Court's decision to review the controversial bankruptcy deal involving the maker of Oxycontin means the settlement will remain on hold at least through December. -
Overdose deaths from fentanyl and other opioids have surged but medications that could save thousands of lives "are sitting on the shelf unused," according to new research.
