Episodes

  • Undercover for the holidays: Some of our favorite spy novels

    Undercover for the holidays: Some of our favorite spy novels
    Dec 29 2025
    What's more thrilling than a great... thriller? As national security buffs, we have thoughts.


    Host Mary Louise Kelly chats with national security correspondent Greg Myre and books and culture reporter Andrew Limbong about some of their favorite books and authors in the world of espionage fiction.

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    29 mins
  • From CIA Officer to Governor: Abigail Spanberger on intelligence and politics

    From CIA Officer to Governor: Abigail Spanberger on intelligence and politics
    Dec 22 2025

    Virginia governor-elect Abigail Spanberger will be the first woman and the first former CIA officer to lead the commonwealth.

    Host Mary Louise Kelly talks to Spanberger about her unconventional career path that took her from Langley to D.C. and now to Richmond, and how some of her skills from gathering intelligence come in handy in politics.

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    26 mins
  • Is ISIS making a comeback?

    Is ISIS making a comeback?
    Dec 18 2025

    The terrorist group has been linked to the mass shooting in Australia and a deadly attack in Syria. What do these two attacks reveal about the group's strength?

    Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Middle East correspondent Jane Arraf about how the Islamic State has adapted in a post-caliphate world and what American forces are doing in Syria.

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    28 mins
  • Is Trump breaking up with Europe?

    Is Trump breaking up with Europe?
    Dec 11 2025
    In recent days, President Trump has called European leaders “weak," Biden-era aid to Ukraine “stupid" and Russia “strong.” It’s a radical shift in how the United States views its closest ally.


    Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with national security correspondent Greg Myre and Paris correspondent Eleanor Beardsley about where the transatlantic alliance goes from here.


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    28 mins
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water – again

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water – again
    Dec 4 2025

    Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth was already facing questions for his role in the September 2 strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Then on Thursday, a Pentagon report dropped that says he risked a United States bombing mission in Yemen when he shared classified plans on Signal.

    Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and national security correspondent Quil Lawrence about the controversies Hegseth keeps finding himself in.

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    25 mins
  • Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?

    Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?
    Sep 25 2025
    And the president designates Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.


    This episode, we dig into the Pentagon's demand that reporters sign a pledge commiting not to gather any information -- including unclassified reports -- that hasn't been authorized for release, or lose their press credentials. Mary Louise Kelly talks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman about how how it could change his reporting. And domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef clarifies what President Trump's executive order means in practice and what it signals.

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    25 mins
  • Introducing Sources & Methods

    Introducing Sources & Methods
    Aug 25 2025
    National security, unlocked. Each Thursday, host Mary Louise Kelly and a team of NPR correspondents discuss the biggest national security news of the week.


    With decades of reporting from battlefields and the halls of power, they bring you inside the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community to help you understand America's shifting role in the world, and how events in faraway places matter here at home. Additional episodes feature interviews with power players from the NatSec world -- current and former military officials, intelligence experts, diplomatic leaders, and more.


    Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.org.


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    2 mins