Rachel Martin Rachel Martin is a host of Up First on Sunday.
RM, 2022
Stories By

Rachel Martin

Stephen Voss/NPR
RM, 2022
Stephen Voss/NPR

Rachel Martin

Host, Up First Sunday

Rachel Martin is a founding host of NPR's award-winning morning news podcast Up First. Martin's interviews take listeners behind the headlines to understand the people at the center of those stories.

She spent six years as a host of Morning Edition, and was previously the host of Weekend Edition Sunday for four years, where she launched the "For the Record" series.

Martin also served as National Security Correspondent for NPR, where she covered both defense and intelligence issues. She traveled regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and his successor Leon Panetta, reporting on the U.S. wars and the effectiveness of the Pentagon's counterinsurgency strategy. Martin also reported extensively on the changing demographic of the U.S. military – from the debate over whether to allow women to fight in combat units, to the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Her reporting on how the military is changing also took her to a U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico for a rare look at how the military trains drone pilots.

Martin also worked as a NPR foreign correspondent based in Berlin from 2005-2006. During her time in Europe, she covered the London terrorist attacks, the election of Angela Merkel as Chancellor to Germany, the 2006 World Cup and issues surrounding immigration and shifting cultural identities in Europe.

Her foreign reporting experience extends beyond Europe. Martin has also worked extensively in Afghanistan. She began reporting from there as a freelancer during the summer of 2003, covering the reconstruction effort in the wake of the U.S. invasion. In fall 2004, Martin returned for several months to cover Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election. She has reported widely on human rights issues in Afghanistan, the fledgling political and governance system and the U.S.-NATO fight against the insurgency. 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 Arabi 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, based in New York — a live two-hour daily multimedia program that she co-hosted with Alison Stewart and Mike Pesca.

In 2006-2007, Martin 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. As one of NPR's reporters assigned to cover the Virginia Tech massacre that same year, she was on the school's campus within hours of the shooting and on the ground in Blacksburg, Va., covering the investigation and emotional aftermath in the following days. 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.

Martin 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. Martin also holds a Master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.

Story Archive

This is me with my parents at my grad school graduation in the Spring of 2004. Rachel Martin hide caption

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Rachel Martin

It's weird to be a grown-up orphan. It forced my siblings and me to reckon with faith

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Picking out a Christmas tree for this mom and son is a literal race against the clock

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Deciphering a mother's secret Christmas code

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N.J. family reads messages they wrote to themselves years ago as holiday tradition

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Hrishikesh Hirway says the cause of his writer's block was a "whirlpool of self judgment." Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for VOX Media hide caption

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Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for VOX Media

He felt 'creatively dead.' Then he harnessed the power of boredom

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Rick Rubin says he feels like there is some creative energy behind the universe. Frazer Harrison hide caption

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Frazer Harrison

Rick Rubin on taking communion with Johnny Cash and not rushing creativity

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Sa'ed Atshan says his commitment to pacifism and Quakerism is a spiritual anchoring in his life. Swarthmore College hide caption

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Swarthmore College

This Palestinian American professor leans on his Quaker faith during conflict

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Patrick Stewart says his time on 'Star Trek' felt like a ministry

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Duncan Trussell says there is value in transcendent experiences. Emma McIntyre/Getty Images hide caption

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Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

How do you make peace with your shortcomings? This man has an answer

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Jeff Tweedy says he thinks in "song shapes." Sammy Tweedy hide caption

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Sammy Tweedy

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy on religion, music — and the Dolly Parton song he dislikes

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Wilco's Jeff Tweedy honors the songs that have shaped his life in new memoir

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Roland Griffiths' research showed how psychedelics can alleviate depression in people with terminal diseases. Andre Chung/The Washington Post via Getty Images hide caption

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Andre Chung/The Washington Post via Getty Images

This psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

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Duncan Trussell and his mom, as imagined in the show The Midnight Gospel. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

He chose to honor his mom's life with a psychedelic cartoon

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Students from Hunter College chant and hold up signs during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at the entrance of their campus in New York earlier this month. Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images hide caption

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Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

His call for empathy has made this Jewish studies professor feel isolated

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