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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World Cup games are underway in Philadelphia. Long before Americans caught the world's soccer craze, Ukrainian migrants made Philly a soccer town. Today, the sport helps sustain their culture. -
We take you to the big parade in New York City celebrating the New York Knicks, who won their first NBA championship in 53 years.
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Luigi Mangione faces state and federal trials for the 2024 murder of an insurance company executive. A key pretrial hearing in state court will be held Wednesday.
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Luigi Mangione's legal team is back in court in New York City this week for a key pretrial hearing. He's accused of stalking and killing an insurance CEO. Donors have given $1.5 million to support his defense. -
Researchers say some structural changes in treating addiction are helping, including wider access to overdose-reversing medication. -
After 250 years, 44 Continental Army soldiers are being buried with honors in Lake George, N.Y., after their remains were found in a construction site. -
State officials in New York say the Salmon River district's special education program confined young children with disabilities in wooden boxes. Parents weren't notified. -
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is promoting abstinence and 12-step addiction treatment programs that he says helped him recover from heroin use.
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The U.S. health secretary says he wants to shift addiction care toward an approach that includes rural farms or camps for people in recovery. Many addiction experts say the idea is outdated.
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Purdue Pharma will pay the DOJ $225 million in a criminal settlement and members of the Sackler family who own the Oxycontin-maker also contribute billions of dollars to a bankruptcy deal, but the private drug firm's leaders will avoid prison time.
