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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NPR's Brian Mann slipped away from his desk during a hectic week for an early morning canoe paddle on a wild river in Vermont. -
After decades of devastating increases driven by fentanyl and other toxic street drugs, overdose deaths are dropping sharply in much of the U.S. The trend could mean roughly 20,000 fewer deaths in 2024. -
Elizabeth Price's son Hisham Awartani was one of three men of Palestinian descent shot on Saturday in Vermont. Speaking to NPR from Ramallah, Price fears her son "is confronting a life of disability." -
Hamas freed 17 hostages and Israel released 39 Palestinian detainees. We take a look at what has happened so far. -
The announcement from the Islamist militant group came after a third hostages-for-prisoners swap with Israel in which 17 captives and 39 Palestinian prisoners were released. -
As the pause in fighting appeared to hold, Hamas released 13 Israelis and 11 foreigners who were also seized in Hamas' attack on Israel last month. In exchange, Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners. -
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York cleared the way for a controversial bankruptcy deal that grants immunity from opioid lawsuits to members of the Sackler family. -
The White House says drug deaths linked to a mix of synthetic drugs including fentanyl and xylazine — also known as tranq — are a major public health threat. The drug cocktail is spreading fast. -
As fentanyl deaths soar, political pressure is growing to stop Mexican cartels that smuggle the drug. Experts on drug trafficking say trying to lock down the Mexican border is an impossible goal. -
A natural history museum in New York's Adirondack Mountains has created a lush space of holiday light in the deep snowy woods at the edge of a wilderness.
