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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Ryan Cochran-Siegle's Vermont family has sent six athletes to the Winter Olympics. His mom, Barbara Cochran, won gold in Sapporo, Japan, as an alpine ski racer in 1972.
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Skyrocketing COVID-19 case rates have caused officials In New York City and elsewhere to scale back their New Year's Eve celebrations. Around the country, people are facing tough decisions.
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A federal judge has overturned the $4.5 billion settlement between Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, and the Sackler family, that would have protected the family from litigation of their own.
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Tuesday's verdict comes as CVS, Walgreens and Walmart face thousands of lawsuits filed by communities across the U.S. The companies say they did nothing wrong dispensing huge quantities of opioids.
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The Biden administration scrambles to respond as new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show overdose deaths surged to more than 100,000 fatalities.
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Judge Colleen McMahon was expected to halt work on the controversial settlement that would give immunity from opioid lawsuits to the Sackler family. Instead she allowed work on the plan to go ahead.
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The decision by a federal bankruptcy judge grants members of the family who own Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, sweeping protection from any liability for the opioid crisis.
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Judge Robert Drain signaled he will approve the landmark bankruptcy for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. But he called for new limits to legal protections for members of the Sackler family.
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In the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy trial now underway, scrutiny has focused on the Sacklers' demand for immunity from opioid lawsuits that would extend to a vast network of individuals and businesses.
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Payouts will be spread over the next 18 years, with much of the funding going to help communities struggling with high rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.