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.
-
President Biden hasn't named a permanent drug czar but White House officials say they will work to curb overdose deaths in the first 100 days.
-
Thursday's hearing was the first time members of the Sackler family faced a public accounting for their alleged role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic.
-
President Trump promised to end America's opioid crisis. On his watch overdose deaths flattened in 2018 then surged again to record levels.
-
As Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, a lot of white people joined in to help the cause. In many cities Black leaders are being deliberate about the roles "white allies" play.
-
Americans are drinking far more during the COVID-19 pandemic. A beer in the evening can feel like a taste of normal life, but health experts worry about alcohol's deadly side effects.
-
Two-thirds of Americans believe the U.S. is handling the pandemic worse than other nations, an NPR/Ipsos poll finds. Majorities support more aggressive measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
-
Governors and mayors in some regions with rising COVID-19 counts have made masks mandatory in public places. But sometimes their own police refuse to enforce the mask rules.
-
A new containment zone in New Rochelle, N.Y., is designed to slow the spread of coronavirus, but officials worry about it reaching seniors, especially those living in nursing homes.
-
This was meant to be the year we answered a big question about the deadly opioid epidemic: Will drug companies that make and sell prescription pain medications be held liable? That clarity never came.
-
A group of state attorneys general negotiating with members of the Sackler family says they expect Purdue Pharma to file for bankruptcy "imminently," according to an email obtained by NPR.