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.
-
The White House says big companies like Amazon, the NHL, and United Airlines are joining the push to prevent overdoses by making naloxone widely available. -
Street fentanyl has long been viewed as unstoppable. Now many experts say the supply of the deadly synthetic opioid is suddenly drying up in many parts of the U.S. and fatal overdoses are dropping. -
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. -
Every year at summer's end, volunteers in New York turn historic mountain fire towers into glowing lanterns to honor fire watchers who kept Adirondack and Catskill communities safe for decades. -
Chinese factories churn out many of the chemicals used to make fentanyl that kills 70,000 people each year in the U.S. China's government says new regulations are coming but critics are skeptical. -
A team of NPR journalists spent more than two weeks covering the Paris Summer Olympics. Here are some of our highlight moments from seeing the Games up close. -
The fight for national bragging rights over gold medals — considered by many countries to be the most coveted prize — came down to the wire and, in the end, China and the U.S. tied with 40 apiece. -
U.S. women cruised to victory in the 4 by 400 relay in Saint-Denis, France. American men, meanwhile, prevailed in a hard-fought relay at the same distance, beating Botswana. -
In a photo finish, Masai Russell of the U.S. captured a gold medal in the hundred-meter hurdle sprint, beating a French runner by 0.01 seconds. -
A Reporter's Notebook: Athletes at sports press conferences are famous for talking in clichés. But at the Paris Games, a lot of Olympians went deep, voicing wisdom and sharing their truths.
