Episodes

  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water – again

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water – again
    Dec 4 2025

    Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth was already facing questions for his role in the September 2 strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean. Then on Thursday, a Pentagon report dropped that says he risked a United States bombing mission in Yemen when he shared classified plans on Signal.

    Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and national security correspondent Quil Lawrence about the controversies Hegseth keeps finding himself in.

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    25 mins
  • MAGA and 'The Mission' of the intelligence community

    MAGA and 'The Mission' of the intelligence community
    Nov 24 2025
    Ideology is the enemy of intelligence, says Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tim Weiner. His recent book, a history of the modern CIA, is called The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century. A version of this interview previously aired on NPR's All Things Considered.

    We're off the rest of the week and back with a regular Thursday episode on December 4.

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    15 mins
  • Trump and MBS: Who's wooing whom?

    Trump and MBS: Who's wooing whom?
    Nov 20 2025

    Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has positioned himself as a global power broker with money to invest. President Trump considers him an ally. How have the U.S.-Saudi ties deepened under Trump?



    Guest host Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with national security correspondent Greg Myre and international correspondent Aya Batrawy about Prince Mohammed's return to Washington, and the U.S. plan for an international security team to enter, demilitarize and govern Gaza.


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    27 mins
  • Peace through strength? America first? Is there a Trump doctrine?

    Peace through strength? America first? Is there a Trump doctrine?
    Nov 13 2025
    President Trump has an ad-hoc approach to foreign policy. How well is it working?


    Guest host Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with national security correspondent Greg Myre and Russia correspondent Charles Maynes about Trump's second term approach to foreign policy, and how that's playing out across the globe including Russia. And is Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's nuclear talk just bluster, or the beginning of a new arms race?

    An earlier version of this episode contained a confusing reference to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. That agreement -- unlike the New START Treaty -- will not expire in February. We have edited the audio for clarity.

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    23 mins
  • Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?

    Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?
    Sep 25 2025
    And the president designates Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.


    This episode, we dig into the Pentagon's demand that reporters sign a pledge commiting not to gather any information -- including unclassified reports -- that hasn't been authorized for release, or lose their press credentials. Mary Louise Kelly talks with Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman about how how it could change his reporting. And domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef clarifies what President Trump's executive order means in practice and what it signals.

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    25 mins
  • Insiders reveal 'wrecking ball' at Trump's DOJ: how two reporters got the scoop

    Insiders reveal 'wrecking ball' at Trump's DOJ: how two reporters got the scoop
    Nov 10 2025
    Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis sit down with Mary Louise Kelly to talk about their book Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department. They reveal why career prosecutors at Department of Justice were slow to explore the Trump administration's efforts to subvert the 2020 election -- and how they got insiders to talk.

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    21 mins
  • Introducing Sources & Methods

    Introducing Sources & Methods
    Aug 25 2025
    National security, unlocked. Each Thursday, host Mary Louise Kelly and a team of NPR correspondents discuss the biggest national security news of the week.


    With decades of reporting from battlefields and the halls of power, they bring you inside the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community to help you understand America's shifting role in the world, and how events in faraway places matter here at home. Additional episodes feature interviews with power players from the NatSec world -- current and former military officials, intelligence experts, diplomatic leaders, and more.


    Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.org.


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    2 mins