Podcast
Sources & Methods
Hosted by NPR · EN
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.
NPR+ supporters hear every episode sponsor-free and can access our complete archive. Learn more and support public media at plus.npr.org.
Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.org.
NPR+ supporters hear every episode sponsor-free and can access our complete archive. Learn more and support public media at plus.npr.org.
55episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Hegseth blocks promotions / National Guard surge / Downed Apache
2d ago00:31:46Summary readyU.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is blocking some promotions at the Pentagon, and a “summer surge” of National Guard troops heads to Washington. Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman and NPR reporter Kat Lonsdorf about the purges at the Pentagon, and why there are still National Guard troops deployed in some Democratic-run cities. Plus, a drone rescue in the Middle East.Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
Trump, Netanyahu at odds / Elusive Iran deal
1w ago00:28:25Summary readyPresident Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started the war with Iran together, but they have different ideas for how to end it.Host Scott Detrow steps in for Mary Louise Kelly again this week. He speaks with NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre and NPR White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez about the current friction between the two leaders, and where pain points have come up in the past. Also, where the elusive deal with Iran stands.Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
The broken promises of the 1979 Iranian Revolution
2w ago00:25:50Summary readyThere's a country that was once rooted in a movement around social justice and political freedom.That country? It's Iran in 1979 during the revolution.The path from 1979, with the toppling of a monarch, through the decades of oppression and economic turmoil that followed, to this current moment, is mapped out in the book: “Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran.”Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with reporter and co-author Yeganeh Torbati about her new book, which follows six ordinary Iranians who -- through their lived experiences -- provide rare insight into the hopes and fears of people living from the revolution through decades of turmoil.Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
Jake Sullivan: 'Hard to see' what U.S. has gained in Iran
2w ago00:39:35Summary readyJake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor under President Biden, says it's hard to see what the United States gains in the war with Iran. He spoke with host Mary Louise Kelly before a live audience at the 2026 WBUR Festival last week for a wide-ranging conversation that included China, Ukraine, Greenland, Cuba, Afghanistan and of course, Iran."In the weeks leading up to the start of the bombing, they were putting proposals on the table that actually look more forward leaning than what we're seeing now in some ways. And the Strait of Hormuz was open," he said. "Now, today, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. The nuclear deal seems to be getting further away, not closer."Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
U.S., Iran trade strikes / Trump 'won't rush' / Obama nuclear deal 2.0?
2w ago00:30:29Summary readySecretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that there's been "some progress" in current negotiations with Iran. But both sides exchanged fire this week, so what gives?Today, host Scott Detrow steps in for Mary Louise Kelly. He speaks with NPR International Correspondent Aya Batrawy and NPR Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman about whether these diplomatic efforts can finally break the impasse between the two countries, and why a nuclear deal with Iran feels like déjà vu. Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
Trump counterterror plan: cartels, left-wing violence / San Diego and the far right
3w ago00:33:25Summary readyThe attack at a mosque in San Diego underscores larger problems: the rise of far right extremism and the rise of Islamophobia. But a new White House document on rising threats make no mention of right-wing extremist groups.Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR National Security Correspondent Greg Myre and NPR Domestic Extremism Correspondent Odette Yousef about what radicalized the two teens involved in the San Diego attack. They also look into the latest version of the United States Counterterrorism Strategy, which does not list far-right extremism as a threat to Americans. Plus, an update on Iran and Cuba.Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
Beijing Summit / Trump and Xi as allies, rivals and frenemies
May 1400:30:58Summary readyPresident Trump visits Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the first time since 2017. What’s changed? And what does each man want from this meeting?Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with NPR White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez and NPR China Correspondent Jennifer Pak about Trump's big summit with Chinese leaders in Beijing and how the U.S.-China relationship has evolved since their last meeting. Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
2084: A cautionary tale about the future of war and a changing planet
May 1200:23:35Summary readyLaser weapons, advanced drone warfare, and nation states around the globe redefined by climate change: this is the world in 2084, envisioned by authors Jim Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman. Both are veterans -- Ackerman, a former Marine, did five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan; Stavridis is a retired four-star admiral and a former supreme allied commander of NATO. Their novel 2084 is the third in a trilogy. They compare their work to cold war fiction like Dr. Strangelove -- stories that imagined disasters specifically so society would work to avoid them. In this episode, they unpack what dangers they see on the distant horizon. Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
Summary
Hormuz whiplash / Russia, Ukraine shred ceasefires / Modern warfare
May 700:29:51Summary readyWe unpack a week of whiplash in the Iran war, with the President quickly calling off an effort to take control of the Strait of Hormuz, citing progress on talks. But a blockade remains. Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Moscow correspondent Charles Maynes discuss the shifting messages and what's happening diplomatically behind the scenes. Plus -- why ceasefires between Moscow and Kiev fell apart, and how modern warfare and prior assumptions have made it possible for countries like Iran and Ukraine to take on larger, more powerful adversaries in the U.S. and Russia. Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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James Wolff was a spy. Now, he's writing about them
Apr 1300:24:10Summary readyThere’s keeping a low profile and then there’s author James Wolff. Not his real name. It's a pseudonym. James Wolff had a career as a British intelligence officer. Now, he writes about them. His latest espionage novel is called Spies and Other Gods and it's chock full of spies, people pretending to be spies, secret operations and deceit. Host Mary Louise Kelly spoke with James Wolff about writing fiction as an ex-spy and when the truth can be stranger — and more tangled — than fiction. Email the show at sourcesandmethods@npr.orgNPR+ supporters hear every episode without sponsor messages and unlock access to our complete archive. Sign up at plus.npr.org.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
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