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 , 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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Reform advocates hope the deal to limit solitary confinement becomes a model for prisons throughout the country.
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Families of athletes normally make a pilgrimage to see the Olympics, but this year is different: The trip is more costly than previous games and, for many, more nerve-wracking. -
The Winter Olympics bobsled, luge and skeleton track was designed with safety in mind, not just speed. It was constructed after an athlete died in a violent crash, and others complained of out-of-control speed, at the Olympics four years ago.
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In early July, a train carrying American crude oil derailed and exploded in the heart of a small Canadian village. The deadly accident in Lac-M茅gantic, Quebec, and its aftermath have triggered a wave of lawsuits and a sweeping review of rail safety standards in the U.S. and Canada. -
One week after a runaway train derailed and blew up in a small Quebec town, investigators are still searching for the missing. Twenty-eight are confirmed dead. The company that operates the railroad blames the employee who parked the train for the tragedy in Lac-Megantic.
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George Prendes was 23 when he was sentenced under New York's Rockefeller drug laws 鈥� tough mandatory sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug crimes. The 15 years Prendes served for a drug transaction still reverberate for him and his family. -
Forty years ago, New York enacted tough laws in response to a wave of drug-related crime. They became known as the Rockefeller drug laws, and they set the standard for states looking to get tough on crime. But a new debate is under way over the effectiveness of such strict sentencing laws.
