Rachel Martin
Rachel Martin is the co-creator and host of Wild Card, an interview game show about life's biggest questions. She invites notable guests to play a card game that lets them open up about the memories, insights, and beliefs that have shaped their lives.
Martin spent six years as a host of Morning Edition, and was the founding host of NPR's award-winning morning news podcast Up First. She previously hosted Weekend Edition Sunday.
She served as National Security Correspondent for NPR, where she covered both defense and intelligence issues, and also worked as a NPR foreign correspondent, where she covered the London terrorist attacks, issues surrounding immigration and shifting cultural identities in Europe.
Martin worked extensively in Afghanistan, covering the reconstruction effort after the U.S. invasion and the country's first democratic presidential election. She also reported from Iraq, where she covered U.S. military operations and the strategic alliance between Sunni sheiks and the U.S. military in Anbar province. She traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2015 to report on women's rights, and in 2022, she reported from Ukraine's border with Belarus in the leadup to the Russian war.
Martin was part of the team that launched NPR's experimental morning news show, The Bryant Park Project, a live two-hour daily multimedia program that she co-hosted with Alison Stewart and Mike Pesca.
Martin also previously served as NPR's religion correspondent. Her piece on Islam in America was awarded "Best Radio Feature" by the Religion News Writers Association in 2007. In 2011, her story on racial discrimination in Hollywood won a Salute to Excellence Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and her series on the effects of the opioid epidemic on children won a Gracie award in 2019.
She started her career at public radio station KQED in San Francisco as a producer and reporter.
She holds an undergraduate degree in political science and an honorary doctorate from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., and a Master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, two sons and dog named Lola F. Bear, Esq.
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In an interview on NPR's Wild Card podcast, Melinda French Gates reacts to her ex-husband, Bill Gates, being mentioned in the most recent release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. -
Father James Martin has become one of the most well-known Catholic priests in the U.S. But his journey to the priesthood took him by surprise after a chance encounter with a documentary. -
Anxiety has always played a major role in Aparna Nancherla's comedy. She spoke with Rachel about growing into her rage and feeling godlike when she's alone. -
Michelle Obama is in a place in her life where she gets to integrate her public and private self a little more. She tells Rachel that means saying "no" to some of the things that are expected of her. -
The Everything, Everywhere, All at Once star says the day after he won his Oscar for the role, he woke up thinking, "Was that all a dream?" -
Actor, writer and director Jesse Eisenberg says he has had more failures than successes. In this week's Wild Card, he opens up about ambition and his his defense against despair. -
On Wild Card this week, Kate Bowler opens up about how she wants to waste her time, her feelings about God and how she talks about death with her child. -
Ilana Glazer is grateful for the limits of parenthood. On Wild Card this week, Glazer opens up about how parenthood has allowed them to draw boundaries and why they increasingly love their alone time. -
Actor John Lithgow grew up in a theater family but always wanted to be a painter. On Wild Card this week, he opens up what changed his mind. -
This American Life host Ira Glass doesn't care about how people will remember him, "I'm not making a radio show for them"
