Sources & Methods

By NPR

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 ... more

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FAQs about Sources & Methods:

How many episodes does Sources & Methods have?

The podcast currently has 15 episodes available.

Sources & Methods episodes:

November 10, 2025 Insiders reveal 'wrecking ball' at Trump's DOJ: how two reporters got the scoop
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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22min
November 06, 2025 The GOP's extremism problem and what it means for national security
Tucker Carlson interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes, and now the right is divided on whether that’s okay.

Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Odette Yousef, a national security correspondent focusing on extremism, about the divide that seems to be opening up on the American political right after Carlson’s interview. And Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman talks about the death and legacy of former defense secretary and vice president, Dick Cheney.

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27min
October 30, 2025 Two presidents walk into an airport
President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping backed off their trade war - but now nuclear tensions are front and center.
Host Mary Louise Kelly speaks with White House Correspondent Deepa Shivaram about what Trump has and hasn't achieved on his trip through Asia. And Pentagon Correspondent Tom Bowman talks about the impending deadline on the U.S. maritime campaign against alleged drug smugglers and what the shutdown means for service members.
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24min
October 23, 2025 Is the U.S. military killing drug smugglers or fishermen?
Our reporter visited boat docks in Trinidad to find out.
The Trump administration announced two more strikes on what it says were drug boats in the Pacific. That follows seven strikes in the Caribbean. NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks with international correspondent Eyder Peralta about how countries in the region are reacting. And national security correspondent Greg Myre joins from Tel Aviv, where a carousel of U.S. officials has kept pressure on Israel to adhere to the president's peace plan.
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25min
October 20, 2025 Former CIA station chief distills Putin's approach to Trump
Rob Dannenberg understands Vladimir Putin. He was CIA station chief in Moscow and served as the chief of operations for CIA's Counterterrorism Center. He now works as an independent consultant on geopolitical and security risk and is the co-author of A Spy Walked Into A Bar: A Practitioner's Guide to Cocktail Tradecraft. Dannenberg speaks to Mary Louise Kelly about Putin's endgame in Ukraine, his approach with President Trump, and what cocktails and espionage have in common.

We're back with a new episode on Thursday.

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23min
October 16, 2025 Trump threatens a Venezuela escalation and Pentagon press walk out
The President said U.S. military strikes have “almost totally stopped” drug trafficking from Venezuela by sea. “Now we’ll stop it by land,” he said.
Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas and Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman talk through the disputed legal rationale for the strikes and what we know about President Trump’s goals in Venezuela. And Tom joined virtually the entire Pentagon press corps in handing in his badge on Wednesday. He explains how he’ll cover the decisions made in that building from the outside.Email the show at [email protected]

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25min
October 09, 2025 What's after 'phase one' of Trump's Gaza peace deal?
And the National Guard: coming to a city near you?

After two brutal years of war, there is finally hope for a lasting peace in Gaza. Greg Myre in Tel Aviv explains why things start to get a lot more complicated after the initial ceasefire and return of hostages. And Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman breaks down when the president can legally federalize National Guard troops and how they operate on domestic deployments.

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25min
October 02, 2025 Inside this week's massive meeting of military generals
And the president's take-it-or-leave-it Gaza peace plan.

This episode, veterans' affairs correspondent Quil Lawrence breaks down Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's meeting of top US military brass at Quantico this week. And international correspondent Aya Batrawy reacts to the unveiling of President Trump's peace plan for Gaza, as Israel's war that began nearly two years ago continues.

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26min
September 29, 2025 Tradecraft and secrets of a CIA analyst-turned novelist
This episode, Mary Louise Kelly sits down with ex-CIA analyst-turned novelist David McCloskey to discuss tradecraft and the blurry line between truth and fiction -- when the truth is classified. David McCloskey's new book is called The Persian.

We're back with a new episode on Thursday.

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12min
September 25, 2025 Without a press corps, who holds the Pentagon to account?
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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26min

FAQs about Sources & Methods:

How many episodes does Sources & Methods have?

The podcast currently has 15 episodes available.

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