Waking up is hard to do, but it's easier with NPR's Morning Edition.  Hosts Renée Montagne and Steve Inskeep bring the day's stories and news to radio listeners on the go.  Morning Edition provides news in context, airs thoughtful ideas and commentary, and reviews important new music, books, and events in the arts.  All with voices and sounds that invite listeners to experience the stories.

Listen The latest program "as heard" on KSTX available weekdays just after 8 a.m.

The range of coverage includes reports on the Supreme Court from Nina Totenberg; education from Claudio Sanchez; health coverage from Joanne Silberner; and the latest on national security from Tom Gjelten. Steve and Renée interview newsmakers: from politicians, to academics, to filmmakers.

Morning Edition, it's a world of ideas tailored to fit into your busy life.

Airs: Weekdays 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. on KSTX and 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. on KTXI
Website:  www.npr.org/programs/morning

Next Week on MORNING EDITION: WORLD FOOD CRISIS

Next week, NPR's Morning Edition begins a six part series on the World Food Crisis. Tune in to KSTX and KTXI on Monday for an overview of the issue. The causes of the crisis...increased demand from countries like China, the rising price of oil, increased production of bio-fuels and perhaps climate change...suggest that food prices will remain high and the era of "cheap" food may be over.  Michele Kelemen reports on Morning Edition this Monday from 5-9 a.m. on KSTX 89.1 FM and KTXI 90.1 FM.

WORLD FOOD CRISIS SERIES - OVERVIEW 

April 14, 2008 · International aid institutions scramble to help poor nations cope with the dramatic, world-wide jump in food prices. The causes of the crisis...increased demand from countries like China, the rising price of oil, increased production of bio-fuels and perhaps climate change...suggest that food prices will remain high and the era of "cheap" food may be over. MICHELE KELEMEN (MORNING EDITION, Monday, 4/14/08) 

FOOD CRISIS - MEAT CHINA

April 15, 2008 ·A key factor in soaring food prices is growing demand. This is not just because there are more people in the world but also because people in big developing countries like China and India are becoming richer and can afford more food. In addition, they are no longer content with grain based diets. They want meat, which requires large amounts of feed. It takes three kilos of feed to produce one kilo of pork. We examine this trend in China.  

FOOD CRISIS EUROPE - FOOD OR FUEL?

April 16, 2008 · Increasing numbers of farmers in Europe are growing fuel, not food. They are converting their farms to produce crops that can be converted into so-called "bio-fuels"...organic fuels that can be used to replace or supplement fossil fuels like gasoline. There are often large government subsides to produce these fuels as the world looks for ways to combat global warming...but critics say their main effect is to drive up the cost of food.

FOOD CRISIS EGYPT - POLITICAL UNREST

April 17, 2008 · Once the breadbasket of the Roman Empire, Egypt is facing growing unrest linked to high food prices. In recent months, long and sometimes violent lines have formed at bakeries selling state-subsidized bread. Ordinary Egyptians, including civil servants, say they're finding it impossible to make ends meet. One result has been a sudden spike in citizen activism - demonstrations and strikes are on the rise in a new challenge to the ruling National Democratic Party.

FOOD CRISIS HAITI - IMPACT ON POOR:

April 18, 2008 · Haiti is no stranger to hardship. It is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere and has suffered through decades of economic mayhem due to inept or corrupt leadership. But for a nation in which most live on less than $2 a day, the recent rise in food prices was too much. For some, it means eating or not eating. Enraged over the high price of rice, beans and other staples, Haitians erupted in three days of riots and looting.

FOOD CRISIS - MILK CHINA

April 19, 2008 · I have a dream, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said, that China's children should have enough milk to drink. His recommendation was that each child should drink half a litre of milk a day. This, and a more Western diet and penchant for lattes, has driven up China's milk consumption. Now this once lactose-intolerant country is the world's largest milk importer. This is just one factor behind global milk shortages (along with droughts in Australia and New Zealand) that have pushed milk prices up to record highs. The knock-on effects have included butter shortages in Tokyo, cheese prices doubling from a year ago, costlier pizza and shoppers stockpiling baby milk formula. Some have even referred to milk as "the new oil" due to the skyrocketing prices.

About the hosts

Steve Inskeep

Steve Inskeep’s first full-time assignment for NPR was covering the 1996 presidential primary in snow-swept New Hampshire.  He went on to report on major stories in the U.S. and overseas, ranging from air disasters and wars, to the United States Senate and the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.  On one of history’s most unusual election nights, Inskeep filed live reports for 20 hours from Bush headquarters in Texas.  Several weeks later, he was in the room as Florida officials certified Bush’s victory.

Upon receiving a Pew Fellowship in International Journalism in 1999, Inskeep covered the civil war in Colombia.  Later, he was named NPR's Pentagon correspondent and joined an award-winning team that covered the Kosovo bombing campaign.

After September 11, 2001, Inskeep covered the war in Afghanistan, the hunt for al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan, and the war in Iraq.  In 2003, he was honored by the Press Club of Atlantic City with a National Headliner Award for his reporting of the war, and NPR received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton award for its overall coverage of the war.  NPR also received the same award for its coverage of the war in Iraq.

Inskeep still enjoys offbeat stories: rats and the people who love them; a pro wrestler recalling his career; a town in a West Virginia gorge with a population of 11.

Inskeep was raised in Carmel, Indiana.  In 1990, he graduated from Morehead State University in Kentucky and worked as a sportscaster for two Kentucky radio stations, including public station WMKY.  Later, Inskeep attended New York City's Hunter College, worked for public radio stations WBAI, WFUV, and WBGO, and was a freelance news anchor for New York’s WOR-AM, one of the nation's oldest radio stations.  His written works have appeared in several publications, including the New York Times.

Inskeep lives in Washington, DC, with his wife Carolee, an author of several reference books on genealogy.

Renée Montagne

Renée Montagne is a familiar voice on NPR. She has served as a correspondent and occasional host since 1989 on Morning Edition.  She has worked for NPR’s science, national, and foreign desks.  For two years, she served as co-host with Robert Siegel on All Things Considered.

Over the years, Montagne has done thousands of interviews on a wide range of topics:  Kurt Vonnegut on how he transformed surviving the WWII firebombing of Dresden into the classic anti-war novel Slaughterhouse Five; National Guardsmen on how they handle the holidays in Iraq; Paul McCartney on singing the old songs; a Hollywood historian on how the famous hillside sign came to be; Toni Morrison on the dreams and memories she turned into novels; and Bud Montagne -- Renée’s father -- remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Recently, Montagne traveled throughout Afghanistan, interviewing farmers and mullahs, women and poll workers, the President, and an infamous warlord for a series on the country’s then upcoming elections.  This series follows Montagne's 2002 program series, "Recreating Afghanistan."

In 1990, Montagne traveled to South Africa to cover Nelson Mandela's release from prison, and continued to report from South Africa through 1992.  In 1994, she and a team of NPR reporters covered South Africa's historic presidential and parliamentary elections.  That coverage won a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award.

From 1980 to 1986, Montagne was based in New York, working as an independent producer and reporter for both NPR and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  Prior to that, she worked as a reporter/editor for Pacific News Service, in San Francisco.  She began her career as news director of the city's community radio station, KPOO, while still at university.

In addition to the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, Montagne received honors from the National Association of Black Journalists and Ohio State University.  She also has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Montagne, the daughter of a Marine Corps family, was born in California and raised in locales as diverse as Hawaii and Arizona.  She earned a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley and graduated Phi Beta Kappa.  Her career includes serving as a Fellow at both the University of Southern California and with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, and teaching broadcast writing at New York University's Graduate Department of Journalism.