Sources & Methods: Two wars escalate abroad, political violence at home

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today, we're sharing another episode from NPR's newest podcast, Sources & Methods. Each Thursday, host Mary Louise Kelly breaks down the week's biggest national security news with NPR's team of reporters covering the military, State Department, and spy agencies. NPR correspondents stationed around the world also join the conversation.

This episode, national security correspondent Greg Myre and domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef join Mary Louise Kelly discuss how U.S. national security changed after the September 11th attacks. Will the structures put in place to prevent another attack survive the Trump administration’s cuts to intelligence agencies? And did a focus on militant Islamism mean turning away from threats posed by white supremacist groups?

And Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, argues that America’s political division is its greatest national security threat — and the best defense is rebuilding the middle class.

Find new episodes of Sources & Methods on the NPR App or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:19.0	It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith here with a Saturday bonus episode for you.
0:25.6	It's the most recent episode of NPR's new national security podcast, sources, and methods,
0:31.0	where NPR reporters who cover the military, state department, and spy agencies break down the biggest NatSec News of the week.
0:39.4	We're going to share these shows each Saturday for a couple of weeks because their show is a lot like ours.
0:45.0	We think you'll like it, and you might even hear us on there from time to time.
0:49.6	New episodes drop every Thursday, and you can follow the show wherever you listen to this one.
0:54.8	So here you go. It's Sources and Methods, the new National Security podcast from NPR.
1:02.9	Being in New York on that day, even in a place as cynical as New York City, people had their flags out.
1:09.2	They were decent to each other. We were all on the same team.
1:12.8	And I'm so concerned with how far we feel from that moment.
1:18.7	An Israeli airstrike inside U.S. ally Qatar, Russian drones in NATO airspace, meaning big escalations in the two big wars that have dominated
1:29.7	U.S. foreign policy and resources lately, very different wars than the one that arguably began
1:36.3	24 years ago today with the attacks of September 11th. This is sources and methods from NPR.
1:45.2	I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Every Thursday, we discuss the biggest national security stories of the week.
1:50.6	Later, this episode, we will do that with Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who sits on the Armed Services Committee.
1:56.9	But first, our regular roundtable with my colleagues from NPR's NADSEC team covering the military, the State Department, the Intel community.
2:05.3	Today, we have Odette Yusef on the extremism beat for NPR.
2:09.5	Odette.
2:09.8	Welcome.
	...

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