Odette Yousef
Odette Yousef is a National Security correspondent focusing on extremism.
In her reporting, Yousef aims to explore how extremist ideas break into the mainstream, how individuals are radicalized and efforts to counter that.
Before joining NPR in August of 2021, Yousef spent twelve years reporting for member station WBEZ in Chicago, where she was most recently part of the Race, Class and Identity team. While there, she was reporter and host for Season 3 of WBEZ's investigative podcast, Motive. The podcast, which won a 2021 national Edward R. Murrow award, explores the emergence and spread of the neo-Nazi skinhead movement in the U.S. and its connections to the far right extremism of today. Yousef was also part of a team that won a 2016 National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Continuing Coverage, and she received a 2018 Studs Terkel Community Media Award. Prior to joining WBEZ, Yousef reported at WABE in Atlanta.
Born and raised in the Boston area, Yousef received a Bachelor of Arts in economics and East Asian studies from Harvard University. She is based in Chicago.
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If the suspect in the recent D.C. case planned to kill people because of their Jewish faith, this would represent a major anomaly in lethal, antisemitic violence. -
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd spurred the Black Lives Matter movement. In the five years since, there's been a backlash against that same movement.
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The man charged with shooting and killing a couple outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. was once a member of a far-left political group. That is raising concerns about domestic extremism.
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Authorities are piecing together the circumstances about Wednesday's fatal shootings outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. The suspect shouted "free free Palestine" as he was taken into custody.
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A small network of anti-abortion rights activists has been making progress pushing for bills that would classify people who get abortions as criminals.
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Since the fall of Roe, a once-fringe network of hardline anti-abortion activists has been pushing to classify abortion as homicide. Once shunned from policy discussion, they are seeing progress.
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Most Americans balk at the idea of charging women who get abortions with homicide, but post-Roe, militant anti-abortion activists are finding state lawmakers are increasingly open to it. -
Some researchers say these recent attacks are examples of "nonideological" terrorism — the result of several antisocial, decentralized, online networks coming together. -
Analysts say that two recent high school shootings highlight a growing trend of non-ideological violence among young perpetrators who are radicalized online.
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Extremism experts say a now-familiar playbook to scapegoat transgender people in the wake of high-profile tragedies is part of a political strategy to sow division and expand authoritarian control.
