A weathered basketball hoop on the South Side of Chicago

Senior Editor, Religion & Spirituality — NPR

Daniel Burke

Journalist covering religion and spirituality, and co-author of a new book on the first American pope.

Cover of American Pope: Leo XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City

American Pope: Leo XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City

Written with Scott Detrow, American Pope traces how a kid from Chicago's South Side became leader of the Catholic Church.

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Portrait of Daniel Burke

About the author

Daniel Burke has been reporting on religion for more than 20 years. He is the Senior Editor of Religion & Spirituality at NPR, where he helped lead broadcast and digital coverage of the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

Before NPR, he was the communications director at Georgetown's Center on Faith and Justice, and CNN's Religion Editor, where he wrote in-depth news and analysis pieces while editing the award-winning religion section, CNN Belief — named Best Online Religion Section by the Religion News Association multiple years in a row — and was a reporter and editor at Religion News Service.

Burke has been honored multiple times by the American Academy of Religion for best in-depth reporting on religion. His writing has also been honored by the National Headliner Awards and the Society for Features Journalism.

He graduated from a dual-degree program at Columbia University, earning an MS in journalism and MA in comparative religion. Before that, he attended Georgetown University, where a course on "The Problem of God" set him on the path to religion reporting.

Find him online

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