Scott Simon hosts Saturday Edition - Saturday Edition Homepage: Click Here
Ayesha Rascoe hosts Sunday Edition - Sunday Edition Homepage: Click Here
Saturday mornings are made for Weekend Edition Saturday, the program wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.
Drawing on his experience in covering 10 wars and stories in all 50 states and seven continents, Simon brings a humorous, sophisticated and often moving perspective to each show. He is as comfortable having a conversation with a major world leader as he is talking with a Hollywood celebrity or the guy next door.
Weekend Edition Saturday has a unique and entertaining roster of other regular contributors. Marin Alsop, conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, talks about music. Daniel Pinkwater, one of the biggest names in children's literature, talks about and reads stories with Simon. Financial journalist Joe Nocera follows the economy. Howard Bryant of EPSN.com and NPR's Tom Goldman chime in on sports. Keith Devlin, of Stanford University, unravels the mystery of math, and Will Grozier, a London cabbie, talks about good books that have just been released, and what well-read people leave in the back of his taxi. Simon contributes his own award-winning essays, which are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant.
Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Weekend Edition Sunday debuted on January 18, 1987, with host Susan Stamberg. Two years later, Liane Hansen took over the host chair, a position she held for 22 years. In that time, Hansen interviewed movers and shakers in politics, science, business and the arts. Her reporting travels took her from the slums of Cairo to the iron mines of Michigan's Upper Peninsula; from the oyster beds on the bayou in Houma, La., to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park; and from the kitchens of Colonial Williamsburg, Va., to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
In 2022, Ayesha Rascoe was named the host of Weekend Edition Sunday. Rascoe was previously a White House correspondent for NPR. Her White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.
Prior to joining NPR, Rascoe covered the White House for Reuters, chronicling Obama's final year in office and the early days of the Trump administration. Rascoe began her reporting career at Reuters, covering energy and environmental policy news, such as the 2010 BP oil spill and the U.S. response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. She also spent a year covering energy legal issues and court cases. She graduated from Howard University in 2007 with a B.A. in journalism.
Weekend Edition is heard on NPR Member stations across the United States, and around the globe on NPR Worldwide. The conversation between the audience and the program staff continues throughout the social media world.
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Scientists have created a broadly effective antivenom using the blood of a Wisconsin man who has spent years exposing himself to deadly snakebites. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on May 2, 2025.)
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The last 2024 election to be decided is for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court. With the Democrat ahead by about 700 votes, the GOP challenger has taken thousands of ballots to court.
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The trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs begins this week. Combs is charged with sex trafficking, among other things. He also has dozens of civil suits against him.
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The Trump administration's tariffs are already having an impact on the nation's ports. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, about the effect.
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"The Surfer" is a revenge thriller starring Nicholas Cage. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to director Lorcan Finnegan about the story of an man trying to regain things he's lost.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with singer-songwriter Uwade about her debut album, "Florilegium," an anthology of songs about time, memory, and identity.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks college seniors Bobby McAlpine, Alyssa Johnson, and Liam Powell how they've changed their post-graduation plans in light of the upheaval caused by the Trump administration.
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Voters in an unincorporated area of Boca in Cameron County — next to Elon Musk's SpaceX complex in South Texas — are voting to make Starbase a city. That will give SpaceX more power over a public beach and state highway.
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Health insurer Aetna will exit the federal health insurance exchange next year. Forbes contributor Bruce Japsen tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe that will leave around a million people without coverage.
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We meet a Kansas City man who has a massive collection of Star Wars toys, as The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures opens a show with that theme on May 4th. May the fourth be with you!