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 Saturday 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.
-
A survivor of the then-unprecedented school shooting in Colorado struggled for years to understand her own response to trauma and now helps others learn to feel safe. (First aired on ATC on 04/15.)
-
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with reporter Pavni Mittal about the Indian elections which began this week and will end in June. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third term.
-
The U.S. House is poised to vote on a series of bills that would give additional aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The funding for Ukraine is causing divisions among House Republicans.
-
NPR's Scott Simon remarks on the long career of John Sterling, the New York Yankees' play-by-play announcer, who is retiring at the age of 85.
-
We discuss today's upcoming vote on the multiple aid packages before Congress today as well as the jury selection in the hush money trial of former president Donald Trump.
-
Children are among the hundreds of thousands displaced by fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border. In south Lebanon, an arts program is trying to restore some normalcy to their lives.
-
NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Masoud Mostajabi, deputy director of the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, about Iran's military strategy with its proxies in the region as well as Israel.
-
When actor George Takei was 4 years old, he was labeled an "enemy" by the U.S. government and sent to a string of incarceration camps. His new children's book about that time is My Lost Freedom.
-
Some teachers have found a way to combat classroom burnout: stand up comedy. In Oregon, the Teacher Show features professors, preschool teachers and everyone in between joking about their day jobs.
-
NPR's Scott Simon and Meadowlark Media's Howard Bryant discuss yet another sports gambling scandal and preview the NHL and NBA playoffs.