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.)
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Volkswagen workers at a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers union.
-
Several key historical American landmarks are threatened by climate change, and there's a move to look for solutions to avoid further degradation of structures like Fort Mifflin.
-
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with scientists Feifei Qian and Ryan Ewing of the LASSIE Project. It is training a robot dog to navigate different types of terrain in preparation for future space missions.
-
A church rents apartments for asylum seekers, who pay the church back after an initial buffer period. (This story first aired on All Things Considered on April 16, 2024.)
-
In "Henry Henry," Shakespeare's Prince Hal gets a modern, queer recast. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Allen Bratton about his debut novel.
-
NPR's Scott Simon and Meadowlark Media's Howard Bryant discuss yet another sports gambling scandal and preview the NHL and NBA playoffs.