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.
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President Joe Biden speaks about campus protests, Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife are indicted, and there's blowback over how SD Governor Kristi Noem killed her dog.
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India is almost halfway through its six-week-long election season. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attempting to win a third consecutive term by promising his brand of Hindu nationalism.
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Forget the saber-toothed tiger steaks: a new study published this week reveals that ancient humans also ate their veggies. NPR's Scott Simon marvels at the menu.
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Closing arguments in the United States v. Google monopoly trial have wrapped up. How the judge decides this case could set a precedent for several other antitrust suits against Big Tech companies.
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The children of sex workers rarely see doctors and are often living in brothels. Their deaths frequently go unnoticed and undocumented.
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Paul Auster was many things: novelist, screenwriter, poet, and NPR contributor. He died this week from cancer at the age of 77. Former NPR host Jacki Lyden has a remembrance.
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Former President Donald Trump says a recent influx of immigrants is to blame for a budget shortfall in a Wisconsin town. City officials have a different take on what's happening.
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Bedouin citizens of Israel are forbidden from building rocket shelters in their homes. The recent wars have made that policy deadly.
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Tom Selleck became a TV star in the 1980s as the Hawaii-based detective of "Magnum, P.I." He talks with NPR's Scott Simon about what it took to get there and his new memoir, "You Never Know."
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Beyond former President Trump's actual criminal trial, witnesses this week have revealed a world of money exchanged for potentially damaging stories.