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 January 2012, Rachel Martin began hosting the program. Previously she served as NPR National Security Correspondent and was part of the team that launched NPR's experimental morning news show, The Bryant Park Project. She has also been the NPR religion correspondent and foreign correspondent based in Berlin.
Every week listeners tune in to hear a unique blend of news, features and the regularly scheduled puzzle segment with Puzzlemaster Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times.
Weekend Edition Sunday is heard on NPR Member stations across the United States and around the globe via NPR Worldwide. The conversation between the audience and the program staff continues throughout the social media world.
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As Israel threatens to move on Rafah, Hamas is also adding pressure with the release of a video of two of its hostages. One is an American.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with scientific director Solomon Birhanie about his efforts to fight mosquitoes in Southern California by releasing sterile male mosquitoes into the population.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with WAMU listener, Aaron Lukas of North Potomac, Maryland and puzzle master Will Shortz.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to cyber security expert Timothy Edgar about the legalities of banning TikTok.
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The attorneys general of Arkansas and Tennessee are leading a multi-state lawsuit challenging a new rule that adds abortion to federal pregnancy protections.
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Solar geoengineering — increasing the sunlight reflected back into space to cool the planet — is gaining the attention of people looking for climate solutions. But critics say it comes with risks.
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UNRWA lost international funding after Israel said a significant number of its employees were part of Hamas. An independent review now says Israel hasn't provided evidence to support this accusation.
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Political roasts at last night's White House Correspondent's dinner, plus how the election-year landscape is shaping up for control of each chamber of Congress.
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Chanel Miller talks about her new book for children, "Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All." Set in New York City, it's about a little girl and her friend who reunite people with their lost socks.
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The Tennessee drag law that was struck down last year was written so broadly that it would have forbidden any public performance where actors impersonate someone of another gender.