Ayesha Rascoe
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the weekend host of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine show, she interviews newsmakers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about.
Rascoe is also the editor of HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience, a book of essays about the impact of historically Black colleges and universities. Rascoe is an alumnae of Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C.
Known for her southern roots and signature wit, Rascoe has been a mainstay on NPR's programs since joining the outlet in 2018.
Prior to her role as host, Rascoe was a White House Correspondent. She covered three presidential administrations, gaining a reputation for her sharp questioning in the White House briefing room. Rascoe's reporting 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 was also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.
She's also guest hosted NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast and radio show and been a frequent guest on Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Before joining NPR, Rascoe spent the first decade of her career at Reuters, rising from a news assistant to an energy reporter to eventually covering the White House. While at Reuters, Rascoe covered some of the biggest energy and environmental stories of the past decade, including 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.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to North Carolina A&T student Shia Rozier about disappointment with early voting sites in Greensboro.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Adm. John Kirby, who had spokesperson roles in the Obama and Biden administrations, about the utility of the role of the White House Press Secretary.
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This morning in Rome, Pope Leo made his first public remarks since his cancer diagnosis. Meanwhile, people close to Leo are reckoning with how the diagnosis could affect his papacy.
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From Russia to AI to Iran, President Trump has taken political stances that put him at odds with much of the electorate.
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Marlanna Evans, whose stage name is Rapsody, contemplates God on her latest album, "God Gotta Afro & Gold Hoops."
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In the new film, "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York," John Turturro plays an aging thief unable to adapt to a changing world. He talks to NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about the film and the role.
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The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, now offers a minor in teaching mariachi. The music remains popular among young people and someone's got to teach them how to play it.
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Scary stories are more than fun, they're big business. -
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Danielle Ponder about her new album, "Everything Has Changed."
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Heather Gay, author and "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" cast member, about her new body horror novel, "Eternal Glow."
