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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An extreme geomagnetic storm reached Earth yesterday, with the northern lights dancing across the skies in places they're normally not seen. It's the most powerful solar storm in decades.
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Washington's ferry system is the biggest in the U.S., but after decades of chronic underfunding, it's breaking down and short-staffed: a serious problem for the people who depend on it.
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One of Chile's indigenous peoples is working to revive their primary language, which was declared extinct decades ago.
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Arkansas unveiled one of its new statues at the US Capitol's Statuary Hall this week: Civil Rights leader Daisy Bates. Another sculpture of a famous Arkansan, Johnny Cash, will soon join her there.
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The great Pam Grier stars in season two of Amazon Prime's "Them: The Scare." She speaks to NPR's Scott Simon about her show, her career, and Black representation in Hollywood.
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We take a moment to thank our mothers for all they've done, all they do, and all they continue to do. You can't thank a mom enough, but we can surely try.
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The Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine reopens 6 months after a gunman's rampage.
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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.
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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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Bedouin citizens of Israel are forbidden from building rocket shelters in their homes. The recent wars have made that policy deadly.