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.
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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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NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Gregory Rosston of Stanford University about the FCC's decision to reinstate net neutrality policies and what the last 6 years on the internet has been like without them.
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NPR's Scott Simon talks with composer Jeff Beal about his new collection of solo piano works, "The New York Etudes," and about living and working with multiple sclerosis.
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NPR's Scott Simon speaks to actor Chris O'Dowd about the second season of the comedy series "The Big Door Prize," and what first drew him to the project.
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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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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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Beyond former President Trump's actual criminal trial, witnesses this week have revealed a world of money exchanged for potentially damaging stories.