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 2017, Lulu Garcia-Navarro became host of Weekend Edition Sunday. She is infamous in the IT department at NPR for losing laptops to bullets and hurricanes. She comes to Weekend Edition Sunday from Rio de Janeiro where she was posted as NPR's international correspondent in South America. She has also been NPR's correspondent based in Mexico and spent many years in the Middle East based in Israel and Iraq. She was one of the first reporters to enter Libya after the 2011 Arab Spring began and spent months painting a deep and vivid portrait of a country at war. Her work earned her a 2011 George Foster Peabody Award, a Lowell Thomas Award from the Overseas Press Club, and an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Alliance for Women and the Media's Gracie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. She has received other awards for her work in Mexico and most recently, the Amazon in Brazil.
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.
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In Tupelo, Miss., the next generation of Elvis tribute artists competed at an annual Elvis fest in the town where The King was born.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with "Rivals" star Danny Dyer. The series follows a group of upper-class Brits as they jostle for power and double-cross each other along the way.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Ross Andersen of "The Atlantic" about a Chinese mosquito-killing laser and when it might be available in the U.S.
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At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia shows its most optimistic face as the war in Ukraine drags on.
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Influencers are using prediction market odds to sow doubt in vote counting, in some cases in posts paid for by the companies themselves. -
Texas officials announced they have detected the New World screwworm in livestock, the first evidence of the parasite in that state in decades.
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West Virginia is all-in on coal while neighboring Virginia is moving away from it. But the same utility serves both states, making it hard to lower bills for customers.
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An upcoming primary election in Maine and last week's primary elections in California mean campaign season is well underway.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Sina Azodi, who teaches Middle East Politics at George Washington University, about Iran's missile and drone stockpiles and its strategy in deploying them.
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Jupiter and Venus will appear close together in the sky Monday and Tuesday in what astronomy calls a "conjunction."
