Weekend Edition Saturday 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.
-
NPR's Scott Simon talks to film historian Jason Bailey about his book, "Gandolfini: Jim, Tony and the Life of a Legend." It details how different he was from the gangster he portrayed on "The Sopranos."
-
Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Latin American pope when he was elected 12 years ago. People on his home continent are mourning his death and paying their respects.
-
Jazz fest starts this weekend in New Orleans and one of its headliners is rapper Lil' Wayne who made it to the main stage with the Roots.
-
NPR's Scott Simon talks to Michele Steele of ESPN about the soccer fandom of Pope Francis, the NFL draft and hockey's Stanley Cup playoffs.
-
Some federal employees who were fired, reinstated, and fired again by the Trump administration are now learning their health coverage lapsed despite being told otherwise.
-
The funeral of Pope Francis demonstrated the values he held dear, from the theme of the gospel passage to the music he chose for the Mass. He also broke tradition with his final burial wishes.
-
Sudan's capital city Khartoum has been liberated after more than two years of civil war. But as NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu witnessed when he travelled there, it has been left in ruins.
-
The World Food Programme says it has run out of food. It's been eight weeks since Israel stopped all aid coming into Gaza. The U-N agency warns of mass starvation.
-
As the Trump administration continues to flood the news cycles with its efforts to end to the war in Ukraine, NPR looks at the Kremlin's negotiating strategy.
-
In the 1970s, threats of trade tariffs convinced Asian and European automakers to move some production to the U.S. But that battle's already been won – and history is unlikely to repeat itself.