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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The concepts in the MingKwai typewriter underlie how Chinese, Japanese and Korean are typed today. The typewriter, patented in 1946, was found last year in an upstate New York basement. -
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with "The Jailhouse Lawyer" authors Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull. It's a memoir about Duncan's life as a wrongly incarcerated inmate and his efforts to exonerate himself.
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Papilio is a picture book told in three parts about three stages of a butterfly's life (there are really four stages but egg time is pretty boring). It's also written and illustrated by three friends. -
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with meteorologist Sarah Spivey from KSAT News in San Antonio about the deadly floods in Texas.
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At least 24 people are dead after flash flooding on the Guadalupe River in Texas. Rescue efforts are underway to find 20 people who are still missing.
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Florida's attorney general has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court asking permission to enforce the state's new law against illegal immigration. A judge has found him in contempt and some have been arrested under the law even as it's blocked in court.
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President Trump had a major legislative victory this week as his party once again rallied around his agenda. Looming next week is another major priority of his: new tariffs and trade deals.
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Ukraine is facing a summer of escalating Russian airstrikes on its cities. The Ukrainian President has called on the U.S. to provide more air defense systems.
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As part of our StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative, we hear from three childhood friends from the small town of Webster, Florida, who all joined the military after graduating from high school.
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The movement of moths inspires a new music project by composer Ellie Wilson. She used data shared by ecologists to create a piece where the insects take center stage.
