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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NPR's Scott Simon asks Austan Goolsbee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago about consumer sentiment and inflation.
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A judge in Mississippi has ordered a small town newspaper to take down an editorial critical of city officials. The paper's owner calls it a violation of free speech.
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An Alaska-based employee of the Small Business Administration provided disaster recovery support to small businesses. He was among those fired by the Trump administration in a chaotic process.
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NPR's Scott Simon and Meadowlark Media's Howard Bryant recap a week of intense international hockey and discuss a scary diagnosis for a rising NBA star.
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Even though pastors are in the business of providing emotional support for their congregants, it's rare for churches to actually employ therapists. One pastor at a Baptist church in Harlem is battling this stigma around mental health and leading by example.
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At a pivotal time for Europe and NATO, Germany holds elections on Sunday. NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Constanze Stelzenmüller of the Brookings Institution about the stakes of the election.
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Indigenous fire stewardship practices have existed for millennia in California. A new art exhibition in Los Angeles challenges visitors to rethink their own relationships with fire.
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NPR's Scott Simon speaks with novelist Allison Epstein about her new novel "Fagin the Thief," which imagines a backstory for the character from the Charles Dickens book "Oliver Twist."
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We look at Friday night's shakeup at the Pentagon, with the announcement of more staff cuts and a change in a top leadership position.
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President Trump upended U.S. - Russia policy in one week, and foreign policy experts are trying to understand why and what might come next.