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.
Weekend Edition Saturday is heard on NPR Member stations across the United States, and around the globe on NPR Worldwide. The conversation between the audience and the program staff continues throughout the social media world.
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NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Alberto Minetti of the University of Milan about his research on how astronauts on the moon could keep fit by running around the inside of a cylindrical "Wall of Death."
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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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Tom Selleck became a TV star in the 1980s as the Hawaii-based detective of "Magnum, P.I." He talks with NPR's Scott Simon about what it took to get there and his new memoir, "You Never Know."
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Over a million fans are expected to turn up on Rio's famous Copacabana beach Saturday for Madonna's end-of-tour mega concert.
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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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The Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine reopens 6 months after a gunman's rampage.
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Thousands of protestors were arrested this week as some schools called in police to clear pro-Palestinian encampments. Others have been able to reach agreements with students to clear out voluntarily.
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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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More states than ever are gearing up to vote on abortion rights this fall, including Republican-led Missouri. There, voters could show the issue isn't a down-ballot Democratic dream everywhere.
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Missouri Republicans are campaigning to make sure voters know they don't have to split their conscience on the abortion issue this November.