Weekend Edition Saturday

Saturdays at 7 a.m.

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.

Genre:

News/Talk

Composer ID:

5187f96ee1c817b26f4148a6|5187f939e1c817b26f414881

'Social Welfare' Organizations Play Big Role In Presidential Politics

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP

Karl Rove attends a ceremony to unveil the portrait of former President George W. Bush at the White House in May. A former Bush adviser, Rove also is a founder of Crossroads GPS.

By editor

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 7:57 am

Listen

5:27 am

Sat July 7, 2012

'Super Mario' Challenges The Idea Of Who's An Italian

Next image Previous image

Credit Francisco Leong / AFP/Getty Images

Italian forward Mario Balotelli celebrates after scoring the second goal during Italy's Euro 2012 football championships semifinal match against Germany, June 28, at the National Stadium in Warsaw.

Credit Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images

Italian forward Mario Balotelli celebrates after scoring the second goal during Italy's semifinal matchup with Germany in the Euro 2012 soccer championships in Warsaw, June 28. Italy went on to lose in the finals to Spain, but Balotelli has been hailed as a national hero, spurring debate over what constitutes Italian-ness.

Credit Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images

A demonstrator holds a placard reading "No to racism" in front of Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Italy, during a Dec. 17, 2010, anti-racism march in memory of two Senegalese men who were killed four days earlier by a far-right Italian.

By Sylvia Poggioli

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 6:33 pm

Listen

5:27 am

Sat July 7, 2012

'After Murder': Learning To Live After You've Killed

Next image Previous image

Credit Elisabeth Fall / Life After Murder

Jesse Reed was convicted of first-degree murder in 1985. He was sentenced to 27 years to life. Now on parole, Reed counsels incarcerated young men through a program run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Credit

Credit Elisabeth Fall / Life After Murder

In Life After Murder, journalist Nancy Mullane follows the stories of five convicted murderers (from left) Jesse Reed, Don Cronk, Ed Ramirez, Phillip Seiler and Rich Rael.

By editor

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 7:57 am

Listen

Can a murderer ever be redeemed? That's the question journalist Nancy Mullane takes on in her new book, Life After Murder: Five Men in Search of Redemption. Over the past few years, Mullane has made dozens of trips to California's San Quentin prison to interview men locked up for committing the most heinous crimes.

5:08 am

Sat July 7, 2012

How One Drought Changed Texas Agriculture Forever

Next image Previous image

Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

Siblings Charles Hagood and Nancy Hagood Nunns grew up in Junction, Texas, in the 1950s. Charles says the drought drove ranchers to find other types of work.

Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

When Mort Mertz, 88, returned from the Korean War in 1952, he started ranching in New Mexico and West Texas. He later moved with his new wife to the Mayer Ranch outside San Angelo to raise sheep, cattle and horses and to fight the drought.

Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

The long drought affected Sandy Whittley, 74, and her neighbors while she was residing in San Angelo.

By John Burnett

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 6:34 pm

Listen

In Texas, there is still the drought against which all other droughts are measured: the seven-year dry spell in the 1950s. It was so devastating that agriculture losses exceeded those of the Dust Bowl years, and so momentous that it kicked off the modern era of water planning in Texas.

From 1950 to 1957, the sky dried up and the rain refused to fall. Every day, Texans scanned the pale-blue heavens for rainclouds, but year after year they never came.

1:03 am

Sat July 7, 2012

Remembering George Szell, Powerhouse Conductor

Next image Previous image

Credit /

Credit Bachrach

Author Michael Charry is a conductor who worked with Szell. His biography of Szell draws on decades of interviews with the conductor and his family and associates.

By NPR Staff

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 4:42 pm

Listen

Michael Charry was the "sorcerer's apprentice" to celebrated 20th-century conductor George Szell. For the last decade of Szell's tenure at the Cleveland Orchestra, Charry was an assistant conductor.

Now, Charry has captured the power of Szell's artistry — as well as his tempestuous personality — in a new biography called George Szell: A Life of Music.

Charry vividly recalls Szell testing him on how many notes he could find in a chord when he first auditioned for the job.

4:12 pm

Fri July 6, 2012

16 Musical Odes To Very Strange Animals

Next image Previous image

Credit Jelmer Noordeman

Illustrator Jelmer Noordeman's rendering of a real-life creature: the venomous, nocturnal solenodon.