Conceived as a cross between a Sunday newspaper and CBS' Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt, Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Weekend Edition Sunday debuted on January 18, 1987, with host Susan Stamberg. Two years later, Liane Hansen took over the host chair, a position she held for 22 years. In that time, Hansen interviewed movers and shakers in politics, science, business and the arts. Her reporting travels took her from the slums of Cairo to the iron mines of Michigan's Upper Peninsula; from the oyster beds on the bayou in Houma, La., to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park; and from the kitchens of Colonial Williamsburg, Va., to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
In the fall of 2011, NPR National Desk Reporter Audie Cornish began hosting the show. During 2012, Audie took an assignment filling in for Michele Norris as host of All Things Consideredalongside Robert Siegel and Melissa Block. National Security Correspondent Rachel Martin is hosting in the interim.
Every week listeners tune in to hear a unique blend of news, features and the regularly scheduled puzzle segment with Puzzlemaster Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times.
-
Utah's new hockey team needs a name, and its owners say they'll let the fans weigh in with something everyone loves — a bracket!
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Sarah Ludington of Duke University's School of Law about the first amendment protections for students who are protesting on college campuses.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with scientific director Solomon Birhanie about his efforts to fight mosquitoes in Southern California by releasing sterile male mosquitoes into the population.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with cyber security specialist Ram Dantu about disruptions earlier this month to 9-1-1 systems in Nevada, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
-
As Israel threatens to move on Rafah, Hamas is also adding pressure with the release of a video of two of its hostages. One is an American.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with WAMU listener, Aaron Lukas of North Potomac, Maryland and puzzle master Will Shortz.
-
A cult leader in Kenya was charged with murder after the discovery last year of more than 400 bodies in a remote forest. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to journalist Carey Baraka about the case.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, about recent developments in former President Trump's legal battles.
-
We add context to answers given by Representative Nancy Mace's interview on the Trump trials.
-
Political roasts at last night's White House Correspondent's dinner, plus how the election-year landscape is shaping up for control of each chamber of Congress.