Weekend Edition Saturday

Saturdays from 6:00 - 9:00 a.m.
Scott Simon

Whether revealing events in small-town America or overseas, or profiling notable personalities, Weekend Edition from NPR News appreciates the extraordinary details that make up every story. This two-hour morning newsmagazine covers hard news, a wide variety of newsmakers, and cultural stories with care, accuracy, and a wink of humor.

Genre: 
Composer ID: 
5187cb80e1c8a892ebf233fd|5187cb66e1c8a892ebf2339a

Pages

Monkey See
4:43 am
Sat June 2, 2012

For Impressionist Jim Meskimen, The Voice Is 'A Sample Of Who We Are'

Credit Vince Bucci / Getty Images
Jim Meskimen arrives at the premiere of Frost/Nixon in November 2008.

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 9:50 pm

Food
4:20 am
Sat June 2, 2012

America's Gone Bananas: Here's How It Happened

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 9:01 am

Today, Americans take bananas for granted. They're cheap, they're ripe, they're everywhere. But take a moment and consider: How did a pale, fragile tropical fruit become so commonplace in America? Immigrants arriving at the South Ferry terminal, where the Ellis Island ferry landed, were once handed bananas and told, "Welcome to America."

Read more
Books
4:09 am
Sat June 2, 2012

London's Mayor On 'The City That Made The World'

Credit Christopher Lee / Getty Images
London Mayor Boris Johnson stands atop the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower in London's Olympic Park, at its unveiling on May 11. Johnson is the author of Johnson's Life of London: The People Who Made the City That Made the World.

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 9:01 am

In just a few weeks, the world will descend on London for the Olympic Games.

But the world goes to London every day, according to Boris Johnson, the former journalist who has just been re-elected mayor of London. In his new book, Johnson says people don't just visit the city, they've made their lives there for centuries now. It's a city, Johnson writes, where national soccer teams from all over the world can show up and count on crowds of thousands of fans to support them.

Read more
Religion
3:57 am
Sat June 2, 2012

Conspiracies Swirl As Vatican Scandal Engulfs Rome

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 5:13 pm

The scandal over leaked documents that has been engulfing the Vatican is the biggest breach of confidence and security at the Holy See in recent memory.

Known as Vatileaks, the crisis has shed light on a Vatican gripped by intrigue and power struggles like a Renaissance court.

Vatileaks erupted into a full-blown scandal with the publication two weeks ago of a book of Vatican documents alleging corruption and conspiracies among cardinals.

Read more
National Security
3:56 am
Sat June 2, 2012

'Flame' Sheds Light On Politics Of Cyberwarfare

Credit iStockphoto.com

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 11:51 am

New information about computer viruses shows how countries may be lining up to fight a cyberwar. The New York Times reported that former President George W. Bush and President Obama both authorized computer attacks against Iran, culminating in the Stuxnet virus, which targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, a United Nations agency raised alarms about another virus, dubbed "Flame," which may also have been designed for use against Iran.

Read more
Politics
3:53 am
Sat June 2, 2012

Analysts Smell Fear After Lack Of Job Growth

Credit Richard Drew / AP
Trader Peter Tuchman works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the close of trading Friday. The stock market suffered its worst day of the year after a surprisingly weak jobs report.

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 12:01 pm

If unusually warm weather helped encourage job growth earlier this year, May was like a wet, cold rain. A report from the Labor Department on Friday showed that U.S. employers added just 69,000 jobs last month — far fewer than expected.

Read more
Deceptive Cadence
12:03 am
Sat June 2, 2012

A (Very) Young Composer Gets His Chance At The New York Philharmonic

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 2:51 pm

What would it be like if you were 10 years old and composed a piece of music that was played by the New York Philharmonic? For a few New York City school kids, including one fifth-grader, it's a dream come true, thanks to the orchestra's Very Young Composers program.

Composer Jon Deak, who played bass with the New York Philharmonic for more than 40 years, says the idea for Very Young Composers came when he and conductor Marin Alsop visited an elementary school in Brooklyn several years ago.

Read more
Music Interviews
4:59 pm
Fri June 1, 2012

Kelly Hogan: Cashing In An Album's Worth Of Favors

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Kelly Hogan's new album is I Like to Keep Myself in Pain.

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 9:01 am

"I started singing in bars when I was still in high school," says Kelly Hogan. "It's not the easiest thing to do if you like to eat something besides ramen noodles and have insurance."

Read more
Author Interviews
5:49 am
Sat May 26, 2012

Author's Tweets Give New Meaning To Short Fiction

Originally published on Sat May 26, 2012 8:52 am

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Thursday night, dispatches from a glum future began to appear on the Twitter account of The New Yorker magazine's fiction department - a science fiction story, told sentence by sentence, tweet by tweet, a story about Jennifer Egan titled "Black Box." It features a character from her 2010 novel "A Visit from the Goon Squad" which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Read more
Politics
5:49 am
Sat May 26, 2012

Harvard Diversity Stats Put Warren In Hot Seat Again

Originally published on Sat May 26, 2012 8:52 am

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren continues to be dogged by the question of if she has claimed American Indian heritage. Yesterday, in the wake of new allegations, Republican Senator Scott Brown accused Professor Warren of misleading Harvard about her Native American ethnicity. From member station WBUR in Boston, Fred Thys reports.

Read more

Pages