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Weekend Edition Saturday

Saturday, 7am - 9am
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.  On Saturdays, host Scott Simon's award-winning commentaries sum up an idea or event related to the week's news.  There are fresh reports from a cross-section of NPR correspondents on topics from religion to health to food to politics.  Simon's interviews with key artists, authors, performers and personalities are always memorable.

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News/Talk
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Critics' Lists: Summer 2012
5:24 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Rich Reads: Historical Fiction Fit For A Queen

Credit Harriet Russell
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Originally published on Tue July 3, 2012 10:33 am

I have always loved a great story set in the past. Give me a high-powered historical plot, and I will keep turning those pages until my eyes cross. Kings or consuls, functionaries or janissaries, it doesn't matter, only that it pounds onward to the conclusion — volcano explosion, battle or market crash. It's literary dessert, and I devour every bite.

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The Record
5:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

A Summer With Fun.

Credit Mito Habe-Evans / NPR
Nate Ruess before fun.'s show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Friday.
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Originally published on Sat August 18, 2012 11:26 am

Fun. is in the middle of quite a run. For six weeks this spring, the band had the No. 1 song in the country with "We Are Young," an anthemic pledge of drunken solidarity that has appeared in countless commercials and TV shows, and dominated radio playlists and sales charts since March (it's still in the top five).

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U.S.
5:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

What Title IX Didn't Change: Stigma About Shop Class

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Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 12:05 pm

Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX, which said no person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from any education program or activity. Vocational education courses that barred girls — such as auto mechanics, carpentry and plumbing — became available for everyone. But it's still hard to find girls in classes once viewed as "for boys only."

Zoe Shipley, 15, has a passion for cars and tinkering with engines.

"It's just kind of cool to learn how to fix a car or learn about it," she says.

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Movies
5:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Shirley Clarke's 'Connection': Will It Click At Last?

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Credit Milestone Film
In The Connection, Leach (Warren Finnerty, right) and his friends wait around for their heroin fix, which eventually comes courtesy of Cowboy (Carl Lee). The controversial film was shut down in New York after two screenings in 1962.
Credit Richard Sylbert, Albert Brenner / Milestone Film
The set of The Connection with much of its cast. The film included a four-piece jazz band, assembled by pianist Freddie Redd, playing and soloing throughout.
Credit Milestone Film
Shirley Clarke, the director of The Connection, had strong ties to New York's independent film scene. She lent John Cassavetes equipment for his first film.
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Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 10:07 am

Fifty years ago, a movie called The Connection opened in New York — then closed after two showings. Police shut down the theater and arrested the projectionist.

The movie is about drug addicts, and the language is sometimes frank — too frank for 1962 standards. The director was an independent pioneer named Shirley Clarke, whose movie has been restored and is back in theaters, soon to be followed by restorations of nearly all her work.

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Author Interviews
5:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Lessons For Europe From 'The Second World War'

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Credit STF / AFP/Getty Images
Credit John Carey
Author Antony Beevor says there are still discoveries to be made about World War II.
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Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:47 am

For most people, the start of World War II means German soldiers marching into Poland. Historian Antony Beevor begins and ends his new book, The Second World War with something different: the story of a German soldier who was actually Korean, was captured in Normandy, and wound up living in Illinois.

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