Weekend Edition on WAMC

Saturdays, 8am - 10am

From civil wars in Bosnia and El Salvador, to hospital rooms, police stations, and America's backyards, National Public Radio's Peabody Award-winning correspondent Scott Simon brings a well-traveled perspective to his role as host of Weekend Edition Saturday.

Weekend Edition Sunday premiered on January 18, 1987, and was the last of NPR's major newsmagazines to hit the air. Since then, Weekend Edition Sunday has covered newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicans, musicians, writers, thinkers, theologians and all manner of news events. Originally hosted by Susan Stamberg, the show has been anchored by Liane Hansen since 1989.

Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr and Puzzlemaster Will Shortz have been with the program from the beginning, and a wide variety of commentators and essayists help round out the weekly offerings: humorist Andy Borowitz slings satirical arrows at big-shots, celebrities, and politicans of all stripes; Diane Roberts takes a sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant view of life in the South; and transplanted Brit Tim Brookes offers his impressions of life on these shores.

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News/Talk

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USS Iowa's Guns Are Now For Show

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Credit Pacific Battleship Center

Credit Jeremy Bonelle / Pacific Battleship Center

The USS Iowa, berthed at its new permanent home in the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, Calif. The decommissioned ship will now be a museum.

Credit Will Stone for NPR

Mike McEnteggart served on the USS Iowa for four years. He moved to Los Angeles to help when he heard the ship was being refurbished.

By editor

Originally published on Thu July 12, 2012 1:53 pm

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On Saturday, the USS Iowa battleship opens its decks to visitors in the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. The battleship, commissioned by the Navy for World War II, will now serve as a museum.

On a gray morning, former USS Iowa crew member Mike McEnteggart shows off the ship's main deck. McEnteggart first arrived on the Iowa in 1985, fresh out of boot camp.

"I was 20 years old," he says. "Just barely 20 years old."

6:08 am

Sat July 7, 2012

How One Drought Changed Texas Agriculture Forever

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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 7:34 pm

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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.

2:03 am

Sat July 7, 2012

Remembering George Szell, Powerhouse Conductor

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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 5:42 pm

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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.

5:12 pm

Fri July 6, 2012

16 Musical Odes To Very Strange Animals

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Credit Jelmer Noordeman

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