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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Restructuring Europe Amid A Complex Political Climate

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 9, 2012 10:58 am

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

6:10 am

Sat June 9, 2012

'Mission': Secrecy And Stardom On The Edge Of War

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Mission to Paris book cover

Credit Rainer Hosch / Rainer Hosch

Alan Furst is the author of several novels including Night Soldiers, Dark Star and Spies of the Balkans.

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 9, 2012 10:58 am

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Fredric Stahl is "the sympathetic lawyer, the kind aristocrat, the saintly husband, the comforting doctor, or the good lover." At least onscreen.

He's an American movie star, born in Vienna, and says "my dear" with a kind of dreamy, trans-European cosmopolitan allure that makes him seem "a warm man in a cold world." He's also the hero of Alan Furst's new novel, Mission to Paris, set in Furst's favorite locale: Europe on the brink of war.

6:09 am

Sat June 9, 2012

Saving Niagra Falls, One (Tightrope) Step At A Time

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Credit Gary Wiepert / AP

Nik Wallenda walks a tightrope in the rain during a training session for his upcoming stunt in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Credit David Duprey / AP

Spectators watch Nik Wallenda practice in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Local officials are hoping the stunt revives flagging tourism.

Credit David Duprey / AP

High-wire performer Nik Wallenda will try to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope this Friday. The seventh-generation member of the Flying Wallendas spent months getting the necessary permissions from Canada and the United States for the cross-border stunt.

By Daniel Robison

Originally published on Tue June 12, 2012 7:42 pm

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Niagara Falls has long been a magnet for daredevils, but strict laws have kept them away for more than a century. That's expected to change Friday, when circus performer Nik Wallenda will walk a two-inch-thick wire above the giant waterfall. It's an exception officials hope will rescue tourism — and the city's economy.

6:08 am

Sat June 9, 2012

The Young And The Jobless: Hopes On Hold In Spain

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Credit Denis Doyle / Getty Images

Graffiti on a wall in Madrid reads, "We want to work, let the businessmen who have gotten rich from our labor pay for the crisis." Nearly 50 percent of young adults in Spain are unemployed.

Credit Cristina Quicler / AFP/Getty Images

People wait in line in front of a government employment office in the Cruz Roja suburb of Sevilla.

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 9, 2012 9:46 pm

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The crowd of job seekers at an unemployment office in downtown Madrid looks different than it did a few years ago.

When the housing market went bust, construction workers flooded the lobby. Now, labor reforms have made it easier for corporations to fire workers without seniority. So now young people, including those with an education, are unable to find work.

Jaime Garcia de Sola, a former intern at an investment bank, was one of those waiting in the unemployment line.

2:03 am

Sat June 9, 2012

How 'The Queen Of British Ska' Wrestled With Race

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Credit Ebet Roberts / Redferns

Pauline Black in 1980.

Credit Yad Jaura

Pauline Black was raised by a white working-class family. She decided to get in touch with her biological family in her 40s.

By editor

Originally published on Sun June 10, 2012 7:44 am

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The British ska-revival band The Selecter formed in the late 1970s, playing what can be described as rock fused with calypso and American jazz.

Much of what set the band apart was its charismatic lead singer, Pauline Black. As one of few women in a musical movement dominated by men, she was called "The Queen of British Ska."

That experience is one of many recounted in her new memoir, Black by Design, which has just been released in the U.S.

8:29 pm

Fri June 8, 2012

Kishi Bashi: Unique Performances In Time

Credit Jennifer Leigh

Kishi Bashi is the stage name of Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist K. Ishibashi.

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 9, 2012 10:58 am

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Consider this name: Kishi Bashi. It has a pleasant, repetitive character with a nice — if unusual — little loop. It's an apt stage name for a musician who's creating something haunting, beautiful and maybe a little off-kilter through the technology of looping.

8:35 am

Sat June 2, 2012

Just Deserts Follow Attempted Pastie Tax

Credit Justin Tallis / AFP/Getty Images

Protesters gather outside Downing Street in London to deliver a petition against the so-called "pasty tax," a government bid to levy 20 percent tax on hot takeaway food.

By Scott Simon

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 2:39 pm

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Sometimes, politicians eat their words. This week, the British government reversed course on a plan to place a 20 percent tax on all foods sold hot — with no exemption for pasties.

Pasties are hand food, baked for Cornish miners to eat when they could put aside their pickaxes. People eat pasties today as they sit on a bench for a few minutes' respite or walk along the street between chores. They have become comfort, convenience, pub-crawling and football-watching food.

7:55 am

Sat June 2, 2012

A Case For Military Intervention In Syria

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 11:01 am

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

For more on possible options in Syria, we're joined by Thomas P.M. Barnett. He is a former Pentagon analyst who's written in support of military intervention in Syria on Time magazine's Battleland blog. Mr. Barnett's also chief analyst at Wikistrat, a consultancy firm on geopolitical analysis. He joins us from his office in Indianapolis. Mr. Barnett, thanks for being with us.

THOMAS P.M. BARNETT: Thanks for having me on.

7:55 am

Sat June 2, 2012

Implications Of The Facebook Let-Down

By editor

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 11:01 am

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

You know, if Facebook were a Broadway show, they'd be firing the director and rewriting the script. Facebook share price closed this week at $27.72. That's more than a 25 percent drop from its initial public offering price. The social networks debut as a publically traded company last month has been panned, questioned and trouble by a Securities and Exchange Commission probe and shareholder lawsuits.

7:55 am

Sat June 2, 2012

Europe's Debt Weighs On U.S. Employers

By Chris Arnold

Originally published on Sat June 2, 2012 11:01 am

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

So, why is job growth slowing? Well, part of the problem, as we just heard, appears to be in Europe. The economic turmoil there is looking worse, and that has ripped into the U.S. economy and slowing down hiring. NPR's Chris Arnold has more from Boston.

CHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: The weather this week was beautiful in Boston, so it's perfect for tourists having lunch outside by the harbor or taking a trolley bus around to do some sightseeing.

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