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 January 2012, Rachel Martin began hosting the program. Previously she served as NPR National Security Correspondent and was part of the team that launched NPR's experimental morning news show, The Bryant Park Project. She has also been the NPR religion correspondent and foreign correspondent based in Berlin.
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Journalist Jacob Soboroff says covering the wildfires was the most important assignment he's ever undertaken. His new book offers a minute-by-minute account of the catastrophe. -
Stiller examines his famous parents' relationship in the documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost. Pascal stars in The Last of Us but says he wouldn't want to survive an apocalypse. -
Hiller spent years scraping by in Hollywood before landing the role of Jeff on Somebody Somewhere. His memoir is Actress of a Certain Age. Originally broadcast Aug. 12, 2025.
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Kind is the announcer and host sidekick on the Netflix show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. "You must understand — it's anarchy," he says of the show. Originally broadcast April 4, 2025.
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Critic Kevin Whitehead reflects on the jazz notables who died this year, including Sheila Jordan, Andy Bey, Ray Drummond, Bunky Green, Chuck Mangione, Eddie Palmieri and Jim McNeely.
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In 2014, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to win a Nobel Prize. In Finding My Way, she writes about her life at Oxford and beyond. Originally broadcast Oct. 21, 2025.
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Critic-at-large John Powers gives his due to the movies, TV and books he wasn't able to cover earlier in the year, including La Grazia, Andor, Mississippi Blue 42 and the documentary Mr. Scorsese.
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For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy. Originally broadcast Sept. 25, 2025.
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After losing his mother to an overdose in June, music became a source of catharsis for Strings. Laufey was an "odd fish" in native Iceland. Now she's a Grammy Award-winning jazz-pop star. -
Earlier this year, Fonda made headlines for delivering a fiery critique of the Trump administration during an acceptance speech for a SAG-AFTRA award. Originally broadcast Sept. 2, 2025.
