Weekend Edition Sunday

Conceived as a cross between a Sunday newspaper and CBS' Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt, 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 the fall of 2011, NPR National Desk Reporter Audie Cornish began hosting the show.

Every week listeners tune in to hear a unique blend of news, features and the regularly scheduled puzzle segment with Puzzlemaster Will Shortz, the crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times.

Weekend Edition Sunday is heard on NPR Member stations across the United States and around the globe via NPR Worldwide. The conversation between the audience and the program staff continues throughout the social media world.

China Is Building Ties With Mexico

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In years past, the two countries have kept each other at arms length as they competed to manufacture cheap goods. Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks with Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor in Mexico City, about countries efforts build a diplomatic relationship.
Now Legal, Washington State Ponders Regulating Pot

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Now that Washington state has approved recreational marijuana, the state must decide how to regulate its use. Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin talks with Mark Kleiman of UCLA about how Washington state can implement the new laws.
In Colombia, A Town Badly Scarred By Wartime Rape
Brigitte Carreño was raped at the age of 12 by a paramilitary commander, an...

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Women have made significant gains across Latin America. But sexual violence against women remains a pervasive problem. As part of NPR's series on violence in Latin America, we're looking at the problem in Colombia, where decades of war made women extremely vulnerable.