On Sundays, Weekend Edition combines the news with colorful arts and human-interest features, appealing to the curious and eclectic. With a nod to traditional Sunday habits, the program offers a fix for diehard crossword addicts-word games and brainteasers with The Puzzlemaster, a.k.a. Will Shortz, puzzle editor of The New York Times. With Hansen on the sidelines, a caller plays the latest word game on the air while listeners compete silently at home. The NPR mailbag is proof that the competition to go head-to-head with Shortz is rather vigorous.
Another trademark of Sunday's program is "Voices in the News," a montage of sound bites from the past week, poignant in its simplicity. Hansen also engages listeners in her discussions with regular contributors, who cover a wide range of national and international issues.
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As Israel threatens to move on Rafah, Hamas is also adding pressure with the release of a video of two of its hostages. One is an American.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with cyber security specialist Ram Dantu about disruptions earlier this month to 9-1-1 systems in Nevada, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
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We add context to answers given by Representative Nancy Mace's interview on the Trump trials.
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Utah's new hockey team needs a name, and its owners say they'll let the fans weigh in with something everyone loves — a bracket!
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Minhal Baig, who wrote and directed the new movie "We Grown Now." It's about two kids in the Cabrini-Green housing projects in Chicago in the early 1990s.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Sarah Ludington of Duke University's School of Law about the first amendment protections for students who are protesting on college campuses.
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A cult leader in Kenya was charged with murder after the discovery last year of more than 400 bodies in a remote forest. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to journalist Carey Baraka about the case.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Representative Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, about recent developments in former President Trump's legal battles.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with scientific director Solomon Birhanie about his efforts to fight mosquitoes in Southern California by releasing sterile male mosquitoes into the population.
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Political roasts at last night's White House Correspondent's dinner, plus how the election-year landscape is shaping up for control of each chamber of Congress.