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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Colombia's only Amazon port town could soon be cut off from the river that keeps it alive. As drought and a shifting river spark a tense border dispute with Peru, locals are scrambling to adapt—and politicians are raising flags, literally. -
A Mexican Independence Day parade went on as planned, despite fears of increased immigration enforcement from the Trump administration in Chicago this weekend. There were also some protests in Chicago, where the president has threatened federal intervention.
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Solar flares can be many times the size of Earth and can damage things like satellites. A new study suggests that eruptions from the sun can be even hotter than researchers thought.
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Vice President JD Vance hopes President Trump's mega spending bill is received favorably, especially in Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional district, which is a key race in next year's midterm elections.
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Pastor Doug Wilson is in Washington, DC this week to start a new church and spread his vision of a nation run by White Christian men. His views were echoed by other conservatives at a conference in Washington this week.
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Heather O'Leary, professor of anthropology at St Petersburg's University of South Florida, sets the story of Florida's declining oyster population to music.
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A literary center in Archer City, a tiny ranching town in Texas, keeps alive the legacy of famed Western author Larry McMurtry.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with director Francis Lawrence about adapting Stephen King's first completed novel "The Long Walk" into a film, six decades since the story was written.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Shane Michael Boose, who performs as "sombr," about his new album, "I Barely Know Her."
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe plays the puzzle with Weekend Edition puzzlemaster Will Shortz along with listener Cynthia Rose of Littleton, Colorado.
