Ayesha Rascoe
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the Saturday episodes of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine, she interviews news makers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about.
Known for her southern roots and signature wit, Rascoe has been a mainstay on NPR's programs since joining the outlet in 2018.
Prior to her role as host, Rascoe was a White House Correspondent. She covered three presidential administrations, gaining a reputation for her sharp questioning in the White House briefing room. Rascoe's reporting included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she was also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.
She's also guest hosted NPR's It's Been a Minute podcast and radio show and been a frequent guest on Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Before joining NPR, Rascoe spent the first decade of her career at Reuters, rising from a news assistant to an energy reporter to eventually covering the White House. While at Reuters, Rascoe covered some of the biggest energy and environmental stories of the past decade, including the 2010 BP oil spill and the U.S. response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. She also spent a year covering energy legal issues and court cases.
She graduated from Howard University in 2007 with a B.A. in journalism.
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Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Australian singer/songwriter Angie McMahon about her sophomore album "Light, Dark, Light Again".
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Ayesha Rascoe speaks to the author Gabriel Bump about his new book 'The New Naturals.' A couple, overcome by the loss of their infant daughter, set out to build a new underground society.
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Amazon is now offering discounted subscriptions to primary care. Ayesha Rascoe talks to healthcare writer Bruce Japsen about what ventures like these signal for patients.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe visits Weekend Edition puzzle master Will Shortz in his home.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Emile Hokayem, Director of Regional Security at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, about the potential of the Gaza-Israel war becoming a regional conflict.
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Democrats in Iowa are strategizing a political path forward for the 2024 election, despite the DNC stripping the state of its first-in-the-nation status.
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Cryptocurrency trading platform FTX is defunct and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been convicted of fraud. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks researcher Molly White what's next for crypto.
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San Francisco will host the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference beginning next weekend. What's expected from the event, and what are the benefits and challenges for the host city?
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We hear from a Palestinian teacher Eyad Alsouqi and an Israeli teacher Karen Neuberger about what it's been like to work with students during this latest crisis.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to author Stephanie Land about her new book, "Class," about making ends meet while going to college.