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.
-
New Jersey and Virginia have seen double-digit electricity rate hikes in the last year as voters in those states prepare to choose new governors.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks UVA cybersecurity expert Chris Maurer about job offer scams and an increasing number of postings from legitimate companies that they do not fill.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Elizabeth Keever of Harvesters Community Food Network about the break in SNAP benefits and its effect on food banks.
-
The documentary "Love+War" follows photojournalist Lynsey Addario as she captures war across the world. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Addario about the balance between her work and life.
-
Billboard says Xania Monet is "the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart."
-
Off-year elections are happening Tuesday in a number of states, with headline races in Virginia, New Jersey, and California.
-
This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments in cases challenging President Trump's sweeping tariffs. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Michael McConnell, who represents one of the plaintiffs.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with musicians Jeff Parker and John McEntire of the post-rock band Tortoise about "Touch," the group's first studio album in almost a decade.
-
Generations of one family's women think they can never keep a man in the new novel "Cursed Daughters." NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Oyinkan Braithwaite about the power of negative thinking.
-
French authorities say they've made arrests in the Louvre Museum jewelry heist.