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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David Cronenberg's The Shrouds is a meditation on grief and obsession. -
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Georgetown law professor Stephen Vladeck about the U.S. Supreme Court's move to halt the deportation of Venezuelans accused of being gang members.
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HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy's comments on autism have sparked outrage. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Colin Killick, director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, for his reaction.
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New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about Universal's new Florida theme park.
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A coalition of gangs is close to completely controlling the capital of Haiti. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with independent journalist Harold Isaac about the situation in Port-au-Prince.
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Culture writer Taylor Crumpton says fashionable outfits and colorful hats are how to catch God's eye at Easter Sunday services. She shares with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe how Black families dress for Easter.
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Abigail loves staging a good murder mystery for her friends but then her brother dies. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Louise Hegarty about her novel, "Fair Play."
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about developments following his trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman about her research indicating CT scans, which emit radiation, will cause some 100,000 cases of cancer annually.
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Matthew Bunn, a professor specializing in nuclear arms control at Harvard's Kennedy School, tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about concerns over a new nuclear arms race as the U.S. looks increasingly inward.
