Ayesha Rascoe
Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the weekend host of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine show, she interviews newsmakers, entertainers, politicians and more about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about.
Rascoe is also the editor of HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience, a book of essays about the impact of historically Black colleges and universities. Rascoe is an alumnae of Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C.
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.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir North America, about the difficulties of tracking wildfire smoke.
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New research shows that Earth's oceans are warming quickly. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with oceanographer Brad deYoung about the record-breaking rise in marine temperatures.
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Microwave or air fryer? Grill or slow cooker? An investigation into how to cook hot dogs for the most flavor and the most joy. -
Homophobia lives, and stalks, in Adrian Chiarella's debut feature. -
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Ross Andersen of "The Atlantic" about a Chinese mosquito-killing laser and when it might be available in the U.S.
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On Thursday, authorities in Myanmar claimed they had transferred Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from prison to house arrest. Her son Kim Aris spoke to NPR about his doubts about the regime's account. -
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about how China views the current crisis in the Middle East
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Western states face significant challenges because winter failed to deliver the snow that acts as a reservoir to keep rivers and streams flowing all summer. It's a record drought in many places.
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Suffragists didn't just march. They baked, held bake sales and sold cookbooks to raise money for the cause of equality. -
The UN's top humanitarian and emergency relief official has told NPR that the lack of attention from world leaders to the war in Sudan is the "billion dollar question".
