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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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to cyber security expert Timothy Edgar about the legalities of banning TikTok.
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UNRWA lost international funding after Israel said a significant number of its employees were part of Hamas. An independent review now says Israel hasn't provided evidence to support this accusation.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks New York Magazine writer Tirhakah Love about the ongoing feud between Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and other rappers.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to sports columnist Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal about the explosion of sports gambling and all the scandals that come with that growth.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Clyde Francks, a geneticist in the Netherlands, about the latest research into what makes people left or right-handed.
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The jury is now selected and oral statements begin Monday in the hush money criminal trial of former President Donald Trump.
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Speaker Mike Johnson pushes military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan through the House, plus a measure on TikTok.
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President Biden has called for more tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. Both Democrats and Republicans have adopted more protectionist policies in the run-up to the November election.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with area ecologist Kate Wollen about Forestry England's efforts to save dormice. And yes, the rodents are terrifically cute.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta about the company's new virtual reality headsets and Meta's plans to have the headsets used in classrooms.