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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Weekend Edition Sunday's Ayesha Rascoe joins NPR's Scott Simon to talk about horror's big moment and why people just love to be scared.
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Florida is the U.S. state most vulnerable to climate change. NPR's Ayesha Roscoe speaks with Republican voters about how that factors into their voting plans in November.
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Actor Jonathan Majors is already part of the conversation for next year's Oscars. Ayesha Rascoe looks at how his career has taken off, with two big movies out now and another on the way.
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When President Biden meets New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday, the two will discuss gun violence and crime — as well as show support for law enforcement.
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President Biden held a rare formal press conference to mark his first year office. It comes at a particularly difficult point in his presidency.
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Ayesha Rascoe speaks with best-selling author Karen M. McManus about her new thriller for young adults called "You'll Be the Death of Me."
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Ayesha Rascoe asks director Paul Thomas Anderson about his new movie "Licorice Pizza."
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President Biden toured the busy Port of Baltimore Wednesday, part of his push to show he has a handle on supply chain snarls and concerns about inflation — while promoting his legislative agenda.
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It's been two years since the heads of most leading economies met in person. "We can finally look at the future with great — or with some — optimism," said Italy's Mario Draghi, the summit host.
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President Biden has said he's open to compromise on his plans to expand the social safety, but some advocates are concerned that access to benefits may be too limited.