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.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with business owner Christian Llamas of the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles about the fallout from a refrigerated warehouse fire in June.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to NBC News health and medical news reporter Erika Edwards about the expanding, multistate outbreak and the federal government's role in protecting food safety.
-
An advisory council stacked with President Trump's allies voted to relax a 60-year-old historic preservation law, paving the way for federal projects that could harm historic sites across the country.
-
Another series of U.S. strikes on Iran after two U.S. service members were killed during an Iranian ballistic and drone attack in Jordan.
-
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is stepping down and his successor, Andy Burnham, will take office. He's the former mayor of Manchester and will be the U.K.'s seventh prime minister in ten years.
-
A debate over the Bible verse Matthew 25 is pitting mainline pastors, Black protestants and the pope against evangelical politicians put on the defensive over President Trump's policies.
-
When American striker Folarin Balogun received a red card in Wednesday's World Cup match against Bosnia-Herzegovina, it had huge repercussions for Monday's game against Belgium.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Nick Lapis of Californians Against Waste about the new law that standardizes food label "use by" dates and how that reduces consumer confusion and tons of food waste.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East & North Africa Program at Chatham House, about how Iran sees the memorandum it signed with the U.S. as well as the ongoing talks.
-
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks to Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about this week's NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.