weekend edition saturday

NPR's Scott Simon remembers theater critic and playwright Terry Teachout, who died this week at the age of 65.

The week brought some more bad news for President Biden, who may be rightly criticized for setting expectations too high for what could actually get done.

The government provided Americans with a vital financial lifeline during the pandemic, including through the Child Tax Credit. The help improved lives – but for many it still wasn't enough.

NPR's Scott Simon shares the story of twins born 15 minutes apart, one just before midnight on Dec. 31, 2021, and one just after, and what their birth years might mean in the future.

Baby Izzie howls, Rayhan's parrot screeches, Benny and his friends play flashlight tag, and Natalia launches her rocket in the new children's book by author Anne Wynter and illustrator Oge Mora.

The census helps guide an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding to local communities. Some are worried they were undercounted in 2020 and won't get their fair share for the next decade.

People are understandably stressed this Christmas, including Santa.

The day after her beloved Baba Bazorg dies, a little girl remembers some of her favorite things about him: his striped slippers, the mints in his pockets and the fig cookies he always shared.

NPR's Scott Simon reflects on "The Virgin and Child with a Flower on a Grassy Bank," by Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. The previously unknown drawing was unveiled this week in London.

Scott Simon remembers the late Sen. Bob Dole. When Yugoslavia broke apart in 1991, Dole tried hard, but failed, to get an arms embargo lifted so Bosnian Muslims could defend themselves.