Scott Simon

People in Boston can speak for themselves. And do. Loudly, bluntly and often with humor that bites.

It's a city that speaks with both its own broad, homebrew, local accent — although no one really pahks thea cah in Havahd Yahd — and dialects from around the world. It is ...

You can call anyone but Einstein a genius and start an argument.

Well, maybe Einstein or Jonathan Winters. The comedian, who died Friday at the age of 87, was immediately hailed by Steve Martin, Robin Williams and others as a genius.

He made hit comedy albums, was a regular on ...

This week, the National Spelling Bee announced that spelling will no longer be enough.

Beginning this year, contestants in the early rounds will not only have to know how to spell, say, "flocculent," but also know whether it's:

A) an intestinal disorder among sheep

B) the stuffing inside a ...

Roger Ebert was a critic, not a blowtorch. He could be sharp if he thought a movie insulted the audience, but had a champ's disdain for a cheap shot.

Many critics ridiculed the film Deep Throat when it came out in 1973. Who couldn't mock its absurdities? Roger just wrote, ...

Sometimes great change can be revealed in small gestures. This week Pope Francis knelt on the stone floor of a detention facility in Rome to wash and kiss the feet of 12 young inmates.

Other popes have carried out this rite on Holy Thursday. It is a ceremony to emulate ...

The gastric brooding frog may be coming back. Does that give us a lot to brood about, too?

This week scientists at the University of New South Wales' Lazarus Project announced they have reproduced the genome — that bit of biological material that carries our genetic structure — of a ...

When Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio on Friday became the latest conservative politician to announce his support for same-sex marriage, he disclosed that his son, Will, a junior at Yale University, had told him two years ago that he is gay; and that love and admiration for his son had ...

Snowquester fizzled.

Wednesday was more or less canceled this week in official Washington, D.C. An enormous winter storm bore down on the region, threatening ice, a foot of snow in the city (more in the suburbs), and wind and misery throughout the region.

Most of the federal government was closed. ...

Van Cliburn thawed out the Cold War.

He went to Moscow in 1958 for the first International Tchaikovsky Competition. When he sat down to play, Russians saw a tall, 23-year-old Texan, rail thin and tousle-haired, with great, gangly fingers that grew evocative and eloquent when he played the music of ...

After an act of kindness by a New York City cop, Jeffrey Hillman went from being an anonymous, overlooked street person to a public figure whose life was dissected as if he were running for office.

Jesse Jackson Jr. has a famous name and fabulous contacts, and had what looked like boundless prospects when he was first on the national stage in 1988. But this week, he resigned fro...

"What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?" is one of the great persisting questions of the past generation. The latest tip has lead to a spot under a driveway outside Detroit, in the long search for the former teamster union head.

An annual four-day bike ride organized by the Wounded Warrior Project is being held across the country this week. One Marine says the ride gives them back the camaraderie they had in ...

Siri is the name of a new talking virtual assistant feature on the latest iPhone that can tell you when you have an appointment, where to find a Thai restaurant, and what the pollen...

What is Scott Simon listening to right now? Find out what he told us after his recent appearance on The Leonard Lopate Show

Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, tells the story of how he and his wife found true love with two tiny strangers from the other side of the world. In Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption, he shares the anxieties, along with the joy, of adoption, and includes the stories of other adoptive families.