When Anousheh Ansari was a little girl in Tehran, she used to sleep on her family's balcony, and look up at the stars, twinkling over Mt. Damavand. Her family was having tough times: her parent's marriage was breaking up, while Iran's clerical revolution had closed her school, and seemingly ended her dream of becoming a scientist. The stars were Anousheh Ansari's refuge.

She and her family were able to get out of Iran and come to the United States. She studied electrical engineering and computer science. She and her husband, Hamid, reconditioned and sold used cars, but eventually founded a telecom company that made them a fortune. And in 2006, Anoush Ansari bought a ticket to the stars: she got a seat on a Soyuz mission, and became the first self-funded woman to fly on the International Space Station, and the first Muslim woman in outer space.

But don't call her a space tourist. She's not a fan of that label.

"You got through the same training as the astronauts, so I don't think it's a fair terminology," she told Scott this week.

While in space, she conducted experiments, kept a blog, and sent videos back to earth. Here, she calls her trip a "spiritual" experience:

Ansari and her family are the sponsors the Ansari X-Prize, a competition that offered ten million dollars to the first non-government group to launch a craft into space twice in two weeks.

Davar Iran Ardalan, Weekend Edition Senior Producer

It is hard to believe I have been in public broadcasting for twenty years. I began in public radio as a reporter at KUNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1991 and began working at NPR News in 1993, after attending a diversity initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington D.C. At the time, NPR Producer Doug Mitchell was on the Advisory Board and had seen my application. Doug insisted I be given a chance.

I took a risk and moved to Washington from Albuquerque in June of 1993 with the assurance of two weeks' worth of temp work on Weekend Edition Saturday. The following year, Robert Malesky of Weekend Edition Sunday hired me as a Production Assistant.

For the next few years, I roamed the NPR Headquarters, like a novice naqqal (Persian storyteller) in awe of everyone around me. Watching Producers Cindy Carpien, Walter Ray Watson, Ned Wharton and Fred Wasser in action reminded me of the carpet weavers I had seen in Iran designing an intricate Persian carpet. The way the producers listened for sound, the way they made edit marks on analog tape, rocking the tape back and forth ever so conscious of the rhythm and narrative of the story they were editing, was simply a marvel to listen to and captivating to watch.

Over time, I mastered the rhythm of sound in the essence of the stories I produced. I learned from my architect father that images along with SOUND activate the sublime. He would say Stravinsky does it but so does a shepherd with his reed flute by the power of breathing life or his soul into his instrument. I loved the idea of sculpting sound images and fortifying the sense of birth and rebirth through sound.

It was at NPR that the creative conscience within me actualized. Working with Liane Hansen, Scott Simon, Jacki Lyden, Daniel Zwerdling, Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne, I spent countless days and nights logging tape, listening back to interviews, editing sound files, being a skeptic, testing, experimenting, failing sometimes and getting right back up and trying again. From them I have learned to be a tenacious journalist and to listen for the mystery of a story. Eventually, no story for me was simple, it had to have an arch, a reason for being, a narrative, a sound portrait of that slice of life.

Continue reading "Farewell, NPR Family" >

Davar Iran Ardalan, Senior Producer & Scott Simon, Weekend Edition Host

As many of you know, Weekend Edition has been on Twitter for more than a year. We've now come up with some tips on how we use the social networking site in our newsroom. To remind you, our radio program's Twitter name is @nprweekend, Scott is @nprscottsimon and Liane is @nprliane.

1) It's a two-way relationship: We try to reply to at least a few messages each day. If our followers can find a few seconds for us, we can find a few seconds for them. And we have chosen a variety of newsmakers, interesting people or groups to follow ourselves. For example, Weekend Edition follows @newtgingrich @ariannahuff @kasuradio @latinousa @mindyfinn @TheRevAl @badbanana @tucsonweekly @radioopensource among some 700 others.

2) Editorial responsibility: Tweets like, "Sarah Palin writing key words on her palm--had an aunt who did that, too," are fine. So is, "President Obama made a very effective presentation of his views at gov's conference." But saying, "I wouldn't vote for XXX if you paid me," ruins our trustworthiness as journalists.

Continue reading "Weekend Edition's Top 10 Twitter Tips" >

Ned Wharton, Senior Producer

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled his latest uber-gadget, the iPad, this week. Jobs' long history of showmanship and salesmanship can be traced back to this quaint video introducing the Macintosh in 1984.

Gemma Watters, Production Assistant

The latest issue of V Magazine features women of different sizes and shapes wearing designer clothes such as Versace and Dolce and Gabbana. Weekend Edition speaks with one of the first curvy models to be featured in high-end fashion magazines, Emme, along with V features editor Christopher Bartley in an interview Sunday with Liane Hansen. They raise an important question: do high-end fashion magazines fuel unnatural and unhealthy desires to become super-thin, like the size 0 models on the pages of their magazines? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Continue reading "SIZE is an ISSUE" >

Scott Simon, Weekend Edition Host

Thank you for all the thousands of messages of concern. The surgery seems to have been brilliantly successful -- for the first time in two years, my limbs are without pain and I feel so nimble I may learn how to play the harp. I am grateful to all of our friends, listeners and the Cleveland Clinic.

Here I am with my daughter Elise having spaghetti and pesto in the cafeteria.

Scott Simon, Weekend Edition Host

Thank you for all of your kind and encouraging messages. I am undergoing my second day of pre-op testing here at the Cleveland Clinic, and look forward to the arrival of my wife, my children, and my mother Tuesday night. I undergo surgery on Wednesday. I am told that after I awake from surgery, my neck will be in a brace and I may find it difficult to speak for a couple of days. So this is a golden opportunity for my family and friends to finally work a word in edgewise! And I can finally see The View. I feel lucky to be receiving the best possible care at this extraordinary place. Cervical spinal surgery is demanding, but as a doctor told me yesterday, "We have a saying in neurology. 'Hey, it's not brain surgery.'" With thanks for all of your best wishes.

Thomas Pierce, Weekend Edition

Erin Lancer was one of the Americans in Haiti this week during the earthquake. She was there to visit a 3-year-old boy that she and her husband, Michael, have adopted. She didn't want to leave the country without Geoffrey, their newly adopted son, but the boy doesn't have a passport yet. Friends and family set up a Facebook group dedicated to bringing Erin and Geoffrey home.

Continue reading "Haitian Adoptions Stalled " >

Gemma Watters, Production Assistant

Ke$ha, pronounced Kesh-ah, is the pop star of the moment and Scott Simon managed to pin her down, not literally, this week and talk to her about her debut album, "Animal." An album that Rolling Stone magazine called "repulsive, obnoxious and ridiculously catchy." I have to admit that after I watched the video to Ke$ha's song, "Tik Tok" and listened to some of her CD, I thought that maybe she would have a bit of an "animalistic" side.

But there's more to this girl than raunchy clothes and, at times, explicit lyrics. Ke$ha is not the type of girl who will let a bad word or two get her down. In fact, she doesn't seem to let much get her down, not failed relationships or even "backstabbers." If she's ever feeling vulnerable she says she writes a song about it, calling it, "the best revenge."

Continue reading "Ke$ha: Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover " >

Davar Ardalan, Senior Producer

Thanks to the 7,200+ listeners who participated in our social media survey. Your feedback and suggestions have been extremely helpful. The results give us solid evidence that engaging more directly with our loyal audience is important and that it is possible to combine different communication platforms and build new relationships with you - our audience.

We live in times when the architecture of news is shattering. For the past year, we have been experimenting and tearing down traditional barriers and building new virtual platforms. We have enjoyed having a more personalized experience with you. Although we have always believed that radio is an intimate medium, we now know that radio alone is not enough - we need to continue fostering the new media paradigm.

Here is what some of you said:

Continue reading "Weekend Edition Social Media Report" >