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" >

Habiba Nosheen - Weekend Edition

On our show today, we brought you Liane Hansen's chat with Chef Frank Clark of Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Foodways. I was part of the Weekend Edition team that traveled with Liane.

For those of you who love desserts, here is a little treat to sweeten your holiday. It's a video I produced of Liane and Frank, as they prepared the colonial dessert syllabub from an authentic 18th-century recipe.

Happy Holidays! And remember: Do try this at home.

UPDATE:

You asked for a Syllabubs recipe, and here it is!

TO MAKE SOLID SYLLABUBS

One pint of cream, half a pint of wine, the juice and grated peel of one lemon, sweetened to your taste; put it in a wide-mouthed bottle, shake it for ten minutes, then pour it into your glasses. It must be made the evening before it is to be used.

Rutledge, Sarah. The Carolina housewife.

Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1979 p.149

Gemma Watters, Production Assistant

Big Bad Boo is an animation company that makes cartoons aimed at educating children about the many rich and diverse cultures in America. Its first cartoon, about a young Iranian boy living in America, was called "Babak and Friends." The success of Babak paved the way for a series called "Mixed Nutz," which teaches children to be proud of their cultural roots. But selling multi-cultural cartoons to big television networks has not been easy. Scott Simon speaks with Shabnam Rezaei, co-founder of Big Bad Boo. The company's latest production, based on the folk tales "1001 Nights," will be broadcast on 27 PBS channels in the New Year, but you can have a sneak peek below. Enjoy!

Davar Ardalan, Senior Supervising Producer

On the show today, we're going to bring you three reports on human rights cases in strategically important countries. You will hear about dissidents in China, Russia and Iran.

Kian Tajbakhsh

Iran has detained thousands of people since the June 12th election -- including this professor who holds both Iranian and American citizenship. Tajbakhsh, 47, is a Columbia University scholar who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage. He moved back to Iran in October 2001 and started a family (below). The Iranian government alleges he is part of a conspiracy to undermine the regime -- the "velvet revolution.' Listen to our profile and read the full transcript

Free Kian is a group that follows news about Tajbakhsh and campaigns for his release.

Sergei Magnitsky

Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer, died in a Moscow prison after being denied medical treatment. Previously, Magnitsky worked for a British-born investor who fell out of favor with Russian authorities and was barred from entering the country in 2005. Listen to this story and read the full transcript

Check out this AP article on the letters Magnitsky wrote from prison before his death.

Liu Xiaobo

One of China's most prominent dissidents is expected to be put on trial for subversion as early as next month. Liu, a former professor of literature, was the man behind the Charter 08 petition, which called for greater democracy and freedom in China. Listen to this story and read the full transcript

The Pen American Center is tracking news about Liu and petitioning for his release.