Past Articles by Scott Simon
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Did ATMs Represent The Dawn of the Digital Era? Weekend Edition Saturday Scott Simon remembers the controversy when the first Automatic Teller Machines started popping up in the 1970s. Today there's an electronic transaction, and record of just about everything we say, read, purchase or do. |
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High School Newspapers: An Endangered Species The New York Times reported this week that only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools still has a student newspaper. National figures are only a bit better. NPR's Scott Simon says student newspapers are the latest victims of social media. |
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High School Newspapers: An Endangered Species The New York Times reported this week that only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools still has a student newspaper. National figures are only a bit better. NPR's Scott Simon says student newspapers are the latest victims of social media. |
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High School Newspapers: An Endangered Species The New York Times reported this week that only 1 in 8 of New York's public high schools still has a student newspaper. National figures are only a bit better. NPR's Scott Simon says student newspapers are the latest victims of social media. |
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A 'Tough, Smart, Proud Town' Meets Terror With Determination The bombing attack at the Boston Marathon Monday could have caused scrambling and panic. Instead, the tragedy revealed the city's character as people rushed to help each other. |
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At The Spelling Bee, Spelling Is No Longer Enough Starting this year, competitors in the National Spelling Bee will not only have to know how to spell a word, but they'll also have to know what it means. |
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Roger Ebert: Elegance And Empathy Roger Ebert wrote simply, abundantly, gorgeously — and on deadline for 46 years at the Chicago Sun-Times. Over the years, his work reminded us that empathy is the grace note of a good life, not just great art. |
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Resurrected Frog Gives Us Cause To Brood This week scientists announced they have reproduced the genome of an extinct amphibian, the gastric brooding frog. But animals are more than just their genomes, so NPR's Scott Simon wonders if it's necessary — or kind — to bring them back. |
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Power Of A Father's Love Overturns Longtime Beliefs Knowing his son was gay prompted Republican Sen. Rob Portman to reconsider his position on same-sex marriage. NPR's Scott Simon reflects on how children can cause their parents to see issues in a new light. |
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The Power Of A Father's Love Overturns His Beliefs Knowing his son was gay prompted Republican Sen. Rob Portman to reconsider his position on same-sex marriage. NPR's Scott Simon reflects on how children can cause their parents to see issues in a new light. |
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Cheating Might Buy Home Runs, But No Hall Of Fame NPR's Scott Simon muses on momentous news this week — the Baseball Writers Association elected no one to the Hall of Fame. The shutout might be a classic reminder that cheating sometimes brings quick riches, but it can't buy respect. |
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A N.Y. Cop's Good Intentions, Complicated Results 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. |
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Emergency Workers Heroes Even Before Sandy On Halloween night this week, millions of children tumbled into their neighborhoods dressed as superheroes. But that night, true superheroes were at work in uniforms, not costumes. |
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Does Voting Early Prompt Hasty Choices? Voting can be a chore, but getting more people to vote by allowing early voting may not be doing the candidates or the electorate any favors. |
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Jimmy Hoffa: Still Searching. Still Waiting. "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. |
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If Politicians Went On Vacation, We'd All Get A Break NPR's Scott Simon says voters and candidates might benefit if more politicians took real vacations - if they went somewhere, for at least a short time, where no one knows them. Where they don't have to ask for votes, money or spout talking points. |
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Gang Violence Smolders On Hot Chicago Streets This has been a summer of blood, sweat and tears in Chicago. The city has been scorched by historic heat, and the homicide rate has soared. Chicago's gangs span generations, but today, they're more disorganized and disparate. Violence seems random, and police are outnumbered. |
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'A Chance To Start Over': Wounded Vets Ride Again 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 the military. "You look back and you got guys missing legs, missing arms - it doesn't matter. We're just all riding together." |
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Bounties Uncovered: Paying For Pain In The NFL A National Football League investigation revealed Friday that the New Orleans Saints had a "bounty" program to pay bonuses for putting game-ending hits on opposing players. Host Scott Simon reports the NFL has yet to announce any penalties. |
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At Gates Bar-B-Q, The Ultimate Flavor Lies in Burnt Ends In Kansas City, burnt ends make the barbecue. Ollie Gates helped transform the food from disreputable wrong-side-of-the-tracks fare to destination food served in a respectable restaurant. |
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A Fan's Notes On Pro Sports, Brain Damage I'll watch the Super Bowl next week with my children and wonder how comfortable we fans can be, sitting and snacking, while too many of the players we cheer entertain us and get rich at such terrible cost to themselves. |
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Wait A Second, And What Else To Do With It Every few years, official clocks around the world repeat a second. It's not much, but in an age of atomic clocks it's time enough to give the matter a second thought. |
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Zambian Official Jumps Off Bridge For His Country   There is something truly winning about a politician who doesn't just talk the talk but jumps the jump. Zambia's tourism minister Given Lubinda jumped off a bridge this week and popped up smiling. |
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A Primary Role: Small States Earn Those Big Stakes Iowa and New Hampshire might look small and vanilla in a nation of multiplying hues and creeds, but they pay attention to their lead-off responsibilities. |
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JFK Assassination Reporter Tom Wicker Dies At 85 Tom Wicker, one of postwar America's most distinguished journalists, has died at the age of 85. Host Scott Simon has a remembrance. |
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Raw Jobs Numbers Mask The Pain Of Joblessness News that Standard & Poor's has downgraded the US credit rating pales in comparison to the daily reality faced by millions of unemployed Americans. For them, the most important news everyday is that the jobs market is stagnant, and the prospect of finding work seems increasingly remote. |
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Minnesota Survives A Cold Near-Beer Experience A narrow bureaucratic decision nearly kept MillerCoors from selling beer in Minnesota. It was the kind of red tape that can drive people to say they don't care if a government shuts down. But then if it does, they get mad that the government isn't there to help them. |
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Green Card Lottery Snafu Has Some Seeing Red More than 22,000 people were disappointed and probably angry Friday. They were people who thought they had won spots to enter the United States in last May's U.S. State Department lottery. Instead, the U.S. government announced a computer glitch made the lottery invalid. Host Scott Simon reflects on the situation. |
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Out Of The Mouths Of Hosts, Oft Times, Come Flubs An off-color remark uttered by pundit Mark Halperin on MSNBC was a stark reminder that anyone who gets near a microphone shouldn't count on seven-second delays or sharp-eared producers. And it was also a reminder of a few stupid things that I've said on the air. |
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A Chinese Dissident Is Freed, But He's Still Not Free Ai Weiwei has bluntly accused the Chinese government of corruption, coercion, and cover-ups. After his release from prison this week, he refused to speak publicly and shut down his Twitter account. But Ai's art goes on talking. |
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In Memory Of MaSisulu, The Rock Of South Africa When Albertina Sisulu and a few other women organized a protest in 1956 of the passbooks that were the bedrock of South Africa's apartheid laws, they chanted, "When you tamper with women, you strike a rock." And MaSisulu, as she came to be known, became the rock on which a new nation is rising. |
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Thomas Jefferson And The Cha Cha Slide The nation's third president once said, "The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits." Would he have supported a court ruling that restrains citizens from pursuing dancing at his memorial? |
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The Case Against Mladic: Chocolates And Mass Graves There was nothing remote or impersonal about the crimes of which Ratko Mladic is accused. He was not a man who just gave orders: He patted heads and passed out chocolates before his troops raped women, killed their babies and forced Bosnian Muslim men and boys to march to their deaths. |
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Another Flood That Gave Us The 'Broken Levee Blues' Most people who live along the Mississippi today weren't around to see the great Mississippi Flood of 1927, but it is the flood that they grew up hearing about. Host Scott Simon recounts the story and the Lonnie Johnson song it inspired. |
