Product Code Database
Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR.
Simon's father was American Jews and his mother was Irish Americans Catholic. His father died when Scott was 16, and his mother later married former minor league baseball player Ralph G. Newman, an American Civil War scholar and author who ran the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago.
Simon graduated from Nicholas Senn High School in 1970.
He attended the University of Chicago and McGill University, and he has received a number of honorary degrees.
His books include My Cubs: A Love Story (2017); Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan (2000); Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball (2002); Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption (2010), about his experiences adopting two daughters; and the novels Pretty Birds (2005) and Windy City: A Novel of Politics (2008). In 2023, he published the audiobook, Swingtime for Hitler, about the Nazis' use of jazz as a propaganda tool during World War II.
Simon has hosted television series and specials, including PBS's Need to Know in 2011–13. He guest-hosted BBC World News America, filling in for Matt Frei, and anchored NBC's Weekend Today in 1992–93.
On the November 15, 2014, episode of Weekend Edition Saturday, Simon interviewed Bill Cosby and his wife Camille Cosby about a 62-piece art collection they had loaned to the National Museum of African Art. At the end of the interview, Simon offered Cosby an opportunity to comment on the accusations of sexual assault against him. As narrated by Simon, Cosby refused to comment, only shaking his head no when prompted.
On 15 December 2018, Simon said of the death of Jakelin Caal, "I do not doubt that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did all they could to try to save the life of Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7 year-old girl from Guatemala, who died in the custody of the United States."
In May 2010, he was conferred Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Willamette University, where he was that year's commencement speaker. "2010 Honorary Degrees", Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters & CLA Commencement Speaker, Willamette University.
Simon is a laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois, receiving the state's highest honor, the Order of Lincoln from the Governor of Illinois in 2016 in the field of Business, Industry & Communications.
In October of 2025, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Chicago.
In 2006 Simon and his wife were contacted by police as part of the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning investigation. The family was staying at a hotel near the restaurant at the center of the poisoning incident, and had bought food there for one of their daughters. The health of the family was not affected.
In July 2013 Simon began Twitter his emotions and conversations with his mother during the last days of her life. "I just realized: she once had to let me go into the big wide world. Now I have to let her go the same way", read one tweet. In March 2015, he published a memoir about her titled Unforgettable: A Son, a Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime.
Jack Brickhouse, a Chicago broadcaster (1916–1998), was Simon's godfather, whom he referred to as an uncle.
|
|
