NPR Columns: Simon Says Podcast

Dennis Rodman took a team of former NBA players to North Korea to celebrate leader Kim Jong Un's birthday. NPR's Scott Simon likes the flamboyant and frank Rodman, but wonders if his tour amounts to sports diplomacy or propaganda for the North Korean regime.

NPR's Scott Simon muses on the inclusion of the former tennis superstar in the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. King is a lesbian who was not always open about her sexuality, but both she and American culture have changed since then.

Recently, the principal of Trumbull High School in Connecticut canceled a student production of Rent. The rock musical, about a group of young people living in New York, features characters dealing with drugs, sexuality and AIDS.

By the time he died, Nelson Mandela was considered one of the few giants on the world stage. As NPR's Scott Simon remembers, he was not alone in offering his life for freedom, so the acclaim justly heaped upon Mandela is also a credit to those who worked, served and led with him.

At least 30 Haitian migrants died this week when a packed sailboat capsized off the coast of the Bahamas. NPR's Scott Simon reminds us how some of the first Americans arrived on the continent, risking their lives to sail across rough seas.

As Americans mark 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Scott Simon reflects on Jacqueline Kennedy's role in the days that followed. Only 34, she had to comfort two small children and a wounded nation while the world watched.

Patricia Lyons Simon Newman died in Chicago, at the age of 84. Her son, NPR's Scott Simon, tweeted from her bedside in the intensive care unit as their time together came to a close. He remembers her wisdom and wit, and the lessons she taught him.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon argues that it's time to retire the phrase "this wouldn't be a scandal in Europe" when referring to American politicians embroiled in sex scandals. From former President Bill Clinton to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, such scandals no longer seem to end careers.

Jim Nayder, host of Chicago Public Radio's The Annoying Music Show and Magnificent Obsession, died this week. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon remembers his good friend.

Tony Soprano was the ruthless yet sentimental mafia don from the hit TV series The Sopranos. One of television's most memorable characters, we lost him when actor James Gandolfini died unexpectedly this week.

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.

The Allied invasion of the French coast of Normandy took place this week in 1944. In case that highly risky invasion had failed, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had drafted a speech taking full responsibility. Fortunately, he never had to deliver it.

The New York Times reported this week that only one in eight 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.

High school seniors in Moore, Okla., will hold commencement ceremonies Saturday, despite the death and destruction wreaked by this week's tornado. Scott Simon asks two Oklahoma writers to offer advice to the graduating classes.

Hadfield just spent 146 days up in the International Space Station, during which he performed rock concerts and shared his dazzling photographs with nearly a million Twitter followers.