NPR Columns: Simon Says Podcast

Mothers know us better — sometimes better than we know ourselves. As any child will tell you, they really do have eyes in the back of their heads. When times are tough, they also have our back.

This week, an Apple fan blog leaked word that the company will declare its first-generation iPhone "obsolete," just six years after it was introduced. Host Scott Simon contrasts that with the world's longest known ongoing experiment in a bell jar in an Australian lab.

Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon considers the story of Cameron Lyle, a varsity athlete at the University of New Hampshire. Mr. Lyle forfeited his final season on the track team in order to donate his bone marrow to a 28-year-old cancer victim he's never even met.

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.

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.

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.

Pope Francis surprised many this week by washing the feet of young inmates in prison instead of priests in a grand basilica. The ceremony emulates the way Jesus washed the feet of his 12 disciples. On this Easter weekend, NPR's Scott Simon considers the meaning behind Pope Francis' break with tradition.

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.

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.

After Snowquester fizzled, Scott Simon muses that snow forecasts falling so flat is a sound reminder, during a time of national debate, that experts can be wrong.

The Texan won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 — and wooed Russians in the process. Van Cliburn died Wednesday at 78.

State officials in Illinois want to conduct DNA tests on the top hat on display at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to see if he ever really wore it. Museum officials think the idea is worse than bad.

This week, the French National Assembly has been debating a bill on same-sex marriage and gay adoption. But a small scandal erupted after several lawmakers, who support gay marriage, were spotted playing Scrabble on their iPads during the parliamentary debate.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith will be on the sidelines of the Super Bowl this weekend, after suffering a concussion midway through the season. Now he's counseling teammate Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who replaced him. "The good ones stay ready," he says.

Long before becoming managing editor of Ebony magazine, Hans Massaquoi yearned to be a Hitler Youth. His rare story came to an end when Massaquoi died this week at the age of 87.