Scott Simon (born March 16, 1952) is an American journalist and the host of Weekend Edition Saturday on NPR. Early life Simon was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of comedian Ernie Simon and actress Patricia Lyons. He had a sister who died at a young age. He grew up in major cities across the United States and Canada, including Chicago; New York City; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Montreal; Cleveland; and Washington, D.C. Simon's father was Jewish and his mother was Irish 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. Career Simon has been with NPR for over four decades, beginning in 1977 as Chicago bureau chief. His career also encompasses writing and television. He has hosted the Saturday edition of Weekend Edition since its inception in 1985, excepting a period in 1992 and 1993 when Alex Chadwick hosted the show. 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). 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 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. Views After the September 11 attacks, Simon spoke and wrote in support of the "war on terror", publishing an op-ed in the October 11, 2001, Wall Street Journal titled "Even Pacifists Must Support This War." He questioned nonviolence at greater length in the Quaker publication Friends Journal in December 2001, provoking many angry letters, to which he replied in the May 2003 issue. In