Weekend Edition Saturday

A reflection on the comedy stylings of Pope Francis, who is telling priests to lighten up and not be so dour.

The Food and Drug Administration has told food manufacturers the psychoactive mushroom<em> Amanita muscaria</em> isn't authorized for food, including edibles, because it doesn't meet safety standards.

<em>Gypsy</em> has been called the best musical of all time. Audra McDonald is starring in a new Broadway revival, and the race-conscious casting gives the production a new frame.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has freed thousands of people detained in Syria's notorious prisons. Some of them have made it back home. Other families are still looking.

NPR's Scott Simon details the "gladiator experience" that 16 lucky — or unlucky — people might have next year inside the Roman Colosseum. Will they not be entertained?

South Korea's parliament impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol for his attempt to impose martial law, the first time such a measure had been imposed on the nation in more than four decades.

Olivier Latry is Notre Dame Cathedral's longest-serving organist. Just days before the church's gala reopening, after the destructive fire in 2019, he talks about the refurbished instrument — it holds 8,000 pipes — and its role in the church.

NPR's Scott Simon remembers Seuk Kim, a volunteer animal rescue pilot who died in a crash earlier this week, transporting several dogs.

New York City is home to more than eight million people but NPR's Brian Mann mapped out an urban hike through solitude and parkland wildness.

In rural Louisiana, Cajun cooks add spicy sausage to Thanksgiving leftovers for a tasty, warming gumbo.

Grab your blanket, your cocoa, your snuggler of choice – holiday movie season has arrived. Here's a rundown of the standard and not-so-standard offerings you'll find on TV this year.

NPR's Scott Simon remarks on the death of ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov. Reports from Russian media say he fell from a 5th floor balcony.