NPR White House Correspondent Ayesha Rascoe will become permanent host of Weekend Edition Sunday and co-host of the Up First podcast on weekends.
Rascoe’s first day on the air will be March 27, according to an NPR news release announcing her appointment. She succeeds Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who left NPR in September for The New York Times.
“Ayesha brings multi-faceted experience to the host chair, having covered some of the pivotal moments in recent history from her vantage point,” said Sarah Gilbert, VP for news programming. “Ayesha’s commitment to the intersection of news, and her wide-ranging appreciation for, and engagement with, all things cultural made her the natural choice for this role.”
Rascoe joined NPR in 2018. She previously worked for Reuters as White House correspondent and an energy and environment legal correspondent.
“I would like to play it cool, but I cannot. I am so so so honored to take on this position. Growing up I never thought I could host a national news magazine, but God is so good,” Rascoe said on Twitter.
“While I will miss the Washington Desk, I look forward to connecting to listeners every Sunday. And one day, I’m going to solve one of those puzzles!” Rascoe said in the news release, referring to Weekend Edition’s quiz segment with puzzle master Will Shortz.