Weekend Edition Saturday

Duke University has decided to stop honoring roommate requests made by incoming freshmen — returning the procedure largely to chance. Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta tells NPR why.

North Korea has agreed to suspend missile tests and close its major nuclear-testing site. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Victor Cha, ex-White House National Security Council director for Asian Affairs

NPR's Scott Simon talks to author Julian Barnes about his new novel The Only Story. It's about an aging Englishman and the memory of the only woman he ever loved.

NPR's Scott Simon talks sports with ESPN's Howard Bryant. They'll cover the surprises of the NBA playoffs so far and the historically hot start by baseball's Boston Red Sox.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Tamer El-Ghobashy, Baghdad bureau chief of The Washington Post about the city of Raqqa, which is still in a state of destruction.

The chilled relations between Cuba and the White House has left the U.S. embassy running on a shoe-string operation. Cubans hoping to travel to the U.S. must now apply in a third country for visas.

North Korea has agreed to suspend missile tests, close its major nuclear-testing site and to drop demands that the U.S. remove troops from South Korea. It comes ahead of a historic North-South summit.

The new book Blackfish City tells of a near future that's both dystopian and utopian all at once. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Sam J. Miller about his story and about the influence of his father.

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Trevor Phillips, co-author of: Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-racial Britain. The U.K. is roiled by revelations of the Windrush generation of immigrants.

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Laura Veirs of Portland, Ore., about her new album, The Lookout. She says it addresses the fleeting beauty of life in a chaotic post-election America.

Each spring, a few lucky Maine fishermen have the chance to make a lot of money catching baby eels, known as elvers, to sell to eel farms in Asia. This year, the prices are some of the highest ever.

Alaska has a sexual assault rate 3 times the national average and a child sex assault rate 6 times. NPR's Scott Simon discusses that with Alexander Hirsch of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.