Is it Sexist to Look at Politics Through a Gender Lens?
Earlier this week, we annoyed many of our listeners when the writer Gail Sheehy called the Republican women running for election right now as "mean girls." Sheehy said candidates like Meg Whitman and...
View ArticleWhat Changes When You Find Out a Life Trait is Genetic?
Tomorrow we'll talk to two guests who look at some of the science behind why people are gay or straight. It's not just gay people who react when they hear that a trait is determined by genes or choice....
View ArticleThe Pictures and Sounds of Your Commute
Download the new Takeaway iPhone app and help us with an easy assignment: Send us a photo, video or audio that sums up your morning commute. We're posting the highlights here and playing the audio on...
View ArticleYour Walkman Memories
You may not have caught this breaking news over the weekend, but on Friday Sony announced it was discontinuing the portable cassette player known to the world as the Walkman. In July 1979, the first...
View ArticleThe Year of the Multi-Million Dollar Agenda
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, outside interest groups have poured almost $260 million into political campaigns this election season. That's nearly four times the amount spent by...
View ArticleWhat Could Still Persuade You?
This week's polls are giving analysts a better idea of which party will end up controlling Congress after the midterm elections. But one survey puts some of those predictions in doubt. The Associated...
View ArticleThe Sights and Sounds of Your Commute
You've been sending photos and audio from your morning commute with the new Takeaway iPhone app. Hear some of the voices behind the pictures. Check out the slideshow and add your own image.
View ArticleReport from Your Polling Place
After months of debate and millions spent in campaign cash, your moment of decision is finally coming. Help us capture the mood on election day: Cast your vote, then answer this one simple question:...
View ArticleLive with Todd Zwillich on Election Night
After months of debate and campaigning, the moment of decision is almost here. Join Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich, for live analysis of the returns, interviews with his reporters in...
View ArticleCan Democrats and Republicans Get Along?
President Obama said today that he wants to build consensus with the Republicans who swept Tuesday's midterm elections. Now that he has a divided Congress to reckon with, the president said that...
View ArticleWhat's Your Worst Nightmare?
People are passing out in movie theaters after seeing Danny Boyle's new film, "127 Hours," and it's not even out yet. James Franco stars as the man forced to sever his own arm after he gets trapped...
View ArticleWhat Would You Pick as the New Gold Standard?
The head of the World Bank is calling for a new version of the gold standard. But what would you pick instead of gold? Robert Zoellick laid out a proposal for reform of world currencies that included...
View ArticleWhat Would You Give Up for the Deficit?
One of the hardest things for a politician to do is to ask people to give up benefits or pay more in taxes. Which is why President Obama appointed a bipartisan commission last February to come up with...
View ArticleAssignment: The Way You Say Things
Every Monday, we give you an assignment to record audio or video, or take a picture on our iPhone app. Every Friday, we put together the best submissions and talk about them on the air. This week, the...
View ArticleWhat Says 'Home' to You?
Home is where you hang your hat. There's no place like it, or so we're told. But what exactly is home? Is it a place? A state of mind? A smell, sound or look? Or the presence of a person we love?...
View Article'App-signment' - What Says Home to You?
Just in time for the holidays, we're asking, What says home to you? Identify the scenes, the sounds and the events of what makes a place a home: Snap a photo, record audio or video and upload it via...
View ArticleAre the New Airport Scanners Making You Rethink Holiday Plans?
The backlash against new airport screening procedures is growing. Last month, the Transportation Security Administration started rolling out full body scanners that allow screeners to check for weapons...
View ArticleThe Sights and Sounds of Home
The notion of home means something different for everyone. As part of our Thanksgiving series on the home, you've been sending in the images and sounds of the things the invoke home to you. For some of...
View ArticleMovie Date: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1
Rafer and Kristen, possibly the only two people in the world who aren't enthralled with Harry Potter, talk with Takeaway Digital Editor (and Potter aficionado) Jim Colgan about the latest in the Harry...
View ArticleTop of the Hour: Great Migration Stories, Morning Headlines
We preview our interview with Isabel Wilkerson, author of an oral history of the Great Migration of black Americans from the South to the North. Takeaway digital editor Jim Colgan runs through some of...
View ArticleYour Take: What Should Replace the Terror Alert System?
The Department of Homeland Security is recommending a more specific system to inform the public of potential threats. And we’ve been asking for your suggestions of what to replace it with. And you...
View ArticleListeners on What Defines 'Home'
In honor of Thanksgiving, all this week we’re talking about what makes a home, a home. And we’ve been hearing from lots of you via our iPhone app. Some of the latest submissions feature chickens in a...
View ArticleAssignment: Your Picture or Sound of the Year
As the year winds down, we invite you to share what stood out most to you in the past 12 months. Take a photo or record audio or video of the person or thing that summed up your year. It could be bad...
View Article'App-signment' - Your Picture or Sound of the Year
As the year winds down, we invite you to share a picture and sound of what stood out most to you in the past 12 months. Takeaway digital editor Jim Colgan sets up the assignment, and shares a moving...
View ArticleMixed News for Jobless Americans
Checks for almost two million Americans are starting to come to an end today after Congress decided not vote to extend unemployment benefits. And unless it passes a bill soon, benefits that had been...
View ArticleWhat if Bush v. Gore Went the Other Way?
“Get over it!” is the advice from Justice Antonin Scalia. Ten years ago this weekend, the U.S. Supreme Court put an end to the recount in Florida, which gave the state's electoral votes to George W....
View ArticleOver to You: What to Call Your Mixed Race Identity
We turn the show over to you, with a topic that you've been talking about a lot this week: What do you call yourself, if you come from a mixed-race background? Is "biracial" okay, or is it just...
View ArticleHow Well Do You Wiki?
On the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia, we're looking at how useful the user-generated encyclopedia is by giving you a quiz about public radio. Answer the following questions as best you can using...
View ArticleAssignment: The State of Your Refrigerator!
In the run up to the president's State of the Union address, we're taking on a listener's idea to get the state of your union: Open up your refrigerator and show us the state of your refrigerator. Take...
View ArticleYour Take: Chinese Competition
China's President Hu Jintao has been in Washington this week, and all week we have been looking at the China-U.S. relationship, the economy, and American misperceptions about China. One of the...
View ArticleShould Expats Be Allowed to Vote in Irish Election?
Voters in Ireland go to the polls today to decide who should lead a country wrenching from near-economic collapse. The fallout from the banking crisis there is driving unemployment to 13 percent and...
View ArticleGoogle Changes Website Rankings to Increase 'High Quality' Content
Google is changing the way it ranks websites in search results, by changing its famous, mysterious algorithm so that sites deemed "intuitively low quality" get lower rankings. Takeaway digital editor...
View ArticlePeter King's Radical Change
Tomorrow, Rep. Peter King will drop the gavel on the House Homeland Security Committee's hearing on "Islamic radicalization." The hearing starts while we're on the air and we'll take a close look at...
View ArticleDo You Live Near a Nuclear Reactor?
This map details the operating nuclear power reactors in the United States, based on data from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (see full info). It also represents fault information based on...
View ArticleAbortion Restrictions, State by State
Legislatures in more than a dozen states are trying to tighten the laws on abortion. Nebraska passed a law a year ago and 14 others are introducing similar bills. We're talking about this new wave of...
View ArticleObama to Name CIA Director Panetta as Defense Secretary
The Associated Press reports this morning that President Obama will name current CIA director Leon Panetta as the replacement for Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He'd also make General David Patreaeus...
View ArticleObama Speaks About His U.S. Birth Certificate
This morning, the White House released President Obama's U.S. birth certificate. Obama said in a statement that he hoped this would end any debate over his birthplace, and allow those questioning his...
View ArticleHelp Us Gauge Gas Prices
Gas prices are at record highs. And we want to know if it's changing what you do. Are you ditching the car? Changing your summer vacation plans? Help us gauge the nation on gas prices. Send your...
View ArticleGas Prices: Are They Affecting Travel?
As the summer season comes closer and closer, one question abounds: where are you going for vacation? If you have a large car and a large family, the answer might be closer to home. Gas prices are at a...
View ArticleMovie Date: 'Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2'
Apparently there's a big movie out this weekend, though Rafer and Kristen can barely remember what it is. Kidding! They both saw the new Harry Potter movie, as did The Takeaway's former Digital Editor...
View ArticleMapping the Storm Clean-up
We've been asking readers and listeners to let us know if their streets have been plowed. Here's a map from folks who texted us the situation on their street as of Wednesday (white balloons represent...
View ArticleMapping the Storm Clean-up
We've been asking readers and listeners to let us know if their streets have been plowed. Here are maps from Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (white balloons represent unplowed streets, blue plowed)....
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Your Favorite Bird-Watching Spots in NYC
In collaboration with The New York Times, we've been asking you to send your favorite spots to watch birds throughout the city. We received hundreds of text messages and we've plotted the submissions...
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Best NYC Bird-Watching Map
Emily Rueb, New York Times senior producer at the Metro desk, and Jim Colgan, digital editor at the Takeaway, wraps up the WNYC/New York Times collaboration for Bird Week. Alongside them is Tom...
View ArticleA Bird Expert on Your Sightings
We got hundreds of texts when we asked for your favorite bird-watching spots throughout the city, in collaboration with The New York Times. Bird expert Tom Stephensen was on The Brian Lehrer Show,...
View ArticleBirth of a Name: What NYC Startups Can Learn From Google, Twitter & Apple
Would Google be as successful a company had it been named Backrub? That was the name the search engine started with in 1996, and it's a question that weighs on the founders of hundreds of companies...
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How Twitter Was Nearly Called Twitch: Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey on...
One of the first things any new company has to do when it's starting is to come up with a name. WNYC's Lisa Chow and Jim Colgan interviewed company founders about how they chose their names, including...
View ArticleName That Company: Match the Company Name to What You Think It Does
Branding experts say a good company name should have something to do with what the company does. Although it's not always the case with successful companies (e.g. Apple), when there's little or no...
View ArticleVote for Your Favorite Company Name
As part of our story on the importance of choosing a name for startup companies, we've been asking for suggestions for company names based on the descriptions of three actual businesses. Now that we've...
View ArticleYour Signs of Prepared or Unprepared New York
Maybe it's the empty shelves in the grocery store or the boarded up windows on the ground floor. WNYC and The New York Times are looking for signs of a city prepared or unprepared for the hurricane....
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