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American Icons: Anything Goes

This is our anthem to being naughty. Before Broadway musicals got serious about West Side gangs or Fleet Street barbers, Cole Porter entertained audiences with frothy tales of socialites, gangsters, and nightclub singers. Anything Goes was his biggest hit, and while it’s something of a period piece, the title song took on a life of […]

Japanese Schoolgirls Grow Up

Akihabara, Nerd’s Paradise

Suicide Forest

Sticker Me Beautiful: Purikura

The Lion

In Shibuya’s red light district, Kurt Andersen stumbles into a refuge from the chaos of Tokyo: the Lion cafe, a temple for classical music fans, with scratchy records played at the altar. → See a slideshow of pictures from the Lion below (Originally aired: February 6, 2009)           Slideshow: Inside the […]

Tokyo Old and New

What is essentially Japanese in design? One designer compares it to tofu. Architects Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Shigeru Ban, designer Reiko Sudo, and poet Shuntaro Tanikawa show Kurt Andersen how Japan brings tradition and innovation together. His search takes him through the streets of old Tokyo to an island in the Inland Sea. → See a […]

Pico Iyer: Outside Man

Travel writer Pico Iyer has lived in Japan for 20 years. And while he knows the locals still see him as an outsider, he told Kurt Andersen that this status helps him pay attention to his surroundings. → Watch a video of Kurt and Pico Iyer below (Originally aired: January 30, 2009)       […]

Takeaway Listener Talks U.S. Syria Intervention & Gulf War Memories

This week we’ve been hearing from lawmakers, experts and analysts as the U.S. considers military intervention in Syria. But The Takeaway has also heard you–the citizens, voters, soldiers, veterans, and in some cases, survivors of war. The voices of Takeaway listeners are crucial as the American people anxiously watch the deepening Syrian conflict and the […]

Infographic: American Attitudes on Civil Rights

As part of our series on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the future of the civil rights movement, The Takeaway partnered with YouGov to conduct a survey that highlights American attitudes toward civil rights.  The total sample size for this survey was 1,120 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between August 21 – […]