John Asante

The Takeaway
Taxes

How we could simplify the American tax filing process

If you're still working on your taxes, you're probably not alone: Americans will spend more than 6 billion hours preparing their taxes, which includes digging up W-2s, sifting through receipts, and filling out any number of forms. The amount we spend to get it done by firms or by ourselves with software is high.

How we could simplify the American tax filing process
Bracket

Here are some handy tips for your NCAA tournament bracket

Here are some handy tips for your NCAA tournament bracket
SXSW

Here's how to experience SXSW from your living room

Here's how to experience SXSW from your living room
The World

Alec Baldwin says he's having the time of his life — impersonating President-elect Donald Trump

Alec Baldwin says he's having the time of his life — impersonating President-elect Donald Trump
Medical stretchers are seen abandoned along the corridors at the main hospital during a strike

Kenya tries to come to grips with treating mental illness

Kenya tries to come to grips with treating mental illness
Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

The racial tensions in Tulsa have deep roots

The shooting of an unarmed black man by a white Tulsa police officer is just the latest example of that city's trouble racial past.

The racial tensions in Tulsa have deep roots
An animation from Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s documentary

Happy Curiosity Day, Curious George

It's the 75th anniversary of the creation of Curious George — and the story of his creation is almost as good as the stories of Curious George.

Happy Curiosity Day, Curious George

Handwriting is dying a slow death

“The digital revolution is both launching us into a no-handwriting future, and also sending us backwards in time to when the spoken word ruled,” says the author of a new book.

Handwriting is dying a slow death
The planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri

Our closest galactic neighbor may also have a habitable planet

The discovery of a planet in the "goldilocks zone" of Proxima Cantauri, the star closest to our own sun, gives new hope to the quest to find life outside our solar system.

Our closest galactic neighbor may also have a habitable planet
Boyan Slat

Meet the 22-year-old with a big idea for cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

For the past six years, 22-year-old Boyan Slat has been working to perfect a way to filter vast amounts of plastics out of the world's oceans. He has a prototype now that might just prove successful.

Meet the 22-year-old with a big idea for cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Sylvia Earle

Oceanographer Sylvia Earle is on a mission to save our seas

Sylvia Earle wants to create "blue parks" in the oceans in order to preserve and restore threatened species — not the least of which are humans.

Oceanographer Sylvia Earle is on a mission to save our seas
North Korea ballistic missiles

What now after North Korea's most successful ballistics missile launch?

Don't panic: North Korea still has to go through “various technical stages” in order to have a missile that could reach Japan or US islands in the Pacific.

What now after North Korea's most successful ballistics missile launch?
US House Speaker Paul Ryan peaks during a town hall with millennials

How millennials may one day — soon — upend the political landscape

Social media and the sharing economy are changing the way that politics is both debated and funded, Olikara says. Additionally, he argues that discontent is changing the equation.

How millennials may one day — soon — upend the political landscape
Gun in blood

A history of accidental shootings in the US

Back in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, American newspapers regularly carried columns that highlighted “melancholy accidents,” or unfortunate accounts of firearm accidents and gun deaths.

A history of accidental shootings in the US