When Congress returns from its two-week recess, next week, immigration will be the first thing on the agenda. But the United States already has a few different guest worker programs in place. How will they be impacted? Will the changes be effective?

We're usually completely focused on the details of a prescription for a healthy life — an apple a day, eight hours of sleep, etc. But what if you started with the big-picture instead — like, your purpose in life?

While gays and lesbians fight for the right to marry, increasingly, straight women are delaying marriage or avoiding it altogether. Your stories illustrated many changing views of marriage.

Pakistan has set 23 world records in the past year alone as part of an effort to boost national pride in a country associated with militancy and religious strife. 

It might surprise you to learn that today, 48 percent of first-time mothers are unmarried. This figure is not about a rise in teen pregnancy, though. It's about a different demographic shift.

From Willie Nelson to Siouxsie and the Banshees; from Phish to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, our listeners weigh in on the eclectic music they're sure they wouldn't get sick of in a marathon listening session.

According to a New York Times/CBS poll from February, 45 percent of Republicans between 18- and 44-years-old now believe same-sex couples should be able to marry. Still, some of gay marriage’s most vocal opponents come from the youngest ranks of conservatives.

New photos from the European Space Agency’s Planck surveyor of the "oldest light" in the universe could significantly change our understanding of the origins of the universe. Brian Greene, theoretical physicist and string theorist at Columbia University, explains what scientists hope to learn from these images.

Here in New York, WQXR, the sister station of our co-producer WNYC is launching something they're calling Bach 360°. It's a proper Bach-a-thon — a ten-day Bach marathon festival that explores what Johann Sebastian's music means to modern listeners.

Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.  Last week, we started a conversation about your memories of the past decade, and about the books that first helped you you comprehend war.  Many listeners cited Tim O'Brien's "They Things The Carried," but Takeaway listener Jim Lommasson's engagement with that book goes one step father.  Lommasson is a Portland-based photographer and writer whose project "What We Carried" documents the items Iraqi refugees brought with them when they left their homes.

The legacy of war literature is a rich one. When Matt Gallagher returned from the Iraq War, he discovered he needed to write his own stories. He is co-editor of "Fire and Forget," a new collection of short stories by Iraq and Afghan war veterans, and their family members, on the experience of modern warfare.

Is it time to start to take North Korea more seriously? Karin Lee, executive director of the National Committee on North Korea, weighs in.

Fracking has worked miracles in the west, but are we back to a form of wildcatting for oil and gas — a boom time with no rules? Richard Manning, a writer based in Montana has been reporting on the impact of accelerated efforts to bring oil and gas out from the shale rock formations in Bakken, North Dakota.

Ten years ago this month, the US invaded Iraq, launching the Iraq War. Throughout the week, we're looking at lessons from the war from scholars, soldiers, translators — and you.

It may not surprise you to learn that American students dread math. But it might surprise you to learn just how young students are when math anxiety kicks in. New research from New York University suggests students start fearing math as early as first grade.  Dr. Rose Vukovic is a professor of teaching and learning at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development where she's studying this problem.

In the past several months, President Obama has been making a quiet push to change the face of the nation's judicial system with a slow and steady stream of diverse nominees for federal courts.  In Florida, he's nominated the first openly gay black man to serve on federal district court.  In New York, he nominated the first Asian American lesbian. And in DC, he's nominated the first South Asian to sit on the US Court of Appeals.  Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund explains what hurdles these candidates may face and what potential these nominations represent.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s deeply polarizing president, died Tuesday.  He was 58. His death leaves open questions about the future of the country-- and about the real impact of his legacy. Hannah Strange is Latin American Correspondent for the London Times; Phil Gunson is a Caracas based freelance journalist, who writes for The Economist; and Elio Aponte is founder of the Organizacion de Venezolanos en Exilo.

They’re called “qualified private activity bonds,” and they’re intended to encourage public works through a tax break. In reality, though, they often go to subsidize private projects—everything from a winery in North Carolina to a golf resort in Puerto Rico to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the offices of Goldman Sachs in New York.  Louise Story, investigative reporter for The New York Times explains how this loophole gets used.

Wendell Pierce, best known for his role as Bunk in the HBO series "The Wire," is starting a chain of grocery stores in New Orleans as a means of revitalizing the city.

Cities like New Orleans and Pittsburgh have benefited from major economic investments and new business models. But writer Chuck Thompson thinks this isn't always a good thing. He's the author of "Better Off Without 'Em." His latest article in The New Republic is called "Take this Microbrew and Shove It."