Arun Venugopal

This week, Attorney General Eric Holder called for sweeping changes to America's 40-year war on drugs. Holder is the first African-American in the nation's top law enforcement post. He's also part of a growing movement of black leaders who have pushed for major reforms to the drug war.

Four ...

Some historians challenge the idea that white conservatives were solely to blame for the laws that sent countless black men to prison.

New York City -- universal beacon for gays and lesbians, right? Maybe, but ask some people how safe they feel on the streets, and they'll say, not very. Especially transgender women of color, who speak of constant harassment, threats and actual violence. 

In this episode of Micropolis, we ask whether it's possible for black men to avoid being profiled. For some black men, the answer is yes, but it involves making compromises -- in terms of clothing, language and manner -- that others find detestable. 

Thousands turned out for the city's annual Gay Pride parade, and the mood was especially buoyant, in light of the Supreme Court's landmark rulings in favor of gay rights. For more pho...

Immigration reform, affirmative action, voting rights, gay marriage -- it's been a busy week for lawmakers and jurists, one that will likely reshape the country. But in some pockets of the city, the issues that matter aren't what's necessarily in the headlines.

In this Micropolis, we visit Sing Sing on graduation day to meet with some of the men who have tried to turn their lives around while becoming assets to the prison community.

Actress Jean Stapleton, who played the iconic role of Edith Bunker on TV's 'All in the Family,' died on Saturday, at the age of 90. For this latest episode of Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal examines the impact the show had on his own family -- who immigrated from India just a year before the show premiered, in 1971 -- as well as others trying to make sense of the era.

New York has more foreign-born residents than any other city in the world: more than L.A. or Hong Kong, and two-and-a-half times as many as London. But in this latest episode of Micropolis, we consider what's lost when people of different cultures and belief systems try to co-exist. In other words, what's the downside of diversity?

What's with this city, that we endlessly dissect it, glorify it, wonder how exactly we fit into it?

In the wake of the Boston bombings, Rep. Peter King has called for increased surveillance of the Muslim American community. He argued that monitoring of certain communities is nothing new.

In this episode of Micropolis, WNYC's Arun Venugopal ventures into the home of Michael, a transsexual prostitute and heroin addict -- and, as you can hear in the segment above -- give...

In this latest episode of Micropolis, we explore the not-so-harmonious side of the New York musician's life, wherein one wrong chord can result in a knock on the door, a volley of abuse, and maybe even... MURDER.

To understand just how much America -- and it's ideas about gay rights and other issues -- continue to influence the rest of the world, it's worth watching a movie called English Vinglish, a Bollywood hit from last year, starring Indian screen legend Sridevi. Her character, Shashi, is visiting her sister in the U.S. for a few weeks, and starts taking English-language classes in Manhattan.

Director Michel Gondry has worked with Bjork, Kanye West and Radiohead, as well as A-list actors like Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, but for his latest project, "The We and the I," he opted to cast a bunch of non-actors: regular kids living in the Bronx.

The industry celebrates designers of color, and the crowds at shows are pretty mixed. As New York Fashion Week begins, we revisit Micropolis' story about the runway's lack of diversity.

For many people in the West, the word 'jihad' conjures up images of a violence and terror. WNYC Reporter Arun Venugopal investigates a campaign which aims to remind people that for most in the Islamic world, jihad means 'internal struggle.' Venugopal speaks with Ahmed Rehab, the man behind the campaign, as well as Columbia University Professor Adam Galinsky, and conservative pollster Frank Luntz.

There are plenty of film and TV productions shot in the 5 boroughs, but only so many that deal with complex mathematical equations or the Monty Hall probability puzzle.