Jay Cowit

We’re kicking off a new series of discussions on The Takeaway called "In My Experience." We'll be talking with older Americans who are long past retirement age, yet are nonetheless still looking to change how we live and work in this country. Philosopher and civil rights reformer Grace Lee Boggs joins us for the inaugural edition.

When David Foster Wallace took his own life in September of 2008, he left behind reams of unfinished work and a veritable young generation of readers still hungry for his work. This week, posthumous novel "The Pale King" is released from Wallace's long time publisher Little Brown. The book is unfinished, but was assembled from DFW's raggedy genius by longtime editor Michael Pietsch. Peitsch talks about how emotional it is for an editor to bring a book into the world when it's author is gone.

The first week of college basketball's biggest tournament is drawing to a close. Who has fallen, and who has lived to battle another day? We check in with Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, to get a recap as well as a look at what's happening next week. Also, don't forget we're still accepting your March Madness brackets! 

It's true that February is generally considered the Dark Ages of the sports year, but there's actually a lot of activity going on this week. First up, news yesterday that St. Louis Cardinals slugger, and resident king of baseball, Albert Pujols arrived in camp without a contract extension, and thus, will not negotiate again until after the season. 

Winter storms along the East Coast affected scheduled NFL games over the weekend. The Vikings-Eagles game was postponed because of the weather, perhaps having the largest impact on fantasy football championships, many of which were this weekend. But the New York Jets, New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys all went forward with their games. To recap the weekend in football, we talk with Nando DiFino, sports writer for The Wall Street Journal.

It's no more changing diapers and preparing dinner for Brian St. Pierre, who went from stay-at-home dad to starting quarterback for the North Carolina Panthers this weekend. We talk with Nando Di Fino, sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal, about St. Pierre's performance on the field, and how other football teams fared over the weekend.

There’s a new movie hitting theatres this week called “Strange Powers.” It follows a band that, according to the film’s disclaimer, is iconic to some and completely unknown to others.

The band is called The Magnetic Fields. And though they’ve been making albums since 1989, their founding member, Stephin Merritt, is still a mystery to many.

Meritt and Claudia Gonson (who provides vocals and instrumentals for the band, and also serves as the band's manager) join us in studio, to give us a small glimpse into their lives, their music, and the film.

After the jump, an extended version of our studio interview with Merritt and Gonson.

The last time anyone got to hear Jerry Garcia play live was on July 9, 1995, when the Grateful Dead performed in Chicago. At the time, no one knew it be their last show: Exactly a month later – fifteen years ago today – guitarist Jerry Garcia died.

Today we take a look at the cultural impact Garcia and the Dead had (and still have) on music lovers, from the band's beginning in the '60s through today.

We want to hear from you. What are your favorite jam band experiences and what are your favorite jam band tracks?

In his first press conference since his steroid use was outed, Alex Rodriguez apologized for his mistakes. He chalked up his steroid use as a youthful indiscretion blaming himself for...

Brett Favre made big news last spring when he bid a tearful farewell to his 17-season football career. By summer he'd made news once more when he signed with the New York Jets. To m...