Kristen Meinzer

An organization in Eugene, Oregon is trying to get pregnant women to stop smoking by paying them in the form of a department store gift cards. Will it be effective? Kristian Foden-Ven...

Since President Enrique Peña Nieto took power in December, Mexico’s agenda has shifted from fighting the drug wars to modernizing the economy. And President Obama’s administration has...

The location of an infamous massacre in 1890, and a violent standoff in 1973, has again become the subject of introspection and dispute, as the land of Wounded Knee, South Dakota - wh...

NBA player Jason Collins publicly came out yesterday, and is being showered with attention - both good and bad - as a result. It's know how it feels to be in his position. But one per...

Temple Grandin discusses her thoughts on the expanding autism spectrum, the supposed link between vaccines and autism, and her new book "The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum."

In this week's Movie Date podcast, Rafer and Kristen talk about why we should all aspire to the motto, "do be a doer," as opposed to "don't be a don'ter." They also discuss middle-aged sex, wedding hook-ups, and Chef Boyardee. Special guest Cate Contino Cowit gives her insights as well. It's all in honor of the new action-crime-comedy, "Pain and Gain" starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Anthony Mackie; and the romantic comedy, "The Big Wedding," starring Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Robin Williams, and Topher Grace.

The Takeaway's Movie Date team, Kristen Meinzer and Rafer Guzman, review this week's major releases. On the roster this week: the dysfunctional family comedy, “The Big Wedding” and th...

Mira Nair discusses her new film, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." Based on Mohsid Hamid’s bestselling novel, it tells the story of Changez, a young man from Pakistan climbing the corp...

Sometimes, especially in these trying times, we just need to go to a place where everybody knows our name. And who knows this better than Thomas Kershaw, the owner of the famous Boston bar, Cheers.

As the city of Boston has picks up the pieces from last weeks’ bombings, and Texas struggles with droughts and the aftermath of explosions, the Midwest has been facing some of the wor...

Last Friday, the city of Boston and its surrounding areas were put on lockdown as authorities searched for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. The subways no longer...

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being charged with using weapons of mass destruction. But while the harm that the pressure cooker bomb caus...

This week's Movie Date podcast is arriving a few days late, as Kristen was dedicating all of last week's working hours to covering the news in Boston. But it's still packed with Rafer...

America has a love-hate relationship with marijuana. Millions of people use the drug but it remains mostly illegal. Alfred Ryan Nerz, a journalist and self-professed marijuana enthusi...

This week, the people of Boston were faced with great tragedy. But if tragedy had to happen anywhere, the city proved that, perhaps, there was no place more prepared to handle it. Amo...

The shock of waking up without a limb or limbs--  just hours after watching marathoners cross the finish line on theirs-- is hard to imagine. But while losing a limb is certainly deva...

Whether it’s the capitol city of Austin or small towns like Marfa, Texans love their state. And they have even more reason to love their state now. For the fourth year in a row, Houst...

The world record for proofreading, if there ever was one, was surely broken this month by the 100,000 volunteers who've helped out Project Gutenberg, the world’s oldest electronic lib...

Within 30 seconds of crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon yesterday, Dr. Chris Rupe, a surgeon from Salina, Kansas, witnessed the explosions in the street. He describes how...

The bipartisan group of senators knows as The Gang of Eight will release their immigration reform bill this week. The proposal is expected to overhaul the current system and give mill...