Arun Venugopal

This week, a war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced two men to death for the killings of 18 people during the country's war of independence from Pakistan, in 1971.

After spending years in the political wilderness, being cast as outsiders -- even un-American -- Muslim New Yorkers are in an unfamiliar position: they're set to have power.

Even in New York, where issues of faith usually reside on the margins of public life, the Pope has people talking. And although much of what he says is viewed through the reductive lens of politics — Is he liberal? Is he conservative? — for many Catholics his words have a deeply personal, emotional impact. 

In the Democratic primary race for mayor, Bill De Blasio won over more black voters than the black candidate, Bill Thompson, and more gay and lesbian voters than Christine Quinn, who is a lesbian. Are these signs of a post-racial, post-identity New York?

Hardly, says Ali Najmi, who argues that "local politics in New York City is more tribal than Kansas."

In this latest episode of Micropolis, we examine the age-old persecution of Sikhs, from India to post-9/11 America. Why do Sikhs such as actor Waris Ahluwalia (Inside Man, The Darjeeling Limited) identify with the racial history of African Americans?

And why, despite persecution and name-calling, do Sikh men continue to wear turbans?

The NYPD says gang activity may have been the cause of a 1-year-old baby's shooting death in Brownsville, Brooklyn over the weekend. It's the precinct with one of the highest crime rates in the city. For some area residents, it's a constant challenge to prevent their children from being drawn into gang life.

The March on Washington  — 50 years ago today — brought a quarter million demonstrators to the nation's capital, but it was planned and coordinated right here, in New York. It was an enormous logistical operation, years before cell phones and email, and it all happened uptown, in an office on 130th Street in Harlem.

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. 

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?