Ben Brock Johnson

Yesterday's earthquake, centered in Virginia, shook communities up and down the East Coast. In Washington D.C., it damaged the National Cathedral. In New York, it gave thousands of office workers a late lunch break. What did it do in your neighborhood? All day on our show, we heard responses from listeners giving us their own earthquake story. But now with the help of our friends at Mobile Commons, you can also tell the level of severity of the quake in your zip code. 

Today on The Takeaway we covered the rebel takeover of Tripoli in Libya extensively. After the show, co-host John Hockenberry gave his own take on the morning's coverage, including an interview with a young Libyan-American whose father has been imprisoned in the country since 1993. The young man doesn't even yet know if his father has survived in prison; now his family is preparing to leave their native country to find out.

Hurricane Irene is currently headed towards the East Coast of the U.S., and may have a major impact on a large swath of the eastern seaboard and some 65 million residents from North Carolina to Maine. With that in mind, we're watching Irene's progress and updating this blog with the latest news and information we have.

We've been asking listeners all week for their "big idea" to fix the economy, and we've received a lot of responses. Maybe more importantly, a lot of substantive responses — real ideas that you have thought through. Along with discussing some of them specifically, we wanted to give you a sense of the kind of ideas that were presented most often. Here's a graph showing the topics covered (scroll your mouse over the bars to look at each topic):

Congress has a super committee, and we're looking for our own. Do you have an interest in the issues, and the problem-solving skills to tackle them? While politicians in Washington haggle over spending cuts and new tax revenues, we want to look at the solutions put together by regular Americans. Over the next few months as 12 members of Congress and the Senate meet, we'll also be covering some of the possible solutions for the country's debt challenges. We need your help. Fill out the questionnaire below and you could get chosen to help The Takeaway, The Brian Lehrer Show and It's A Free Country try and solve our nation's problems. 

In Washington, a 12-member "super committee" of legislators is haggling over spending cuts and generating tax revenues. Confidence in Congress to get the job done on our stumbling economy is at an all-time low. But America's strength has always been about the democratic discussion of big ideas. In a free society, one person can change the world with creative problem solving. So we want to hear more from you: what are your big ideas for solving the economy?

On this Friday's show, The Takeaway's co-host John Hockenberry interviewed a guest about domestic workers portrayed in the new film "The Help," only to discover she grew up in the same city he did--Grand Rapids, Mich. But as Hockenberry describes, he and Inez Crockett Smith were living in two totally different worlds.

On today's show, John Hockenberry interviewed one of our own, Managing Editor Rupert Allman, about his impressions of the unrest roiling Britain. Allman, of the BBC, says the line between those who feel lucky to be a British resident and those who do not is an invisible one. He spoke about unrest in his country in the 1980s, how some people feel lucky to be born in Britain, and are invested in their community, while others do not. It's a distinction that is difficult to see, but incredibly important, when the chips are down.  

Everybody was talking about Spider-Man this week. But it wasn't the dangers of the Broadway show, or the latest actor to be playing Spidey on the silver screen. Most conversation revolved around the comic book itself, and the death of longtime character Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spider-Man series from Marvel. He's been replaced with a new protagonist: a half-Latino, half-African-American teenager named Miles Morales. We had two expert guests on the show to talk about their perspectives: Vice Magazine's Nicholas Gazin, and Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. See how our coverage of the new Spider-Man character developed, what listeners and guests had to say. 

All week we've been making short videos directly after the show, in which host Celeste Headlee reacts to what we've covered. On Friday, she gives a wrap-up of the week, talking about the debt ceiling talks, investment in the United States, and the possibility that it may be time for voters frustrated with politicians to let them know what unemployment feels like.

Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" at The Dutch Tavern? "Hey Ho Let's Go: The Ramones" on Rockaway Beach? As we enter the hottest, laziest days of summer, The Takeaway wants to know what you're reading and where you're reading it — no matter what it is and where you are. It's part of our summer book club series.  

As the president and lawmakers battle over raising the deb limit and the federal government's current budget crisis, many voters feel frustrated and powerless. But what if you were offered an opportunity to find your own fix? A new online game challenges users to come up with their own compromises and solutions to the current problems facing the country's coffers. Want to play? Can you win?

We're having fun with a new feature: quick videos with hosts after the show. In today's episode, host Celeste Headlee reacts to our coverage of the continuing battle over principle in Washington's debt ceiling talks, and the continuing struggle for America's unemployed. Are they focused on the right priorities? It's a question we've been asking listeners, and one that has generated a lot of response. 

We're putting forward a new feature: quick videos with hosts after the show. In today's episode, John Hockenberry reacts to some of the morning's best segments, talking about the importance of language, his idea for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and his wish: to retire the use of "lame" in the modern lexicon. 

Last night, at least nine suicide bombers stormed into the Intercontinental Hotel—one of the most premier hotels in Kabul, Afghanistan—in a six-hour attack that early reports say left at least 21 people dead. NATO forces ended the attack by killing three of the bombers. Alissa J. Rubin, a reporter for the New York Times, told us the attackers were anti-government insurgents.

The Takeaway spoke with freelance journalist Bette Dam, who was at the Intercontinental Hotel and spoke of the situation on the ground (her audio above and below). We also spoke with journalist Matthieu Aikins.  

Freelance journalist Matthieu Aikins reports from Kabul: 

Freelance journalist Bette Dam reports on the scene at the Intercontinental Hotel: 

Ever wonder how a story on The Takeaway evolves? Our stories can start with everything from a tweet to a listener response phoned in during the morning's show, and move forward over the next hours as we interact with guests, put together radio segments, and blog on the subject at hand. This week, one of our stories began with a paper about student performance being impacted by unemployment rates. In the visual element below, you can see first hand how the story progressed, from our initial tweet and listener responses to a blog from Takeaway contributor Beth Kobliner. 

What's your most or least favorite stretch of road? Everybody has one. Maybe it's two miles of straightaway splitting farming fields you drive with your truck, or a winding stretch through a forrest you traverse on your bicycle. Alternatively it could be a smog-choked creeping mass of metal along I-95, or a particularly harrowing entrance ramp to Highway 42 in Louisiana. As many Americans will be driving short and long distances this summer, hopefully to take some time off to relax, we want to see your picks for superlatives. Take a picture or send us a video...NOT while in the driver's seat. It can be of anything you want — technically even your driveway probably counts. We'll play your descriptions on the air and post them here to the website. 

Yesterday, we asked our listeners via text and on Facebook some questions about texting and driving: Critics say texting while driving is deadly. Oprah is asking people to sign a "No Phone Zone Pledge," a promise not to text while driving. Is it as dangerous as some people say? Can you offer a solution? Do you do it? Be honest!

We received a good number of responses, representing communities from Palm Beach Fla. to Tacoma, Wash., displaying a broad spectrum of opinion and behavior. So we put them into a map. 

It's World No Tobacco Day, and we've been talking about new questions on smoking, like whether or not vilifying smokers is as effective as finding healthier ways to give people their nicotine fix. We've also been hearing a lot from you on your own battles with smoking addiction: how you quit, or why you didn't. We're still getting responses, and in honor of the day, we wanted to post some more of your thoughts, along with a look at anti-smoking campaigns and commercials over the years. Take a look. 

Headed to the beach? Going on vacation? As summer kicks into gear, so does our summer reading conversation.Over the next three months we're recommending beach reading for our listeners and then talking to the authors behind the books. In June we're having producers pick the books, followed by Celeste Headlee's picks during July and John Hockenberry's choices in August.

But what about you? Check out these Top Five reading lists from our guests, and add your own! You can also join the conversation with us on Twitter. Include "#TakeawayReads" as you tweet your lists and we'll publish your picks here.