More from The Takeaway
Today's conversation
Monday, November 17 2008
Leave a message for our 'debt' series online or call our SpinVox voicemail at 1-877-8-MY-TAKE (1-877-869-8253). You'll have one minute to tell your story: how you got into debt, how debt is affecting you, whether you're in danger of losing your job or your house, or what debt is preventing you from doing. Or maybe you have questions about getting out of debt. We'll play a selection of your messages on our show this week.
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Or, join any of the other conversations going on now...
Adaora and John - it may well be the MD who tells a patient he or she has some terminal disease but it is the nursing staff who are there 24/7 to address the issues. Most patients are intimidated by the MD or say things like "I don't want to bother the doc - he's so busy" and then go on to ask the much busier nurse the questions. In addition, the nurses are the ones who explore the ramifications of the diagnosis with the patient. The MDs generally drop the bomb and move on. No, I'm not bitter it's just that I've seen it too many times.
Posted by Liz Wheeler, 6:35 a.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink
Hi guys,
great show as always! I lived in Japan for 4 years and in general the doctors over there NEVER tell the patient about their terminal prognosis. They actually lie and tell the patient that they are going to be okay! They tell the family however the truth and let them deal with it. I asked about this and was told this is the most sympathetic and compassionate thing to do. Different culture I guess.
I would want to know though.
Posted by Ed, 6:40 a.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink
Regarding your story about honesty and end of life, my mother died of metastatic colon cancer in 2007 and her oncologist was not honest about end of life even when asked. I think if he were more honest with us her time remaining, no matter how long, would have been more pleasant.She was 79 and trusted her doctor to be the expert and questioned her plan of care little like probably a lot of people of her generation. Only when she was admiited to the hospital and another doctor reviewed her case were we given an honest assessment of the situation and she was moved to a wonderful hospice where honesty is the guiding principle of care.
Posted by Maria Prieto, 9:15 a.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink
The interview with Dr. Marshall was very interesting, but I do take issue with John's terminal questions. I fail to see how the name of a current patient added to the story. If I were the patient I would not appreciate hearing my name and diagnosis disclosed on air for no apparent reason.
Posted by Tom Gosnell, 10:37 a.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink
A time ago, about thirty years, or so, I'd found
I'd had a tumor. I'll leave it there and say the doctor I dealt with (urologist), after all appropriate testing and probing was done, told me the facts, up front. The situation could've gone either for or against my existence. As you can readily fathom, I was fortunate to be able to remain on the planet. The point I'm to make is my physician didn't equivocate. He was matter of fact about what could occur. In my opinion, his manner of informing me of the health risks, etc., allowed me to have strength to deal with my personal crisis. Later, an oncologist was on the scene and he, too, was no nonsense. To this contributor, I believe, a doctor has no other choice.
Posted by Pk, 2:59 p.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink
What was called "mothering ability" has been long recognized as having a hereditary component for livestock. If a cow, sow, or ewe wouldn't care for her offspring, she typically wasn't used for future breedings. Humans are mammals, so that there is a hereditary component to the drive to foster offspring shouldn't really surprise. However, humans also do have a large capacity to learn behaviors. The first instinct to impart care may well have some genetic basis but what happens later in childrearing is definitely affected by both culture and learning. How children like the "black sheep" caller ultimately turn out is undoubtedly influenced by many factors, including the inherent reactions of the offspring themselves (liekly another genetically influenced factor). Good parents may be born, but great ones are products of more than their genes, as are their offspring.
Posted by Beth Alonso, 2:04 p.m. Friday, June 20 2008 Permalink
In another example of your poor journalistic preparation, Adora, you let Chris McGreal of The Guardian get away with saying that the Zimbabwaian opposition leader did not get enough votes in the preliminary election to win outright. Had you done your homework you would have challenged him by pointing out that even the preliminary election was fraught with fraud and ballot stuffing by the ruling party.
If you're going to do this show on the fly, on the cheap, unedited and live, you're going to have to do better homework.
Posted by Steve, 6:17 a.m. Monday, June 23 2008 Permalink
You and the reporter (Alexis) completely missed the boat concerning DNA testing. Although my knowledgs of this story is entirely limited to what your reported, here's why: The state of California simply wants to keep it's citizen's from being defrauded by insisting that the labs validate their processes. This is commonplace in the pharmaceutical industry and rightly so. To suggest that is "old school thinking" adds insult to reporting injury. Obviously, you didn't get it.
Doctors as gatekeepers? No big deal. Do you have any idea of the harm done by the new media way of buying presciption drugs sans doctors? Now there's a story for you.
Posted by Don Balogh (bay'-log), 7:37 a.m. Monday, June 23 2008 Permalink
Favorite George Carlin bit from: "The Planet Is Fine":
"We're so self-important. So self-important. Everybody's going to save something now. "Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails." And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these f-ing people kidding me? Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the f-ing planet?"
Posted by Laurie Bosak, 7:48 a.m. Monday, June 23 2008 Permalink
I am a pediatrician and many of my parents are frightened about autism and cancer risk for their newborns.
I counsel my patients to be cautious and use reputable labs for genetic testing as well as any other biochemical tests that are marketed directly to them. People who are concerned about their health or the health of their children often are vulnerable to scams. The high cost of the test does not insure its legitimacy. ...and who is there to pick up the pieces for devestating or confusing news.
L. Colyer-Aversa, MD
Posted by Lori, 9:21 a.m. Monday, June 23 2008 Permalink
I've seen people throw errant possessions off the train onto the platform before. I even did it once on the 7 train in the 80s. However, hockebberry (the interruptor), lest I be mistaken, is in a wheelchair. The story he just told, while heartwarming, seems apocryphal. What station, what line? How did he get down to the subway? I occasionally see people in wheelchairs on the subway (they are heroes), but I think that deserves note in this story, which seems half-true because of the omission.
Posted by stafford gregoire, 6:55 a.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
The reason we do not see the inflation in the indices, is that the government changed the way the calculate the CPI during the Clinton administration. As anyone living in the US can testify, we do have inflation outside of food and energy.
In any case, if the Fed doesn't increase rates, foreign buyers of treasuries will buy demanding higher rates to finance the deficit of a government who insists on ignoring Macro 101.
I sent a longer comment to the "contact us" address.
Posted by gerardo noejovich, 7:54 a.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
I was expecting the "Hero Report" to be annoying; i often don't care for your "morning drive" style show, and with so much going on that i want to learn about in the world, i don't want to waste my listening time with fluff. However. However, i watched the YouTube story online, and it was pretty good. I think maybe because i *do* do courageous things on the train and bus (from getting big hostile scary guys who are picking on women to back off to telling Suits to get up and give old people their seats). I enjoyed hearing that other people stand up for what's right, that they protect each other sometimes, and that the people who are protected remember it. Maybe they stand up for someone, then, in their turn. I hope.
Posted by kathleen, 8:48 a.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
Hi, I listened to your Hero Reports segment today and was delighted to hear it and also to hear about John's own hero report. This is a project of MIT's Center for Future Civic Media, which is a proud home for research by Alyssa Wright and others innovating media tools for civic engagement within geographic communities. We hope that when a critical mass of reports are aggregated on the Hero Reports map, it will be presented to the City of New York as another way of looking at their security: the security of connectedness and looking out for one another. "See something, Say something"---positive.
Congratuations on your wonderful program!
Posted by Ellen Hume, 9:01 a.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
Regarding the hunt for dark matter, the old iron mine mentioned (in Tower-Soudan, Minn.) is also a state park and open to the public. It's a great place to visit for all ages. One dons a hardhat and descends in an elevator to the lowest level, 2300 feet down in the earth's crust. Then one rides a train through a tunnel to see where they mined the ore. One may also now visit the physics lab on a different level and hunt for dark matter oneself! http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/soudan_underground_mine/index.html
Posted by Peter Fifield, 9:02 a.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
Dear John,
As enlightening as I found your story on the "the Black Subway Bag" heros, basically reinforces my feeling that the "Hero" label is being applied rather liberally these days. I find it difficult to put the first responders of 9/11 in the same category as the subway good Samaritans. What say we raise the bar a bit.
Posted by Brad, 1:08 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
Here's my Hero Report:
My roommates and I were listening to the sweet sounds of Richard, Renee and crew on Morning Edition as we were getting ready for work. Then, suddenly and almost without warning, we heard the sounds of 8AM - the Take Away. I leapt across the room, displaying physical ability I didn't know I had and turned the radio off. No more Take Away!! I was a hero. They threw a parade in my honor. And everyone worshipped me because even though WNYC won't get rid of it, doesn't mean you have to listen to it.
Posted by Jennifer, 4:34 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 2008 Permalink
I was about to post some tips to foil telemarketers (such as pressing # multiple times), purportedly from Andy Rooney, but thought I'd better verify. Instead, here's the link to Snopes, explaining in 2005 why such techniques don't work.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/telemarket.asp
Posted by DIANA, 7:08 a.m. Thursday, June 26 2008 Permalink
i try to listen to your show at 6am, but am continuously turned off by your inability to manage time and treat your guest respectfully. today's interview with the iraq war veterans was outrageous. what started as a decent interview was rushed and ended with a curt, "we gotta go!" to the two gallant soldiers. The discussion of PTSD takes a bit of time. I've heard both of the anchors cut people off continously. This is not creative radio, but rudeness and an inability to do the job! I hope things can improve or please return to the other format.
Good luck
Posted by jim isenbreg, 7:19 a.m. Thursday, June 26 2008 Permalink
I was absolutely horrified by the clip you played from the Hopkins TV episode. I think that it is awful to get some type of vicarious entertainment out of someone else's real nightmare and extreme pain. Watching a pretend scene on TV or in a movie is one thing, this borders on depravity.
Posted by geraldine denecke, 7:58 a.m. Thursday, June 26 2008 Permalink
I really liked the premise behind The Hero's report you had on Thursday. I think that building community is a far more productive way to counteract terrorism than is fear. I especially liked the idea of mapping areas so that I can see where community is the really strong.
Posted by Tena, 7:24 p.m. Thursday, June 26 2008 Permalink
I conditionally agree with the Supreme Court ruling that the individual has the right to "bear arms." Conditionally because I don't believe all "arms" are equal. How about everyone has the right to bear arms that were available during the writing of the 2nd Amendment? Certainly, those were not automatic rifles or machine guns. Maybe that would take the bite out of crime? Who would want to carry the powder, bullets, and wick?
Posted by Jennifer Larson, 9:26 p.m. Thursday, June 26 2008 Permalink
Suggest a test. Keep the ban in DC, eliminate somewhere else (Chicago). We have historical data on gun violence for both places. Let's see where each trend in the future.
Without a test, all we have is a battle of people's heuristic ideas on whether guns or bans make people safer.
-Rick Fleeter, Charlestown, RI
Posted by Rick Fleeter, 8:03 p.m. Friday, June 27 2008 Permalink
Wanted to give you my take on this gun control and some of the comments coming out of our Congress. Congress says that they don't think the law needs to be obeyed -- basically Nancy Pelosi said that gun control is still legal. Even though the Supreme Court ruled, I'd like to know what other parts of the constitution people think they can just break because they don't agree with it. Should we take the right to vote away from women should we bring back slavery? What else should we do away with if we don't happen to agree with it? We happen to have laws for a reason and that's because we all have to obey them. I think it gives us a good insight into the minds of some of our legislators.
Posted by Stew, 5:50 a.m. Monday, June 30 2008 Permalink
The decision on guns by the Supreme Court illustrates the difference between judges deciding what's a good idea for the country and judges telling the truth. These judges could've agreed with everyone who believes guns should not be allowed but they told the truth about the constitution. They didn't lie that's the difference. We want judges who lie or do we want judges who tell the truth.
Posted by Dave, 5:50 a.m. Monday, June 30 2008 Permalink
i have been web-browsing, paying bills, on facebook & myspace, doing my morning push-ups and sit ups throughout your show! on the way to work i will listen to my ipod while i read. don't worry, i'm a pro, if i had to choose only one thing to do at a time it would probably be bouncing off the walls!
Posted by jose, 6:51 a.m. Monday, June 30 2008 Permalink
Listen, I make my living on the web, and I’m facebooked and linkedin and dogstered and myspaced and twittered….but regardless of whether this means that we’re approaching the end of rational thinking or we just have more toys, I just don’t want to be hit by a car while I’m walking my dog by a driver who just has to text her date back. I wish you guys had talked a little about the increasing research that supports the impossibility of multitasking.
http://myfatcat.typepad.com/kindly_eccentric_middleag/2008/06/its-your-stupid.html
Posted by Martha, 10:01 a.m. Monday, June 30 2008 Permalink
good morning,
you guys take on Starbucks comments, I have a take away. Do you know where the shop got its name? Starbuck was A Mellville Icon, First Mate to Captain Ahab in 'Moby Dick'.
Here in New Bedford Mass, homeport to Pequod and many 19th century whaleships, and a 21st century mega fishing port, we have NO Starbucks...coffee is 'regulah'
do you know what I mean?
Posted by Willi Bank, 7:05 a.m. Tuesday, July 1 2008 Permalink
The home port of the Pequod was Nantucket, of course. Quoth Ishmael: "For my mind was made up to sail in no other than a Nantucket craft, because there is a fine boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island, which amazingly pleased me. Besides tough Bedford has of late been gradually monopolizing the business of whaling, and though in this matter poor old Nantucket is much behind her, yet Nantucket was her great original--the Tyre of this Carthage;--the place where the first dead American whale was stranded."
If memory serves, the coffee connection is through the Folger family, of Nantucket.
Posted by Mark wright, 9:07 a.m. Tuesday, July 1 2008 Permalink
INCIDENCE/INCIDENTS/INSTANCES
These three overlap in meaning just enough to confuse a lot of people. Few of us have a need for “incidence,” which most often refers to degree or extent of the occurrence of something: “The incidence of measles in Whitman County has dropped markedly since the vaccine has been provided free.” “Incidents,” which is pronounced identically, is merely the plural of “incident,” meaning “occurrences”: “Police reported damage to three different outhouses in separate incidents last Halloween”. Instances (not “incidences”) are examples: “Semicolons are not required in the first three instances given in your query.” Incidents can be used as instances only if someone is using them as examples.
Posted by Ken Kern, 10:10 a.m. Tuesday, July 1 2008 Permalink
I left a voice message but just wanted to make doubly sure my point comes through. This morning (July 1) you played a clip of a man in Ohio who was sneering, dismissive and insulting about people trying to vote under very trying circumstances. He said voting is a privilege and not a right, and you echoed him by asking your guest about how people "exercise this privilege". To hear it from him was bad enough, but do you need to be reminded that in this country, voting is indeed a right, not a privilege. We are of course privileged to live in a democratic society which recognizes this right, but please understand that distinction!
Posted by ROZ, 3:51 p.m. Tuesday, July 1 2008 Permalink
The Olympics have always been political or politicized. They were in ancient Rome, in the Berlin games in the 1930's, and in others as well. And let's not weep for the atheletes who presumably suffer. In the Munich Olympics in the 70's how many of them valued human lives over their chance to compete and promote themselves? Atheletes have made their own political statements at games and many have used them as a springboard for personal gain. Let's not glorify something that has tarnished itself.
Posted by Stuart Kaplan, 9:27 a.m. Wednesday, July 2 2008 Permalink
As much as I like listening to the show every morning during my commute, I cannot take it anymore as Adaora keeps mis-pronouncing her own last name. Everyone on the show has also fallen to this mispronounciation. Not too long ago, one of the segments in your program was about pronounciation.
The last name is not pronounced "you-doji" like the first letter "U" in the word "Union" but pronounced with the first letter sounding like the first two letters in the word "ooze".
oodahji
Names must not be made convenient for others to pronounce. A lot of our names have ethnic origins. And we can only show appreciation for diversity in people's names by at least trying to pronounce them correctly.
(By the way the first letter in my last name is pronounced like the first letter in the word "issue". Just incase you decide to pronounce it)
Posted by Patrick Igwenagu , 11:15 a.m. Thursday, July 3 2008 Permalink
The newly citizens you interviewed talked as though the oppotunaties is the essensial.This dismayed me. When I got my Green Card approval letter a Month ago,my immediate reaction was thank you America.Happy Independance Day!
C.Tashi
Posted by chemy tashi, 3:39 p.m. Friday, July 4 2008 Permalink
The newly citizens you interviewed talked as though the oppotunaties is the essensial.This dismayed me. When the got my Green Card approval letter a Month ago,my immediate reaction was thank you America.Happy Independance Day!
C.Tashi
Posted by chemy tashi, 3:41 p.m. Friday, July 4 2008 Permalink
(Please don't quote my name. My e-mail address is valid.)
I'm split on the issue of drugs for kids. I'm very worried about over-use of drugs and think it a serious issue, for kids and adults both.
On the other hand, I have three kids with different type of mental health issues. Medications have helped (along with therapy and training) them 1) sit in school, 2) learn in school, and 3) recover from a serious mental breakdown. One kid could possibly benefit from weight-loss medication, but for now we are just working on diet and exercise.
I'd love to give my name, but my kids don't need the stigma of me talking about their mental heath issues on a public forum. Maybe om ten years when they are out of college.
Posted by Anonymous, but my e-mail is valid, 6:07 a.m. Monday, July 7 2008 Permalink
There is no such thing as quality fresh fruits and vegetables in any market -- let alone inner city. There merely are tasteless items, shipped thousands of miles, that look like fresh fruits and vegetables. These faux fruits and vegetables cost more at places like Whole Foods.
If you want fresh fruits and vegetables, go to a local farmer.
Posted by Jon Erik Larson, 6:26 a.m. Monday, July 7 2008 Permalink
High School graduation was 1965, and SATISFACTION was the song that Summer. To think about Summertime driving, 2,4,6,8 MOTORWAY, by the Tom Robinson Band, at maximum volume was a great way to hit the highway.
Thank you for your show...
Posted by Robert T Jordan, 6:28 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
Summer Songs:
Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street'. Hit song, summer of '78. Okay, I was seven years old and had no idea what the lyrics actually said. But it sounded so cool on the radio attached to the handlebars of my banana seat bike as I rode down the street.
Posted by Lauren, 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
I also think of some end-of-summer "goodbye songs" like Bobby Vinton's "Sealed with a Kiss" ("so we gotta say goodbye, for the summer...")
Or getting out of school, in add'n to John Mayer's - there was Alice Cooper's "School's OUt" : there are some modern ones, can't think of the lyrics right now, something about school memories and getting tattoos....
I second the motion for Katrina & the Waves
Posted by Lisa M, 9:12 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
best summer song? Hands down, Dancing in the Streets, by Martha and the Vendellas.
"Callin' out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat
Summer's here and the time is right
For dancin' in the streets"
Not to mention the best chorus, ever:
Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grab a girl
Everywhere around the world
There'll be dancin'
They're dancin' in the street
Posted by Jill, from brooklyn, ny, 9:19 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
Here on Cape Cod, your show has generated alot of controversy on our local NPR affiliate. I have come to your defense as smart humorous and having more integrity than NPR's 'morning Ed. But now i'm starting to have my doubts. You seem to be using the same sources for issues that NPR does. You know, the usual WallSt. Crowd such as Steve Dubner. Has itever occurred to you that naming his book "freakonomics " does not make him progressive or 'liberal" ? Where are the more independent voices on the economy? Where are the socialists to answer Dubner's remark that capitalism isn't the best but better than the others or something to that effect? Why did he have the last word on everything from the economy to Global climate change? In sum, where is the PUBLIC in 'public' radio?
Posted by Dana Franchitto, 11:39 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
Summer Song? ...and then the answers are the most cliché 60's rock songs. Without sounding too much like an old crank, can't you guys come up with a more engaging question? This sounds perilously close to some “Morning Zoo” bit heard anywhere on the dial in any city in the country.
Posted by Michael Szuflita , 12:59 p.m. Tuesday, July 8 2008 Permalink
I find "The Takeaway" an annoying unnecessary innovation of your excellent morning programming and can't wait for 7 a.m.when on my FM station you return your regular morning program.
The excellent reporting of hard news does not need to be sugarcoated. I resent hearing arch comments by Adaora Udaji and the daily trivial themes.
I also find it unprofessional to have heard your host warn three times in one morning the person interviewed that the time alloted to him/her is coming to an end.
An insult to the intelligence of WNYC listeners,including the music.
Posted by Judy Abrams, 7:21 a.m. Wednesday, July 9 2008 Permalink
I confess to being disappointed when The Takeaway first replaced Morning Edition on WNYC. I've since grown to enjoy your show. I'm up early enough to catch both, so rather than hearing ME three times, I get two shows.
On the cons side, I'm hoping your interviews go a little smoother. I guess you're going for spontaneity, but your guest can occasionally drag on.
Over all, good job.
Posted by Marco Pineda, 11:58 a.m. Tuesday, November 4 2008 Permalink
the specialist on the drug-resistant bacteria that's entering the american health system brought up an interesting point: that a range of medical protocols, now accepted as normative, might later be judged to have been harmful.
His point links to a question that's bothered me for a while: namely, whether staffers in health-related fields might not be bringing harmful bacteria, etc into hospitals with them simply by wearing their scrubs to work (perhaps sitting on dirty seats, or walking dirty dogs en route), rather than changing into clean, new clothes once they arrive AT a hospital. Or is that's what's done now? (I see lots of people in scrubs in NY now, so I'm inclined to wonder....)
Posted by Joan, 8:38 a.m. Wednesday, July 9 2008 Permalink
I listened to your segment this morning with John Leyne, the BBC Iran correspondent this morning. Just as he was beginning to talk about alternatives to bombing Iran you cut him off and went to the trivial issue of Bryant Park entertainment.
Iran is probably the most crucial issue since 2003, I'm flabbergasted you would treat it with such flippancy. But then NPR seems to be tending toward a kind of perky trivialness in some of its programming. Never mind that we or the Israelis might be about to light the greatest conflagration since WWII.
Posted by Carole Ashley, 4:43 p.m. Wednesday, July 9 2008 Permalink
Have listened to the Take Away for this first time yesterday, and again today. Has to be the worst combination of hosts, uncomfortable interaction between the two of them, and always interrupting guests. It's not good NPR news, like I would expect. It's opinion with a popish spin. NPR, your standards are slipping.
Posted by DJ, 6:31 a.m. Thursday, July 10 2008 Permalink
You asked what web TV program I watch. I don't. But, while I work I listen to web radio. In addition to things like your show, there are some incredible audio dramas out there. My favorites are over at brokensea.com
While I code away the day, in my cubicle, I get to hear everything from Doctor Who to Planet of the Apes. It's just a lot of fun.
Posted by Steven Jay Cohen, 6:08 a.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
Re: John's comments on the remark about magic, here's a quotation attributed to Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
The interview with the doctor was a revelation that widened my world. This is what great radio (WBAI in the '50s) has historically done and what The Takeaway is restoring to my mornings.
Posted by Steve Lipmann, 7:05 a.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
Subject: Pawn Shops
Misunderstanding of percentages.
A member of Columbia's faculty today mentions that you pay very high percentages for the money you're borrowing at Pawn shops, "hundreds of dollars."
I can hear her parents now saying, "math just isn't that important."
Columbia University moves down a notch.
Posted by LEE SMITH, 7:19 a.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
Someone ought to take McCain's economic advisor Bill Graham off his high horse before he's thrown off it and the horse uses him for a toilet. How arrogant of him to use the rhetoric(?) of whining the people who are struggling economically when he's probably doesn't have to.
Posted by Dana, 8:11 a.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
The interview conducted this morning with an African American doctor was very superficial. The interviewer actually asked the doctor "how did you feel about that?" when he was refused full membership in the AMA. I thought that question was only used by Fox news when interviewing people who had just learned of the gruesome death of a loved one. Not exactly a question that will draw out useful remarks from a non-confrontational guest. His good manners carried the day. I thought that the interviewer also had a shade of condescension in her comments perhaps prompted by the doctor's age and her idea of courtesy. Did any research precede this piece?
I am sad to say that I am quite disappointed in general with the Takeaway. In attempting to apply a more informal, conversational style to morning news, the program loses the depth of information and analysis I expect from NPR.
Posted by Lucille Gordon, 8:48 a.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
Hi Adaora Udoji, I just wanted to point out that you made a mistake in your radio show about Pakistan on July 10th. In the 80's there could be no any meaningful amount of Chechen fighters in the Afghanistan. Chechen rebels became a force after Soviet Union collapse in 1991. In the 90s they have been participating in the external conflicts like war in Bosnia.
In the second Chechen war that have started in 1999 many Muslim volunteers have traveled to Chechnya to join the fight against Russian army. When Chechen Rebels were finally were push out from Russia's land some of them ended up in Afghanistan where they were fighting coalition forces (in late 2001 at Tora Bora).
It is unfortunate that even at PRI show hosts make errors like the this one. By now we became used to blatant mistakes and misinformation on TV news channels, but NPR and PRI should be held to a higher standard.
Posted by Artur Minkin, 1 p.m. Friday, July 11 2008 Permalink
Sports metaphors.
Three sheets to the wind. Sailing. Refers to the wobbly way a sailboat goes down wind if the sheets (lines that hold the wind in the sails) are let fly rather than held firm. Analogous to the wobbly way a person who has drunk too much walks, and to the lack of caution that allows a person to become so inebriated.
Posted by Karen Sauvigne, 6:34 a.m. Monday, July 14 2008 Permalink
The International Criminal Court in The Hague is set to charge the Sudanese president of war crimes and issue a warrant for his arrest. I find this selective in the extreme. If we're going to start charging sitting presidents of war crimes then what about Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen? And lest I be accused of being racist (I am an African myself now living in New York City) why stop at African sitting presidents. Why not charge the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? George W Bush has a lot more blood on his hands than Omar al-Bashir.
Posted by Graham, 6:39 a.m. Monday, July 14 2008 Permalink
Hi Guys:
The song that would be at the VERY TOP of my "Torture Playlist" would be "I Love You, Always Forever" by Donna Lewis. Just thinking about it is making me want to curl up in the fetal position. When it was popular, it came on about every other minute and I wanted to bang my head against the wall, not least of all because I ended up singing it. And now it will be in my brain for the rest of the day.
Thanks!
Leah, Brooklyn, NY
Posted by Leah, 6:52 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
C'mon, John! The Moody Blues' "Days of Future Passed" ("Nights in White Satin")was released in 1967, not the '70s. Lovely album, in my opinion. You want torture, '70s-style, how about "Muskrat Love," as performed in the Nixon White House by Capt. & Tennille?
Posted by Kathryn, 6:53 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
When discussing human rights abuses such as torture, it is difficult to imagine how one can make a jovial little game of nominating songs for a torture soundtrack. I'm sorry, but this is disc-jockey trash radio at its worst and hardly what I expect of WNYC. Please, take this opportunity to humanize the people enduring torture rather than making a mockery of their suffering.
Posted by Sam, 6:54 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
My idea of torture music: Nearly anything sung by Frank Sinatra! Especially the years when he fell out of favor with the Mob and recorded the dumbest of dumb songs. And then there were the post-retirement years when he had long lost it.
Posted by Rob Seitz, 7:01 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
really? fun with with torture hits? i look a good laugh as much as anyone else but this is not even remotely funny. this is what you do with a story like this. tacky, stupid and horribly insensitive. you sound like every other asinine disc jockey pair found up and down the fm dial.
also please give your guests a chance to speak and also listen. the blurb on drilling was interesting right up to the point of the speaker being disrupted with a question that was clearly answered in the first few sentences of her talking. were you not listening? and then to cut her off so rudely...
this show is a bit sucky.
Posted by LKS, 7:11 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
Detainee: You will get nothing from me, Death to America!
.
Interrogator: OK boys, put it on.
.
(beep) This is The Takeaway...
.
Detainee: No, please, stop! Anything but that! I renounce terrorism! I reject al qaeda!! PLEASE, this is INHUMAN!!!!!!!
Posted by How to git mo confessions, 7:43 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
I don't think the music torture segment was funny in any way. I don't think torture should be off-limits as a topic, even a potentially funny topic when used as satire, but your idea of over-heard pop-music taken to hyperbole compared to actual torture (even when that actual torture involves repetition of music) was in no way satire, but rather a weak and cynical joke made at the expense of suffering people, many of whom are innocent of any crime. Speaking of repetition, I'd rather listen to the same morning edition broadcast ten times in a row than be forced to hear this once more.
Posted by Benjamin Farrar, 8:14 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
I am a long time NPR listener, and since I work from home now, I don't usually listen to the early morning commute show. I was really surprised to hear the takeaway this morning. I had to check to make sure this was WNYC. I thought maybe I had picked up the Morning Zoo, or some other morning show. Listening to Johns selection of torture songs was sensational, and not of the caliber I expect from a public radio station.
I suppose this new show is a decision made along the lines of getting rid of Bob Edwards a few years ago: making NPR more interesting for younger people. There are plenty of stations that appeal to those who want drivel. There is no need to add WNYC to that list. Please keep the shows smart, informative, and professional.
Posted by David Lawler, 8:21 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
Continuing to say "we don't think torture is funny" in no ways compensates for using it as the basis for an ongoing joke. This is just crude from a moral, comedic and news perspective. Absolutely nothing interesting or insightful has been said. If I wanted mindless chatter I would not be listening to NPR.
Posted by K Washburn, 8:47 a.m. Tuesday, July 15 2008 Permalink
Making light of psyops torture techniques and having listeners call in and give there favorite tortuous songs was so disheartening for me to hear.
Please take away the Take Away.
Posted by peppi glass, 6:06 a.m. Thursday, June 19 2008 Permalink