There are new releases out this week by Mumford and Sons, Caspian, and No Doubt.  Jay Cowit, technical director for The Takeaway, reviews them all, and gives a possible preview of songs you'll be hearing at every wedding, prom, and graduation for the next two years.

Ben Folds Five released it’s first new album in 13 years this week, and maybe for the first time since disbanding the eponymous three-piece over a decade ago, the piano man himself finally sounds like he’s a little happier about things. Jay Cowit, Takeaway technical director, reviews the album.

Labor Day has passed and fall is officially in the air. For some people, that means it's time to start getting ready for the 2012 fantasy football season. With over 27 million participants, the popularity of fantasy football is at an all-time high. The phenomenon of this popularity is documented in a comedy on FX, called The League, which presents six long-time friends as they navigate extreme football fandom. 

Bob Costas won’t tell you, but watching the Olympics on NBC this year cost the network more than a billion dollars, a price tag that nearly covers the security bill for the 2012 Games. With a projected cost of around $17 billion, is hosting the Olympics worth it?

This summer, The Takeaway is embarking on a virtual road trip and around the country to some of America’s greatest music cities. Our tour guides will include some of the most popular recording artists and experts from each town. Giving us the aural experience of Brooklyn is Reggie Watts.

On Wednesday, scientists from the CERN lab in Switzerland will announce the latest evidence about the existence of Higgs Boson particle, otherwise known as the "God particle." Dr. Michio Kaku discusses the basics of the Higgs Boson particle and what makes Wednesday's announcement so significant.

Although this morning the focus is on Egypt, right across the border Ariel Sharon is also in this "not dead" state. For two leaders that once went head to head, now they are so alive that when they are dead, they are still alive. In this audio essay, John Hockenberry asks: Can they ever die?

Everyone is aware of the current Greek economic crisis, but they may be surprised to learn that the Greek wine industry is doing well. Because of the economic crisis and the recession in the domestic market, Greek wineries have started to export their wines.

Earlier this week JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon went up to Capitol Hill. He sat in front of a Senate committee, and Dimon... apologized. This got Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich thinking about other instances of public figures apologizing to Congress.

Ninety years ago today, President Warren G. Harding made history by being the first President to deliver an address on the radio. What was the immediate impact of the broadcast of President Harding's address and how do we continue to feel that impact in today's media environment?

Today we asked listeners: What sounds from your childhood are going extinct? Rotary phones? Dial-up connections? Tetris? We compiled the responses into an audio essay.

Two themes in today's bumper music: Venus coming directly between Earth and the Sun, and an audio essay by co-host John Hockenberry about how The Beach Boys, who released "Surfin' Safari" fifty years ago.

New York City plans to ban the sale of large sugary drinks, announced Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday. The ban, which aims to fight obesity, would impose a 16-ounce limit on the size of sweetened drinks sold at restaurants, bodegas, and movie theaters. Joining us is Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University and author of "Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety." Also with us is Jay Cowit, Takeaway Technical Director and Chief Soda Correspondent.

Aaron Freeman, Ween frontman, announced the band's breakup yesterday to Rolling Stone from his home in New Jersey. In Ween's honor, which was formed 25 years ago by Freeman and his high school classmate Mickey Melchiondo, today's bumper music is Ween-only.

The Spurs and the Clippers have staked out their places in the NBA Western Conference Finals while the Eastern Conference has yet to be decided. Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin lays out what to expect for the rest of the playoffs.

Chef Seamus Mullen, owner of the Spanish restaurant Tertulia and the author of the new cookbook, "Hero Food," first visited Spain at the age of 16. "It opened me up to a world of flavors that now may not seem that exotic to a lot of people; chorizo and everybody's heard of paella," he explained to Takeaway co-host John Hockenberry. "But, going back 20 years, for a farm boy from Vermont, that was completely new territory."

The NHL playoffs started last night, and for many of these professional athletes that means growing a "playoff beard." A tradition in hockey that goes back three decades, the playoff beard is for both players and fans who refuse to shave during the post-season. This superstition has spread to other professional sports as well, and got us wondering: what other superstitions do professional sports players have? And what superstitions do you have while watching your favorite team?

Yesterday on the show, ProPublica reporter Kim Barker said that going through Ron Paul's expenses was "like poetry." "I really just saw it like a way to track what it's like to campaign," Barker said. The thousands of lines of expenses in the Federal Election Commission filing from the Ron Paul campaign include everything: iTunes music, FedEx mailings, Salvation Army supplies, travel tolls, party rentals, and meals at places called Smash Burger and Thai Flavors. Today we're talking about election year poetry: seeing truth and beauty from the tiny details of a campaign's mundane expenses.

Have you ever looked at a stop light, a slice of pizza, or the hot air coming out of your hair dryer, and wondered: What and who went into making this? A new four-part PBS series called “America Revealed” delves into this question; scaling back from small everyday items to give viewers a big picture view of how America functions. Along the way, it doesn’t just unveil the secrets of how stuff is made; it also tells a story of America’s history and people. The series is hosted by Yul Kwon, an attorney, businessman, and technology expert, who you might also recognize as the 2006 winner of the reality show “Survivor.”

This week, the big players in American democracy, media players, candidates, politicians, even passionate voters got a lesson in intelligent civic democracy from the quiet intensity of measured debate and smart talk from nine justices and a couple of top notch lawyers. John Hockenberry reflects on the week of debates in the Supreme Court. It wasn't just about the health care law this week, argues Hockenberry. It was the way the Court handled the issue – regardless of your political persuasion. The court made a real point about the value of a civic space free of noise and full of intelligence.