UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit refugee camps in Turkey today, but life for Syrian exiles is deteriorating quickly as cold sets in and food runs out. Dr. Luay Alkotob just returned from an aid mission to the region, and describes the situation on the ground in Turkey.

Every Friday The Takeaway's Movie Date team, Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer, share their thoughts on the major film releases of the week. This week’s releases include "Playing for Keeps," "Hyde Park on Hudson," and "The Fitzgerald Family Christmas."

The holiday season is usually a time filled with family celebrations. For actor, writer and producer Edward Burns, that means it's also a time to explore the comedy and drama inherent in most families. Burns, the writer and director of "The Brothers MacMullen" and star of several films, including "Saving Private Ryan," discusses his new film, "A Fitzgerald Family Christmas," about an Irish-American family during the holidays.

There are likely many images that spring to mind when considering the "fiscal cliff," but for the dean of Columbia Business School, Glenn Hubbard, the looming austerity crisis brings back memories of summer vacations in Ogunquit, Maine: a scenic coastal walk along a narrow path on a cliff. Hubbard says there is a safe way down the rocky path to reach the beach below, but you just need to find the right way to get there. Hubbard was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush. He explains why our system was set up to create a "fiscal cliff" in the first place.

The US Labor Department releases its monthly employment numbers this morning. With every job lost or gained, there’s at least one economist wagging his or her finger about how the value of a college education is more and more important in today's tough job market. But Sharon Virts Mozer, the CEO of FCi Federal who has created over 1,000 jobs, believes that most employers overestimate the power of a four year degree.

Climate change never found its way into the 2012 presidential campaign, but college students across dozens of campuses have launched a campaign of their own. Their goal is to divest university endowments of holdings in fossil fuel companies.

Despite a long tradition of condemning homosexuality in Islam, Europe's first gay-friendly mosque opened last week in Paris. Similar efforts have also begun in the United States. Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed is the founder of the mosque.

Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Why has Pope Gregory I's 650 AD list of deadly sins endured all these years later? Alex Clark, co-editor of “The Seven Deadly Sins: A Celebration of Virtue and Vice,” explains the social role sins have, and why it might be time for a modern update to an age-old list.

There is a middle class emerging in Latin America — far south of the white picket fences and the syndicated episodes of "Leave It To Beaver." But who is this middle class? What do they want? And what will this group mean for the world market? Answering these questions, and more, are Christopher Sabatini, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, and Jamele Rigolini, senior economist at the World Bank.

Worries about the fiscal cliff are beginning to sound like predictions from the Mayan calendar. Dave Weigel, political reporter from Slate, tries to demystify the smoke and mirrors of Washington politics.

The fallout continues in Massachusetts where a former crime lab chemist allegedly tampered with evidence from drug tests for years. Authorities say Annie Dookhan may have tampered with evidence in up to 40,000 cases. Sarah Birnbaum, state house reporter for WGBH Radio in Boston, has been covering the Annie Dookhan drug lab scandal.

Food waste is a massive problem in the United States. The average American family throws away 40 percent of the food they buy, and a great deal of that waste consists of moldy bread. A company called Microzap has decided to tackle this problem, with a technique that promises to keep bread mold-free for up to two months. Matt McGrath, science and environment correspondent for the BBC, explains. 

Alfred Hitchcock was an imperfect man, and the new movie "Hitchcock" puts many of those imperfections on display. From his fixations on young blondes to his work obsessions to his heavy reliance (both professionally and personally) on his wife, Alma.

But is the movie telling the whole story? Is it embellishing?

Kristen and Rafer wanted to find out, and so they decided to turn to an expert.

If a claim is made based on so-called 'junk science,' can it be the basis for fraud or criminal prosecution, or can such claims be banned in some way by the state as dangerous speech? Erwin Chemerinsky, is a professor and dean at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law.

The weekend is here, with two major movie releases this week. The Takeaway's Movie Date team, Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer, share their thoughts on "Killing Them Softly," starring Brad Pitt, and "Anna Karenina," starring Keira Knightly.

Between 1939 and 1944, more than 200 Harvard students – all "physically and mentally healthy" men – were recruited to participate in a study. The 200-some odd students had the privilege of being tracked by Harvard Medical School for the rest of their lives. Dr. George Vaillaint, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of "Triumphs of Experience" has been overseeing the study since his early 30s. He set out to discover what predicts a happy life.

Nearly 25 years ago, a young marine biologist stumbled upon a jellyfish that refused to die. They jellyfish would age, but when it became sick or suffered an injury, it would age in reverse until it reached its earliest stage of development...at which point it would begin its life cycle all over again. Could this little creature hold the secret to immortality? Novelist and essayist Nathaniel Rich explains.

New thinking may be entering into the Obama administration's calculation of how best to resolve the conflict in Syria. One of the options on the table, according to our partner The New York Times, is providing arms directly to the Syrian opposition. David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, has been following the story.

More and more critics are saying that gay “conversion therapy” is not only ineffective, but humiliating and psychologically harmful. What will the courts say?

What is the difference between the fiscal cliff and the threat of the government shut-down, last year? What are the chances that Congress will do nothing more than change the January 1, 2013 deadline? What will the fiscal cliff mean for my federal student loans? Takeaway listeners wrote in with these and other questions about the fiscal cliff. Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich is here with the answers.