This week, the American Psychiatric Association unveils the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the so-called bible of mental illness. The bible has changed with our society's understanding of mental illness and health; and it's changed along with what we've all come to understand as quote unquote, normal. But beyond that controversial book are the voices behind the diagnoses.

Ten years ago, Medicare Part D was added to existing coverage for seniors and the disabled. It offered unprecedented access to prescription drugs. But a new investigation by ProPublica Senior Reporter Tracy Weber and her colleagues shows that the program is rife with abuses, mis-uses, and an enormous lack of transparency.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, roughly half of American adults do not feel they have enough information to understand how the Affordable Care Act will affect their lives. As this major, complex system begins to take effect, we analyze what it's looking like on the ground - in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and state legislatures around the country. What do these changes look like, and where are the seams starting to show? 

In a special episode of The Takeaway, host John Hockenberry will aim to get to the root of America's inability to openly discuss firearms by talking to those who most need to join this conversation: gun owners and enthusiasts themselves.

Immigration reform measures now before Congress call for increased use of drones on the U.S. border, but some are questioning whether they worth the cost and controversy.

Listener Rees Shad from Carmel, New York ("Distinct possibility this is a dream") explains why he keeps waiting to wake up.

As Valentine’s Day nears, we’re asking you for your biggest stories of love and loss. But there’s a catch: We want you to tell your story in just six words.

Poet Kwame Dawes started off a poem for us earlier this week, and we've been sorting through nearly 200 responses in search of the perfect people's poem. Elizabeth Alexander read the poem at President Obama's 2009 inauguration.

Robert Frost marked the beginning a new tradition when he read "The Gift Outright" at President John F. Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural. In both of his inauguration ceremonies, President Barack Obama has chosen to put poetry front and center. Renowned poet Kwame Dawes discusses the very American tradition of inaugural poetry.

At The Takeaway, we think poetry was built for the digital age — and this inauguration could use a People’s Poem. So we invited noted poet Kwame Dawes to start us off with a first line — and we want you to be our co-authors! It’s a grand experiment — and here’s how you can make your voice heard.

Temitayo Fagbenle is sixteen-years-old, and like a lot of teenagers, she sees a lot of images online that fall squarely under the definition of sexual cyberbullying; or in layman’s terms: slut shaming. They're photos of girls in various states of undress, often taken by their own boyfriends, and then posted on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.

It was a decade ago today that Apple's first iPod digital music player was released, forever changing the world's relationship to music. No longer would people on the move have to choose their favorite handful of CDs for their commute to work or trip to the gym. Entire record collections could suddenly be jammed into one's back pocket. The iPod would go on to be recognized as one of the crowning achievements of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

For decades, Microsoft Research's Bill Buxton has been tracking innovation through history — online, Buxton maintains an archive of interactive devices, tracking how technology evolves. He's a firm believer that the seeds of our most innovative ideas and products have been around for years, just waiting for the perfect storm of conditions that can turn a good idea into something more potent.

In-state tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities rose 7.9 percent between the 2010-11 and 2009-10 school years. At private four-year schools, the average cost rose 4.5 percent. Are these rising costs improving education? Stephen Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University, presided over a 300 percent increase in tuition and fees over his two decades as president at GWU. He recently defended the high costs of tuition in an article for The Atlantic.

Conrad Black was once one of the most powerful men in the publishing business. He bought London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in 1985 and eventually owned hundreds of newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada. But all that changed in 2007, when a U.S. Circuit Court convicted Black of fraud and obstruction of justice. He was released from prison last year, midway through his six-and-a-half year sentence, after an appellate court dropped two charges against him. Then in June of this year, a Chicago court upheld two other charges of defrauding investors against Black, ordering him to return to prison for a 13-month sentence, which he began yesterday.

Mohammed Adnan al-Bakkour, the attorney general of the central province of Hama in Syria, appeared in a video announcing his resignation on Wednesday in protest of government brutality. But the Syrian government denies al-Bakkour's claims and refuses to accept his resignation, saying he was kidnapped and forced to give the statement. Bloody uprisings started more than five months ago in Syria and Amnesty International says ten times more people have been killed in Syria than Libya. So why aren't we hearing more about it?

Forty years ago, E.B. White – the author of "Charlotte’s Web," "Stuart Little", and many other beloved children’s books – wrote a letter to the children of Troy, Michigan, at the request of a librarian in Troy’s new public library. "A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered." White was just one of the famous authors and public figures who responded to librarian Marguerite Hart’s request for letters to urge the children of Troy to read.

We kicked off our summer book club last week with a discussion of what makes a good summer read. Today we discuss our first pick from Senior Producer Mary Harris. Her choice for the summer is Daniel Wilson's "Robopocalypse." From "The Jetsons" to "Star Wars" to "Wall-E," robots have long been part of the American imagination. We talk to Daniel Wilson, a trained roboticist, about how "Robopocalypse" fits into this American tradition.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that California's overcrowded prison system violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court ordered California to transfer or release thirty thousand inmates over the next two years. But California isn’t the only state with a high rate of incarceration. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Peter Moskos thinks that Americans are in denial about the brutality of our prison system. And he has a provocative idea about how to change it. He's the author of the new book "In Defense of Flogging" and an assistant professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

There are approximately 80,000 chemicals at play in some form or another in the marketplace today. How much do we know about the effects that these chemicals have on our health? They're technically supposed to be regulated under the Toxic Substance Control Act, which was passed in 1976. But a policy statement out today by the American Academy of Pediatrics is arguing that the act is ineffective in protecting children and pregnant women from lots of toxic chemicals in our daily environment. How do we avoid negative effects?