Need To Know

Need to Know visits organizations supporting military families.

Could a Fukushima-style disaster happen at one of California's nuclear power plants?

Taylor Mac, playwright and performance artist, spoke to NTK about his most recent work.

Ben Bernanke and the annals of treachery.

Music education, despite budget cuts.

A report on food choking incidents among children.

A conversation with education reformers.

Need to Know studies the high cost of college sports.

The good news out of Africa.

Rick Karr reports on why the U.S. has now fallen behind in the race to the online future.

Dan Kildee on a national urban agenda.

The participants in the financial crisis.

How debt will shape our future.

Alleged ill effects from Chinese drywall.

When houses are torn down in Youngstown, OH, few are sorry to see them go.

Part of Need to Know's "Fixing America" series.

On the one year anniversary of the BP gulf spill, we'll return to the community of Grand Isle, Louisiana to visit with the families and business owners who m we profiled during the spill. At the time, their businesses were practically shuttered by the spill, and they were

Lieutenant Joseph Omony tells his story of being recruited as a child soldier along with his friends in this slideshow of VII photographer Marcus Bleasdale's sobering portraits.

Author Amy Chua.

The science of morality in everyday life.

Jon Meacham salutes Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who retires this year.

Al Qaeda's continued strength.

The Nations sportswriter Dave Zirin talks race and baseball.

The cost of caring for veterans.

Taking both parties to task.

Is a new New Deal possible?

Anthropologist Gabriella Coleman discusses her research on hackers.

Famed New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast gives us her unique take on the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper in an animated cartoon.

A fitness-based curriculum improves academic performances.

Interview with Gregory Wawro.

Mark Bittman discusses food policy in the U.S.

Examining the history of the clause.

Bright minds on America's problems.

Photographer Marcus Bleasdale shows us a remarkable Congolese symphony orchestra.

The science of denial.

Can cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Youngstown make a comeback?

While the media and political junkies are following the candidates every move and statement, the real action is happening out of the public eye, where congressional districts are being redrawn, and some of the most familiar members of Congress risk losing their seats before a vote is cast. But the

Ken Herman discusses Rick Perry's ambitions.

The overpopulation fright of the 1960s.

Two families struggle to care for their autistic adult sons.

The world's newest nation.

The so-called "death panels."

Benjamin Skinner on modern day slavery.

Charmaine Yoest, head of Americans United for Life, talks about how the strategy of the anti-abortion rights movement has changed in recent years, and what the movement has achieved by focusing on changing law at the state level.

In a joint investigation with The Nation Institute Investigative Fund and reporter Joshua Phillips, Need to Know reveals a little-known U.S. military task force charged with investigating abuse of detainees in Iraq.

Interview with author Mark Hertsgaard.

Does talking really get results? With the death of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and this week's review of the Afghanistan war, Need to Know takes a look at the state of President Obama's foreign policy strategy with former diplomat

With nearly a dozen states rewriting their voting laws, Need to Know examines the potential impact on voter turnout in Ohio.

The National STEM Consortium improves scientific, technical and mathematical skills.

An urban garden destroyed by Superstorm Sandy gets a second chance.

Getting companies to do good.

The lessons Youngstown, OH, has learned and how the city can survive.

Need to Know profiles three military families to see how they cope with loved ones in war.

The effort to combat IEDs in war.

Alison Stewart reports on technology that uses cell phones to locate disaster victims.

In Youngstown, OH, it takes a village to shrink a city. Even with the city's ever-diminishing population, hundreds of residents have volunteered to assist in the city's revitalization plan.

Need to Know host Scott Simon talks to former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman about the difficult choices states are facing in this tough economic climate.

Michael Levi, a nuclear expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses the nuclear crisis in Japan and what it means for nuclear energy in the United States.

As the Health Care Reform Act is attacked in courts and Congress, Need to Know discusses the quiet removal of one controversial provision, funding for End-of-Life Counseling (so-called "Death Panels").

A girl's painful search for information about her father, lost in the Arizona desert.