Andrew Sullivan talks to Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God,
about the ultimate goal of all religion.
Stuart Taylor Jr. and Bob Cohn discuss the selection of Sonia Sotomayor
Dr. George Vaillant, director of a 72-year Harvard study on aging, explains what makes people strive for fame and why dirty laundry symbolizes a perfect life
"How's this for the good life? You're rich, and you made the dough yourself. You're well into your 80s, and have spent hardly a day in the hospital. Your wife had a cancer scare, but she's recovered and by your side, just as she's been for more than 60 years. Asked to rate the marriage on a scale of 1 to 9, where 1 is perfectly miserable and 9 is perfectly happy, you circle the highest number. You've got two good kids, grandkids too. A survey asks you: 'If you had your life to live over again, what problem, if any, would you have sought help for and to whom would you have gone?' 'Probably I am fooling myself,'; you write,'but I don't think I would want to change anything.' If only we could take what you've done, reduce it to a set of rules, and apply it systematically."
Trevor Corson meets a diverse group of chefs who are adding new cultural inflections to traditional Japanese sushi making
"Imagine my delight when I walked into a sushi bar one evening and found not only a welcoming neighborhood atmosphere, but a chef who explained that he doesn't serve bluefin tuna, because he doesn't want it to go extinct. And imagine my surprise that this restaurant was in western Massachusetts, and that the chef was a rambunctious American whose ancestors had come not from Asia but from Europe."
Delphine Schrank visits the empty lakes and scattered elephant bones left behind by the DRC's ongoing violence.
"As we leave the village, we see two men weaving through the tall grasses from the direction of the Rwandan Hutu camp. One strains under a large, lumpy sack. 'Thieves!' shouts one of the park rangers in our car. The two men run. Our SUV chases them toward a tarp, where two soldiers man a checkpoint between the rebel camp and the village."
James Parker deconstructs the tormented irony and contagious optimism of a SpongeBob episode.
The atmosphere at the Krusty Krab has the monochrome tint of a Gen X workplace satire, a Clerks or an Office Space; Mr. Krabs cackles over his money, while Squidward, the tentacled sourpuss at the register, droops with ennui. But SpongeBob’s professional life is rainbow-colored. More than an adventure, it is a romance. “What is taking you so long?!” complains Squidward, head through the hatch, in an episode called “The Original Fry Cook.” “I’m adding the love!” says SpongeBob happily, squirting a little valentine of ketchup onto his latest Krabby Patty. Take that, Karl Marx!
