In the 1990s, when China’s fabled Shaolin Temple was celebrating its 1500th anniversary as a center of Zen Buddhism and kung fu, American college student Matthew Polly was on a pilgrimage of his own.
The skinny kid from Topeka, Kansas who had grown up on Star Wars and David Carradine was leaving Princeton University to look [...]

Americans’ impressions of the Amish tend to run hard and fast to stereotypes: wholesome horse-and-buggy barn-raisers or holier-than-thou cult of the past that cheats with chainsaws when you’re not looking.
The beards and bonnets and old-fashioned ways are endlessly alluring, and confusing. Is this the simple life that would save the planet if we all suited [...]

Heather Byer was eight years into a New York career — lugging her brief case, hitting her marks, doing the lunches, calming her boss — and hating it. It wasn’t rich enough, deep enough, real enough to be her life. Not nearly.
Then one day, Heather Byer — thirty-something, career woman, five-one, a hundred and two [...]

Of all the presidential contenders in both major parties this election season, there is none that has hit with quite the crackle and jolt of Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
In debate after debate, his reedy East Texas voice has cut through the solemn pieties like Texas lightening, like Old Testament prophesy.
Nobody sees him winning, but Ron [...]

Benazir Bhutto was not just a beloved symbol of democracy to millions of Pakistanis. She was also the keystone of Washington’s long-shot plans for some kind of stability in Pakistan. She was the Bush administration’s last best hope for pulling Pakistan back from the brink.
Her very return to Pakistan two months ago was part of [...]

Daniel Mendelsohn’s grandfather told him stories, in his rich Yiddish accent, about all kinds of things — life in the old country, life in America, stories of rabbis and high holidays and Jewish tradition.
The one thing Mendelsohn’s grandfather never told stories about was his brother Shmiel, Shmiel’s wife and their four beautiful daughters, and how [...]

For months and months in the long trek of the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama seemed to go nowhere. His story, his color, his intellect and his charisma were all magical. His poll numbers were not.
Now, on the eve of first votes, Obama is super hot in pursuit of the Democratic nomination.
We talked with the [...]

If you hadn’t noticed, you’re not looking. We live in the era of pervasive cosmetic surgery. Everybody nipped and tucked and botoxed and lipo-sucked to a fare-the-well.
Look around at the “trout pout” lips and “wind tunnel” facelifts, the Kabuki zone of expressionless brows, the gravity-defying fronts and rears and rows of paint-white teeth — and [...]

In the homestretch to Iowa and New Hampshire, former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee has been the stunning wild card in the GOP pack. He’s spent next to nothing, turned his back on a generation of angry conservatism, and is now in striking distance of big wins in the Republican presidential primaries.
Here at [...]

In the world of jazz, saxophone giant John Coltrane was so big, so powerful, so deep, so out there that almost half a century later jazz musicians are still wailing in his shadow.
Coltrane, says New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff, was the John Henry of jazz, the John Wayne, the Paul Bunyon — the [...]

In the long-ago fall of 1969, something completely different in television began happening in the UK. It was called Monty Python’s Flying Circus — a free-form, satirical, anarchic circus of humor that had Britons staring dumbfounded, then laughing ’til they cried.
Monty Python made the leap to America, and then onto the big screen, with “Monty [...]

In May 1941, when his towering masterpiece “Citizen Kane” hit the theaters, actor, director, writer, producer Orson Welles was just 25 years old. “Citizen Kane” would be called the best American film ever made. Generations of Americans would intone “Rosebud” as a totem of life’s deep mysteries.
Orson Welles — dazzling young American genius — appeared [...]

American founding father Thomas Jefferson knew a lot about music, architecture, revolution, slaves, philosophy, governing, and wine.
Jefferson was far and away the young nation’s wine-lover-in-chief. He advised sober George Washington on what to drink, kept fabulous wine cellars when the country was still the province of hard cider and whiskey; braved pirates and hurricanes to [...]

It’s the season of big releases and Oscar angling, at the end of a wild, up and down year for movies — from sweeping epics of war won and lost, to comic close-ups on pregnancy, young love, and growing up.
There were the perennial Hollywood blockbusters — from “Ratatouille” to “Spiderman III” to yet another “Pirates [...]

Democrats in Congress wrapped up their first year in power this week, touting accomplishments on energy and the minimum wage — while the President got his way on the major issue of war funding.
Congressional investigators dove into CIA records on destroyed interrogation tapes.
The EPA put a roadblock in the path of California’s and other states’ [...]

Warren Bennis has made a big name for himself over the years as a business management guru. He’s been an advisor to Fortune 500 companies and to presidents. Along the way, he’s thought a lot about leadership — what makes a great CEO, general, president.
Lately he’s decided that it all comes down to judgment. Courage, [...]

The day-to-day news feed out of Iraq misses one of the country’s saddest, and most important, stories: the exodus of Iraq’s intellectual class.
While tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees are heading back, many professionals will never return. And they leave an enormous void — one that hurts the prospects for stability.
We’ll talk to three prominent [...]

With a jittery economy, many Americans may think twice these days about where they invest their money. And yet, think as they may, smart people too often make dumb financial bets: on what will bring happiness, or yield big gains in the market.
To sort out why, a new breed of researcher — neuroeconomists — are [...]

In 2004, John Edwards was the optimist with the winning smile. Today, the former Senator from North Carolina still flashes that smile, but his combative talk on poverty and big business has remade his image as the Democrats’ fiery economic populist.
The message may be working: Running a close third in Iowa, where Edwards has staked [...]

He’s been called “the Indiana Jones of conservation.” Alan Rabinowitz, a wildlife biologist and big-cat expert, has traveled the world from Belize to Borneo, Thailand to Laos, and risked his life to save jaguars, clouded leopards, and tigers.
Now, in Myanmar, he’s established the world’s largest tiger preserve, in an effort to save the world’s dwindling [...]

Eight years ago, Arizona Senator and presidential candidate John McCain had it all: the war-hero biography, the rock-ribbed conservative credentials, and, most of all, the Straight Talk Express that charmed independents and the press.
This time, he was poised to be the Republican comeback kid. But his campaign faltered, and he’s been an also-ran in a [...]

Nobel Laureate James Watson set off a fury when he questioned whether Africans have the same intelligence as Caucasians.
So did journalist William Saletan, who defended Watson in a recent three-part series on race and IQ for Slate magazine, and highlighted research championed by white supremacists.
Saletan has apologized. But discomforting questions remain in the air.
We’ve invited [...]

When America’s spy agencies issued a National Intelligence Estimate two weeks ago stating that Iran shuttered its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it was a blockbuster like few can recall.
The sigh of relief in Washington and around the world was audible. Only recently, President Bush had said a nuclear Iran might ignite “World War III.”
But [...]

The Mitchell report is out. Names are named. Reputations, careers — for many, an entire national pastime — darkened by the biggest scandal to hit baseball since the 1919 White Sox earned the “Black Sox” tag by throwing the World Series.
Now we have the “steroids era.” Former Senator George Mitchell’s report fingers 89 Major League [...]

Hard words — and tough revelations — as America takes on board some big news this week. In Washington, CIA Director Michael Hayden went before the Senate Intelligence Committee and gave his explanation for the destruction of CIA interrogation videos.
In Bali, Indonesia, former Vice President Al Gore slammed his own country for obstructing action on [...]

In October 1789 George Washington set forth on a presidential tour of all 13 United States. The excursion was a success, but the accommodations were lousy. Public houses and inns were simple, often dirty — nothing to write home about.
The American hotel has come a long way since, from country inns to extravagant palaces like [...]

From American streets to Andean coca farms, the United States has battled drugs since Richard Nixon was president. And yet, some 35 years and 500 billion dollars later, drugs are everywhere, and cheap, and Americans are using them in epidemic proportions.
Critics say the War on Drugs is lost — half a million people in prison [...]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice already has a place in history. But there’s a lot of history left for her to make, and she’s out to make it count.
The risks are manifold. The challenges, some might say, insurmountable. Pressing for a Palestinian state and an Arab-Israeli peace. Stability in Iraq. The puzzle of Iran. Strengthening [...]

By guest host Jane Clayson
Like a revivalist preacher riding into town, Mike Huckabee — the former Baptist minister, Arkansas Governor, and long-shot Republican presidential candidate — is hogging the limelight, and sparking a lot of curiosity.
In new polls released this week, he has surged to the top of the GOP field in Iowa, and is [...]

It sounds like a culture-war set piece: Hollywood rolls out a religious-themed Christmas blockbuster and conservative believers go ballistic. That was the story this weekend with the release of “The Golden Compass.”
Based on the wildly popular fantasy novels by British author Philip Pullman, a famously outspoken atheist, the film casts God and the Church as [...]

When President Bush unveiled his administration’s plan last week to help Americans — more than a million of them — struggling to pay subprime mortgages, critics immediately called it “too little, too late.”
In communities all across the country — from the inner city to well-heeled suburbs — foreclosures are rampant. And the worst of the [...]

For centuries Istanbul has been one of the great cities of the world and in its Ottoman heyday a bridge between Christendom and Islam: a unique melting pot of Muslims, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Turks, Russians and more.
In the 1800s, the Ottoman Sultans, whose lavish palaces dominate the city to this day, let their empire slip [...]

It was the Double O Express, as Oprah Winfrey pumped up crowds for Barack Obama on Saturday from Iowa to South Carolina to New Hampshire.
For Hillary Clinton, the sight of Oprah and Obama drives home one of the great surprises — and ironies — of this historic campaign: that the first woman with a real [...]

Nobody’s perfect, but perfectionism is a virtue — right? Great athletes, star CEOs, and Nobel laureates embody it. But where does the perfectionist tendency lead? Great success for some — but then there are the crazy bosses, pushy parents, and high-striving students on the edge of a breakdown.
New research on perfectionism reveals that the urge [...]

It was a roller coaster of a week. A National Intelligence Estimate said Iran ended its nuclear weapons program four years ago — but not everyone is buying it. Defense Secretary Gates said the Marines will stay in Iraq. The Supreme Court pondered the rights of Guantanamo detainees, and the CIA admitted it destroyed tapes [...]

More than any other artist, Picasso left his mark on the 20th century. In his long life — 92 years of it — he enjoyed gargantuan fame, glittering friends, and a lavish lifestyle. And he created an immense output of art, which he described as his “diary.”
Now Picasso’s biographer, John Richardson, is out with the [...]

For too many of us, it’s the forgotten war. High up along the rocky ridges of eastern Afghanistan, American soldiers are fighting a grueling fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. And they’re doing it the old-fashioned way: up close and personal.
In the Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous places in the world for [...]

Michael Thomas debuts with a novel that gets compared to “Invisible Man,” while Denis Johnson lands us back in Vietnam. Jeffrey Toobin pulls back the curtain on the Supreme Court’s inner sanctum, as Alex Ross turns 20th-century “Noise” into musical prose.
We’re talking about the books of 2007: the critics’ choices, the blockbusters, the surprise gems, [...]

You know the news out of Iraq these days: the surge seems to be working, at least for now. Some refugees are trickling back in. The U.S. military complains that Iraq’s politicians aren’t doing their part to stabilize the country. Foreign jihadis are on the run. There’s still not much oil flowing.
To Iraqi citizens these [...]

What did America look like as an adolescent? In the tumultuous decades between the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1848, the young United States grew from an undeveloped, backwater outpost to a booming, new-world empire.
The transformation of a country and a continent, driven by commerce, evangelism, and communications, would set the course [...]

Climate change is on the table this week at the world conference in Bali, Indonesia, and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
But as the politicians haggle over much-needed climate policy, scientists and venture capitalists, students and inventors, are looking to give us an extreme energy makeover: pursuing breakthroughs in everything from biofuels to green buildings, [...]

Ever read a passage in a book, or hear a bit of music, and think, “how did they do that? How did the author or composer get inside my head?”
Well, science writer Jonah Lehrer says that artists have a pretty good track record understanding the subtleties of our minds — often well ahead of scientists.
Whitman, [...]

Russians went to the polls yesterday and handed Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections. It came as no surprise — for weeks, election watchers have pointed to massive voter intimidation.
Putin, as he asserts his “moral authority” to lead Russia, may be an old-style Russian strong-man — but his grip [...]