winter2013_web_cover
Cover Story

A New Birth of Reason

Robert Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic, inspired late-19th-century Americans to uphold the founders’ belief in separation of church and state

Cover Story

A New Birth of Reason

Robert Ingersoll, the Great Agnostic, inspired late-19th-century Americans to uphold the founders’ belief in separation of church and state

ARTICLES

On Friendship

The intimacies shared with our closest companions keep us anchored, vital, and alive

Our Imperiled World

It took billions of years to make the earth habitable for humans. A distinguished astronomer warns the United Nations how quickly that can be reversed.

Water in the Empty Part of the Map

The treacherous quest for the source of the Nile was the downfall of John Hanning Speke

Survival Skills at a School in LA

Street killings of students are so familiar in South Central that kids practice their own grim rituals

A Song for Molly

In which I tell how I fell hard for a dog, why I have problems with women, and what I know about Ludwig Wittgenstein

On Friendship

The intimacies shared with our closest companions keep us anchored, vital, and alive

Our Imperiled World

It took billions of years to make the earth habitable for humans. A distinguished astronomer warns the United Nations how quickly that can be reversed.

Water in the Empty Part of the Map

The treacherous quest for the source of the Nile was the downfall of John Hanning Speke

Survival Skills at a School in LA

Street killings of students are so familiar in South Central that kids practice their own grim rituals

A Song for Molly

In which I tell how I fell hard for a dog, why I have problems with women, and what I know about Ludwig Wittgenstein

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DEPARTMENTS

editor's note

tuning up

It’s Only Oblivion

We aren’t expendable, but must fend for ourselves

Book essay

Happily Ever After

The folk tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm not only enchant us; they record the hardships European families endured for centuries

book reviews

Totalitarianism in Practice

Terror as a way of life in East Germany, Poland, and Hungary

No Sentiment

Baudelaire’s shock of the new

Fantastic Visions

Not crazy, just creative

Paint Fight

Two titans of art go head to head