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One of our premier interviewers, host of KQED’s Forum, talks to RD Senior Editor Lisa Webster about atheists, God, his parents’ Judaism, and writing a book without answers.

When I heard the goals for this year’s massive prayer rally—healing America in a time of crisis, accomplishing racial reconciliation, repairing Detroit, and (here’s the part where I come in) bringing Jesus to Muslim hearts—I figured a Muslim in the crowd could be a nice twist. My plan was to report from the inside, to talk to the attendees as one among devoted thousands. I’d try to understand how such Christians understand Islam, for Lou Engle’s world is alien from my New England roots and New York life. I’d attended churches before, but nothing like this.

Forget the standard litany of the best-selling books and most popular movies… This year’s list includes comics, rock bands, Battlestar Galactica, “Hava Nagila” sung to the tune of “The Twist,” and “I Am the Walrus” translated into Aramaic.

The author discusses his journey through a Muslim subculture, the connection between Nietzsche and Hendrix, and how heavy metal might end the war on terror…

British comedy writer and celebrity journalist Jane Bussmann had a revelation while interviewing actor Ashton Kutcher at a Hollywood café: She really had to find something more meaningful to do. So she embarked on a Google quest for the most evil man in the world and found Joseph…

I’d always considered myself a rationalist, but over the next twelve months a series of odd events would challenge the way I viewed the world. Many people suggested I write a book about my experiences, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that for the simple reason that if you tell someone, especially a stranger, that you might have a ghost in your house, the probability of that person thinking you’re crazy is rather high.

Tamara, the girl who is dead but doesn’t know it, who exists only within the “magic circle” of a virtual game, takes center stage in this week’s episode, and in our commentary.

Few writers could to pick a theme as grand as the global interplay of democracy and religion and hope to utter the final word on the subject. In his latest book, Ian Buruma, a journalist and historian with over a dozen seminal books to his…

This week, the world will stop turning; or at least it will for the daytime soap opera “As The World Turns,” which officially ends after 53 years. But if we remember the soap opera solely as a torrid celebration of sexual transgression—or as a frivolous time-waster for bored housewives—we miss understanding something crucial about the relationship between popular culture and morality.

The services I attended at Philadelphia’s Congregation Temple Bethel were loud and joyous, but I felt totally out of place. That was a familiar feeling, of course. My two Jewish parents raised me without any religious education. (My father, a butcher, takes an almost perverse delight in flouting his non-belief with gestures like giving me lard as a Christmas present.) But I was more at ease this morning, because it was not expected that I understand the rituals because I look like a Jew. I was one of the only white people in shul that morning, and it was nice to look as out of place as I usually feel.