"Walt Whitman with a Tape Recorder" Documents American Life

Apocalyptic novelist Max Brooks is something of an expert on planning for pandemics and other disasters. The author, whose books include World War Z, Germ Warfare and the forthcoming Devolution, has toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has reviewed government response plans related to various emergency situations — all in the course of research.

Washington Post Beirut Bureau Chief Liz Sly has covered the Syrian civil war since it began in '11. "There is an inevitability that Russia is going to emerge as the dominant power in Syria," she says.

For many years, U.S. immigration favored immigrants from northern Europe. NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten explains how a 1965 law changed things — and led to the current debate about border security.