Rakan’s Death

In 2006, a physician from Massachusetts General Hospital brought a 12-year-old Iraqi boy to Boston for treatment. For five months, Dr. Larry Ronan doted over the boy, as did Boston Globe writer Kevin Cullen, who at one point considered adopting him. But the child, named Rakan, wanted to go home. In June, insurgents targeted Rakan’s home and the boy was killed. We talk to Kevin Cullen, whose article: “The End of Rakan’s War” appeared in yesterday’s Boston Globe.

Moscow After Dark

Listen
It turns out the the Moscow novelist Martin Cruz Smith writes about is not so far from the real city today. His article about a city that never sleeps appears in the August issue of National Geographic.

Anthrax Scientist

Listen
Genetic tests helped federal investigators build their case against alleged anthrax mailer Bruce E. Ivins. Ivins, a senior government microbiologist died last Tuesday in an apparent suicide, even as federal prosecutors prepared to charge him with murder by anthrax. We’ll speak with David Willman, staff writer at the LA Times and Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine and Law at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Women Priests

Listen
Three women say they were ordained as Catholic priests in Boston last month. Here and Now’s Fred Thys travels to one church in Cape Cod to visit a congregation headed by a woman priest. He speaks with Marie David at St Mary Magdala’s chapel in Harwichport.

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Listen
New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee spent two years exploring Chinese restaurants and cuisine around the world. She writes about what she found in the book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food and shares some of her expertise with Here and Now’s Emiko Tamagawa over dinner.