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Maybe you like your Thanksgiving turkey dry and bland. I get it. There’s something deeply traditional about leaving the bird in the oven for hours and hours. Maybe you like the symbolism of a big bird taking up oven space, or maybe your overcooked turkey gives you an excuse to overload it with gravy. Maybe you’ve given up on bird altogether (one year, my mom served lobster for Thanksgiving. “No one likes the turkey anyway!”). Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Microsoft's Surface devices defy easy description. Even Microsoft itself has never quite known what to call them. It's the one device for everything in your life. It's a tablet that can replace your laptop. It's powerful as a laptop, lighter than air. It's powered by beautiful. In reality, the Surface is all those things—and none of them. The Surface Book 2, on the other hand, is really only one thing: a laptop. A beefy, fast, get-shit-done laptop. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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This week in "Your faves are problematic" news, Louis C.K. and Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, your time has come. But in other news, Eminem has a new song with Beyoncé, which is giving the internet something else to talk about. Is there anything else that had everyone talking last week? Why, we're glad you asked. What Happened: Just how badly does the president hate CNN? Enough to potentially step over the line and interfere with its business dealings? Let's find out. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For a grain that is a staple in so many different cultures, rice is surprisingly difficult to cook. Most stove burners don’t have a setting that’s low enough to steam it properly without the pot boiling over, or scorching it. A perfectly-cooked pot of rice needs constant vigilance. That's why most people who cook rice with any regularity usually own a dedicated rice cooker. The Zojirushi NL-BAC05 is as perfect a type of this kitchen appliance as any I’ve ever used. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Congratulations, Rian Johnson—you survived the Star Wars obstacle course! In a world where not every director even gets to finish the movie they start producing, you, exalted amongst your peers, have not only wrapped one—you’ve been given more. Lucasfilm announced yesterday that you're getting your own trilogy (three films!) with which you can do whatever you want. (Like, within reason.) How does that feel? Thrilling, I’ll bet. It means big, big things for you. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Trucks gather near the border to unload their cargo. Pack animals will carry the fuel across. Aslan works at a fuel depot in Pakistan. He is just 12 years old. Smugglers load donkeys and mules with fuel to cross the border. Abdowahed has a bachelor's degree in agriculture but turned to fuel smuggling after drought dried up his orchards in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan. He takes a bath in a spring near the Pakistan border after selling a load of diesel. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Steven Soderbergh is nothing if not ever-evolving—except, maybe, for tireless. After establishing himself as one of his generation’s great auteurs with movies like Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Out of Sight, and Traffic, he vowed to stop making theatrical films. During the supposed hiatus, he made HBO’s Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, and two seasons of prestige drama The Knick for Cinemax. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Twenty years ago I called Carl Sagan to ask him why people believed crazy stuff. Sagan—astronomer, creator of the “golden record” messages to any aliens who might find the Voyager space probes, creator and host of Cosmos, novelist, arguably one of the best-known scientists of the 20th century—would’ve been 83 years old today. Me, I was a fact-checker on the science desk at Newsweek, which meant I mostly did reporting for other people’s stories. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Earlier this year, I caught myself complaining to a colleague that I don’t read enough books. I read more than ever, but I’d largely replaced books with magazine features, news stories, and tweets. (Mostly tweets, if I’m being honest.) I read in fits and starts: five minutes in line at Safeway, 20 minutes on the train, 15 minutes when I’m early at the restaurant. This, I whined to my poor colleague, was just not conducive to reading books. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices