It happened the other week on a narrow, crowded street near the Rialto Bridge in Venice, as I was en route to catch a water bus to the airport. My backpack was slung on my shoulders, my hands full, ...

It was less than 20 minutes into Leonardo da Vinci, a new four-hour PBS documentary from Ken Burns and his co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon, when I said to myself, “Gee, this guy was a real ...