Dr. Philip Thornberry, Spanish

VOICE: Is Spanish your favorite language? What’s another favorite language besides Spanish?

DR. THORNBERRY: Spanish is my favorite, but another one I really like is Basque. It’s spoken in the North of Spain and is one of the languages that has been spoken for centuries, but no one knows where it comes from, and it’s drastically different from Spanish.

VOICE: What old person things do you do?

DR. THORNBERRY: I love watching Jeopardy and listening to jazz music. Every night, I’ll watch Jeopardy at some point with my wife, and we listen to a lot of jazz music while making dinner.

VOICE: What is the most depressing meal you’ve eaten?

DR. THORNBERRY: When I was in Buenos Aires, my wife and I went to a café downtown where we ordered gnocchi (a potato pasta). To us, it tasted cold and rubbery. Needless to say, we did not finish the meal.

VOICE: Who would win a fight between Spiderman and Batman?

DR. THORNBERRY: Batman would win because he’ll play dirty. I’d want Spiderman to win, but he has too much honor compared to Batman.

VOICE: What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from a work of fiction?

DR. THORNBERRY: The best lesson learned from fiction is that although we are all different, humans are always connected to each other. We might have unique perspectives or different experiences, but, overall, we’re still more alike than we are different. We should look for these connections and find the best in everybody.