We meet an anthropologist whose life was transformed by Amazonian shamans and the hallucinogen ayahuasca.Read more
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Episode Archives
Many animals, from fish to bees and ants, cannot survive alone. They need to live in groups, and these groups have a kind of collective intelligence. You might say the internet has developed its own "hive mind." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll tell you how the modern science...Read more
Original Air Date:
January 23, 2011
At the end of Mary Shelley's classic novel, "Frankenstein". Victor Frankenstein dies but his creation lives on. What happens to Frankenstein's monster is left to the reader's imagination. At least it was until Susan Heyboer O'Keefe wrote her novel, "Frankenstein's Monster," which picks up...Read more
Original Air Date:
January 02, 2011
Just because we've all grown up and aren't supposed to believe in fairy tales and magic doesn't mean we don't still need them. This hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge offers conversations with Neil Gaiman, A.S. Byatt and Salman Rushdie about the uses of enchantment.
Original Air Date:
December 19, 2010
Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions, Part Five: Can Science be Sacred?
What if you don't believe in God, and the thought of church makes you queasy? Can you still experience the sacred? There's a growing movement of secular scientists who revel in the awe...Read more
Original Air Date:
December 19, 2010
Are you a sucker for a sad song? “Greensleeves.” “Yesterday” by the Beatles. For some reason, we love a melancholy tune. But why? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll explore our love of sad music. We’ll look into the effects the minor third has on our brains and we’ll delve...Read more
Original Air Date:
December 12, 2010
Everyone knows you can choose your friends, but not your family. Well, maybe that used to be true, but today’s families are a lot more flexible about defining themselves. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll hear NPR’s Scott Simon rhapsodize about his two adopted...Read more
Original Air Date:
December 05, 2010
Recycling breaks materials down and uses them again -upcycling is using old stuff to build new things, from cigar box guitars to juice pouch messenger bags. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we explore the new world of upcycling, from the scavenger life of a do-it-yourselfer to the...Read more
Original Air Date:
November 21, 2010
"Art is a more trustworthy expression of God than religion." That's a line from Rosanne Cash's new memoir, "Composed." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Rosanne Cash talks about following in the footsteps of her father, country music icon, Johnny Cash, and how she found her own...Read more
Original Air Date:
November 14, 2010
"One of our true superstars of nonfiction." That's how David Foster Wallace described Lewis Hyde. Lewis Hyde talks about his book, "Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art." This classic text introduces us to the playful and disruptive side of imagination embodied in trickster...Read more
Original Air Date:
September 12, 2010
The Dalai Lama's birthday is July 6th, 1935. For decades, he's served as the spiritual leader of Tibet, urging them forward on the path of non-violence in the face of Chinese occupation. But as the Dalai Lama ages, and the Chinese consolidate their power in Tibet, rumbles of discontent are...Read more
Original Air Date:
July 04, 2010
It's now the most common mental health problem in the world. Anxiety. And the United States is the country with the highest level of anxiety, according to a World Mental Health Survey conducted in 18 countries in 2002. In this hour, award-winning journalist Patricia Pearson talks about her...Read more
Original Air Date:
July 04, 2010
There's a word for the grief and anger people feel when their environment is ravaged — solastalgia. It's what Gulf Coast residents may be feeling right now, as they watch oil wash up onto their beaches.
In this hour, the psychology of our attachment to the places we love....Read more
Original Air Date:
June 27, 2010
There's no question – we crave authenticity. You want "real" Chinese or Mexican food? Then make sure you find a restaurant that makes food the way it's made in the old country. Music lovers are also obsessed with authenticity - from folk and blues to rap... just consider the mantra of hip hop...Read more
Original Air Date:
June 13, 2010
Timothy Leary nearly killed the psychedelic revolution. He did more than anyone to popularize LSD — but his indiscriminate use of mind-altering drugs created a backlash, and made them taboo for serious scholars. Read more
Original Air Date:
June 06, 2010
Is your knowledge Cavemen based on TV commercials? In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, Caveman. We'll discover how the Ice Age gave birth to the first modern humans. And, the real secret of evolution -- cooking. Also, the founder of today's caveman movement. He grunts in a more modern...Read more
Original Air Date:
May 16, 2010
Worried about climate change? Trying hard to reduce your carbon footprint? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, living small and liking it – an argument in favor of the radically local life.Read more
Original Air Date:
May 02, 2010
We all know what's wrong. An economic recovery that just can't seem to get started. Furloughs, cutbacks and no money for anything. Well, cheer up! We'll focus on what can happen when you stay positive. Michael Gates Gill reminds us we have a lot to be grateful for, and Suzan Colon shares recipes...Read more
Original Air Date:
April 11, 2010
You know Marcel Proust as the author of the massive autobiographical novel, "In Search of Lost Time." But did you know that Proust can also be considered a scientist? That's the argument that Jonah Lehrer makes in his book, "Proust Was A Neuroscientist." Lehrer explains how Proust made...Read more
Original Air Date:
March 21, 2010
For decades Carl Jung's "Red Book" remained the most famous unpublished book in the history of psychology. Jung refused to publish it during his lifetime, and his heirs kept it locked up after he died. The "Red Book" recorded Jung's visionary paintings and laid out his radical ideas for a new...Read more
Original Air Date:
March 21, 2010
Mary Karr is a best-selling writer, a mother and an alcoholic. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, Karr talks about her journey from addiction to awe. Also, we hear from a doctor who claims he beat the bottle by taking a commonly prescribed drug that could help millions of people - if...Read more
Original Air Date:
March 07, 2010
Henry Alford believes that old people are wise. And to prove it, he interviewed many people over the age of seventy, including Phyllis Diller, Harold Bloom and a retired aerospace engineer who eats food out of the garbage. The result is Alford's new book, "How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from...Read more
Original Air Date:
February 21, 2010
Whose Islam is it anyway? Is Islam for the Jihadists or the Sufis? The Indonesians, the Saudis? And what about a Muslim convert in say, Iowa? This time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, a closer at who's claiming, and reclaiming, Islam. From the Sufi spiritualism of a Senegalese pop star to the...Read more
Original Air Date:
February 07, 2010
It killed off its star after only forty minutes in the most violent scene in American film to date. Fifty years after its original release, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" still has the power to shock. Film critic David Thomson tells us the story behind the making of "Psycho" and how Hitchcock...Read more
Original Air Date:
January 31, 2010