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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When and how did the universe begin? Why is there something rather than nothing? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll tackle the big questions about the universe. From Stephen Hawking's latest ideas about parallel universes and theories of everything to the quantum physics of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“Lets Make Our Own Movie!”  That was a wild idea back in the days of young Mickey Rooney, but today, anyone can do it.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, how digital cameras make us all directors, and why movies may never be the same.  Also, screenwriter Andrew Davies...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Consider this future world: a vaccine that makes you continually happy.  A chip in your brain that lets you communicate telepathically with your spouse.  Human lives that span hundreds of years.  Sound far-fetched?  Not according the James Hughes of the World Trans-humanist Association.  He says...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What's the best piece of reporting you read or saw or heard this year?  Today, we share stories that made us see the world in a new way.  National Book Award winner Katherine Boo reports from the slums of Mumbai. Photojournalist Brendan Bannon documents the tenacity and vitality of Africa. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Soup to Nuts

Part Five

Whether black from a bottomless cup or as a Frappuccino mocha skim latte, it's our culture's elixir: coffee.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Java, Joe or a cup of mud . . . Most of us drink it...Read more

shapes

Sometimes it's better to forget than to remember. Maybe it's an embarrassing photo on Facebook. Or perhaps a collective memory that's been used by certain ethnic groups to stir up hatred of their enemies. We explore the science, history and philosophy of memory. Plus, filmmaker Whit Stillman on...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

America's gone craft crazy. Everyone's knitting, or keeping scrapbooks; throwing pots or wood-working. And naturally, there are new chains of stores that carry all the supplies these crafters need, or think they do. To the Best of Our Knowledge considers what we mean by the word "craft." Does it...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Big box education is on the way out. Instead, imagine a future with schools of every variety available for mixing and matching, like sushi on a platter. Micro-schools, Waldorf Schools, part-time schools and more. That's the future as seen by Matt Hern, an advocate for what he calls de-...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Mel Brooks’ play “The Producers” is Broadway’s biggest hit in years, but it’s not for everyone – not at a hundred bucks a ticket.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, does theater still matter?  We’ll talk with playwright Wendy Wasserstein and critic Frank Rich.  Also, Samuel Beckett’s...Read more

self help books

Every new year brings a fresh start, another chance to remake yourself. We all aspire to be better people, but following through on our goals can often be difficult.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

New York Times columnist David Brooks is best known for his political writing, but he's also fascinated by recent findings in psychology and neuroscience.  In fact he says many of our public policies fail because we're not actually the rational decision makers we think we are.  In this hour of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Nelson Algren said “Never play cards with a man called Doc.  Never eat at a place called Mum’s.  And never go to bed with a woman whose troubles are greater than your own.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll catch up with Studs Terkel to talk about why an American master like...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Welcome to the digital age. There’s information everywhere but do we know any more than we did twenty years ago? And for all that info... where's knowledge?Read more

ballot

It would be hard to imagine a more fundamental American value than democracy. For centuries, disenfranchised people have fought for the right to vote. But would we be better off if fewer peoplevoted - if only the people who actually know about public policy were allowed to vote...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What animals will still be living in the year 3000?  Forget about tigers, rhinos and pandas.  They’ll go the way of the dodo bird.  But scientist Peter Ward says rats and coyotes will flourish.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the future of evolution.  Also, best-selling novelist...Read more

Barbara Ehrenreich

A collection of all of Barbara Ehrenreich's interviews on "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" over the years. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

East Meets West

Part Three

 

The ancient trading routes through Persia, India and China were once the crossroads between East and West. Is the blogosphere the new Silk Road? Hear heartrending e-mails between an American professor and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everywhere you turn at this time of year there are babies: Babies wrapped in swaddling cloths, babies lying in mangers, baby-faced cherubs, and baby angels. All to be expected of a holiday that celebrates the birth of a child. But then, birth is a pretty miraculous thing. In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How do you soak in the essence of a city?  In New York, writer Colson Whitehead goes walking ... through Times Square, along Broadway, down into the subway.  In Memphis, critic Robert Gordon listens to its music - the blues, soul, rock-n-roll.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The geography of organized religion in America is changing. Today, more and more Americans identify themselves as spiritual, rather than aligning themselves with a particular religion. They're cobbling together faith and spirituality from sources all over the world, picking and choosing the...Read more

a house

The American middle class used to be living proof that the American dream was alive and well, providing homes and modest savings to anyone willing to work.  It’s another story today.  In this hour, the decline of the middle class.  How rising levels of income inequality shattered...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When somebody asks Josh Ritter what kind of music he plays, sometimes he ends up lying. After all, Ritter's music is hard to describe - a little bit rock n' roll by way of Bruce Springsteen with a twist of Bob Dylan. Anyway you describe it, Josh Ritter has arrived. We'll get inside the music...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you find Shakespeare a bit intimidating, you might want to check out the Reduced Shakespeare Company.  Its actors do a version of “Hamlet” forward and backwards – all in two minutes.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Shakespeare as you’ve never heard him before.  Also, the great...Read more

poem

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments...”  “Because I could not stop for death…”

First lines. Classic poems. But poetry’s no anachronism. It’s pulsing and swelling and beating new rhythms.

From online verse to the new US Poet Laureate, from poetry...Read more

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