Americans are from Mars, and Europeans are from Venus. At least that’s the view of foreign policy analyst Robert Kagan. He says Europeans no longer believe in military power, quite unlike America’s leaders. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the growing split between Europe and...Read more
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Episode Archives
Imagine Superman, demented with age, on a final mission to save the world. Or Conan the Barbarian, civilized and living in L.A. boarding the bus with a good book. It’s all there in the poetry of Charles Harper Webb. Words fly this hour on To the Best of Our Knowledge as we take in performance...Read more
Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, Abigail Adams, Elvis Presley. Know what they have in common? They're all on Daniel Wolff's list of great Americans. Wolff explains the unique ways those people learned what they had to know. We'll also take a hard look at IQ and its relationship to race and class, and...Read more
There's been a hot spotlight shining down on women this past year. From allegations of a war on women to the debate about reproductive rights, it's hard to tell how far women have come and just where they're going. So, what does feminism look like today? The first woman governor...Read more
Maybe you can sing like Jennifer Lopez or Ricky Martin. If not, looking like them is the next best thing. Right now, it’s never been cooler to be Hispanic. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Latino Revolution. From the rise of Latino-chic to the spicy secretes of salsa. ...Read more
Sometimes all you really want to take to bed is a good book. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, meet some passionate readers. We’ll also try to find out if big time critics really hate books.Read more
Winston Churchill once said “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, journalist Jake Tapper discusses the ethics of telling lies during wartime. We’ll also take a concise look at the...Read more
Well we made it through the anticipated apocalypse.
Now, to say, "Goodbye old year; hello, new."
To help us begin again, we’ve got a collection of stories about putting challenges behind us. About transformation. About coming through hard times into...Read more
There's still debate about climate change, but one thing's for sure – these days nothing's sure about the weather. Northerners can golf in December, spring shows up early, and mosquitoes are movin' on up. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, wacky weather and what you can do to help....Read more
One of this year's big novels is Colson Whitehead's sweeping historical novel, "The Underground Railroad." It's an unflinching look at the experience of slavery, inspired by the classic slave narratives. And being a sci-fi geek, Whitehead also weaves in bits of fantasy, creating an alternative...Read more
Every year, Americans spend billions of dollars to try to improve themselves. They buy books and CDs, go to seminars...some even walk over hot coals in their bare feet. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll try to find out if the self-help movement is really helping us.Read more
Can science conquer death? It may seem like an absurd question, but some people think it's possible. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Aubrey de Grey, a maverick English scientist who's identified seven major kinds of molecular and cellular damage. He thinks we can prevent...Read more
For the first time in American history, young women are choosing independence over marriage. Single women today outnumber married women and have more political power than ever before. It's what Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger and other feminist icons predicted. This hour, how...Read more
David Rothenburg is a philosopher and a jazz clarinetist, who also loves birds. So one day he sat down in the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and started playing music. Lo and behold, a white-crested laughing thrush started singing with him, riffing on the tunes he played. Since then Rothenburg...Read more
Next time you catch an old episode of the Flying Nun, you may want to pay attention. Because today’s convents are closing. The average nun is seventy years old, and even devout sisters often have to bite their tongues when they talk about the pope. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more
Poet Nick Lantz has a darkly satirical take on American culture. Lately, he’s been thinking about political spin and how politicians speak. In this interview—the third in our series ...Read more
The Capitol Hilton. The Eve of then-President Clinton’s Alfalfa Club Speech, one of four humorous speeches of the so-called Washington “silly season.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the story of a White House joke-writer, a contentious egg-timer, and the night Bill Clinton...Read more
It was the best of times for Pattie Boyd. Her modeling career was booming and the sixties were exploding on the London scene. One day she got a call - she'd been cast in a Beatles film. The rest is history. We'll meet the woman who inspired three of the most famous rock songs of all time,...Read more
Bohemians used to hate anything that reeked of money. It destroyed the soul. Now, many self-styled bohemians are reveling in slate shower stalls, Range Rovers, and lava-rock grills. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the triumphs of the “Bobo” – the Bourgeois...Read more
Suppose there's a pill that would dramatically boost your creativity. Would you take it? Psychologist Jim Fadiman says that pill exists. It's the powerful hallucinogen LSD. Fadiman describes a remarkable experiment showing how psychedelics enhanced the creativity of senior scientists. Read more
Who are you?
A man? A woman?
Are you a success? A failure?
A parent? An athlete? A wallflower?
A Christian? A Buddhist? A baker?
If we are only a collection of stories about ourselves... what's the truth of who "we" are?
Looking for UNCUT...Read more
It doesn’t get much more American than a waitress in a diner taking your order. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the diner. For some, like painter Edward Hopper, the diner is a muse. For others it’s just a greasy spoon. But have we romanticized the endless cups of coffee and the...Read more
Film on radio? Why not? This hour, join us LIVE from the historic Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, for a special “Wisconsin Film Festival edition” of To The Best of Our Knowledge for film on radio. We’ll talk Dogme with “Italian for Beginners” director, Lone Scherfig. Also, the anti-...Read more
Cameron Sinclair has something to say to architects out there: design like you give a damn. The founder of Architects for Humanity says the houses and office buildings we build today will literally shape the world our children inherit. So give a damn. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more