Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Most of us think in words, but not Temple Grandin.  She thinks in pictures.  Grandin is autistic, and visual thinking is common among people with autism.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Temple Grandin talks about how thinking in pictures has helped her help animals.  Also, mark...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Julian Barnes is one of England’s most celebrated novelists.  He’s fascinated by the ways our minds play tricks with memory, especially as we age.  It’s the subject of his Booker Prize winning novel “The Sense of an Ending” – one of several new books that explore the minefield of memory.  We...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Somewhere along the way, did we ruin poetry? Have the heartfelt angst of young lovers and the epic elegies of heroes become elitist and academic? But poetry is back, and we have new technology to thank.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Politics has such a bad reputation it’s a wonder anyone would run for office.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear from a few people who are out to transform the way we do politics.  Also activist Si Kahn talks about the art of the political song.  And we’ll look back at one...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, choosing the life you want.  Colette’s biographer talks about how the great French writer stayed saucy and sexually active into old age.  Kay Redfield Jamison takes a look at the end of life - a view of the suicide epidemic.  And...Read more

city at daybreak

Every sixty seconds, 259 new people show up in the world's cities. No one is building housing for them. No government is planning for them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the evolving city in a world of a billion squatters, with another billion on the way.Read more

bonobos

Imagine a relative who thinks sex is like a handshake.  Who organizes orgies with the neighbors, doesn't mind if their partner sleeps around and firmly believes females should be in charge of everything.  Actually, those ARE your relatives.  They're bonobo apes and they share...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour, we find ourselves surrounded by sound.  The sounds of nature, cosmic horror, capitalism, and experimental electronics.

If you want to give our theme remix a whirl, you can download files here and ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What's your favorite podcast? Are you thinking about launching one of your own? Smart phones and digital distribution have made it easier to get into the radio game. After the breakout success of Serial, it seems like everyone’s talking...Read more

book

Is Jennifer Egan's book, "A Visit from the Goon Squad," a novel or is it a series of entangled stories? It's a fair question because this polyphonic narrative covers a lot of territory – from satire to tragedy told from a wide range of characters' points of view. And one chapter...Read more

forest

Lace up the hiking boots and grab the bug spray!   Spring is here and we're heading Into The Woods.  Learn how to read a forest.   Unlock the meanings hidden in leaf and bole, twig and soil.  And celebrate the woods in fairytale, myth, story and song.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage.  A short story is a photograph; a novel is a film.”   -- Lorrie Moore

                             Read more

projector

Cult film director John Waters has been described as the "Pope of filth" and the "King of Trash."  To put it mildly, his films have, well, transgressed the boundaries of good taste.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, pushing the limits in film with John Waters.  We'll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Facebook to Twitter to Wikipedia, World of Warcraft to YouTube, the life of the community has moved on line. And taken on a life of its own. The power of we, and the move toward collective identity and global think.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ever wonder what it’s like behind on the scenes on TTBOOK?  Being in studio while the energy and imagination of Sherman Alexie bounces off the wall? Or watching E.O. Wilson, one of the world’s preeminent biologists unfold the beauty of his mind and the ideas that keep him in love with the world...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What makes a scientific revolution?  Thomas Kuhn said it’s when a new paradigm blows the old scientific model out of the water.  Fifty years later, we examine Kuhn's legacy, and talk with iconoclastic scientist Rupert Sheldrake, who says science is mired in untested dogmas.  Also, stories of two...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

"Let me say this as plainly as I can" President Obama said recently, "By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." Obama's plan will bring home some 150,000 troops. But what are they coming home to? Their divorce rate is triple the national average. Alcoholism, four times the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would you die for? And what are you willing to kill for? Democracy?On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the meaning of democracy. We’ll hear from writers Alice Walker, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Alende and Margaret Atwood.  Also, tomorrow’s citizens.  Are schools giving children...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, James Bradley remembers his father the war hero, who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima.  Martin Amis comes to terms with his famous father – the writer Kingsley Amis.  And the story of a military father who was an officer but no gentleman...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine sipping tea with a militant Muslim and listening to how he set off a series of bombs in a crowded marketplace, trying to kill as many people as possible.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, an anthropologist describes her visit to a militant training camp in Pakistan. ...Read more

robot lady

China Mieville’s new novel, “Embassytown,” features sentient beings famous for their unique language and a woman who’s a living simile. Ursula K. LeGuin says that “Embassytown” is “a fully-achieved work of art.” We’ll meet China Mieville, as we explore the language of science fiction.  Also...Read more

a man becomes a living cereal bowl

What do the opening notes of Beethoven’s “Symphony Number Five” and a rabbit named Oolong balancing a pancake on his head have in common?  They’re both examples of memes – units of culture that are imitated and, as a result, copied from one brain to another.  Are memes the driving...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's a post-apocalyptic novel that's been compared to Stephen King's "The Stand" and Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." It covers a vast time span and features a different kind of vampire, known as "virals." It's called "The Passage" and it's one of this summer's hottest books. We'll meet the author...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

For all the amazing discoveries that scientists have made, the cosmos is still full of mysteries - from dark matter to quantum entanglement. Will physicists ever explain the universe, or is it fundamentally unknowable? We explore the frontiers of physics and ponder what it means to live with...Read more

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