As the Dalai Lama turns 80, we reflect on his legacy and remarkable personal history. Also, how various Eastern spiritual traditions have taken root in the West - from yoga to meditation. And the legacy of California's famous utopian experiment at Esalen and its "religion of no religion."Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
Eric Liu is on a campaign to restore America's civic joy. To make voting fun again, with late-night dance parties for Miami voters, participatory election street theater in Akron,Ohio; and a giant election scavenger hunt in Philadelphia. He says there's no such thing as not voting: choosing not...Read more
If you want to know the truth about J.D. Salinger, good luck. To this day we know more about his fictional character Holden Caulfield than we do about the man who created him. In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge, literary life after Salinger’s...Read more
It started as a joke. Danny Wallace put a small ad in a London newspaper. It simply said “Join me” and invited people to send a passport-sized photo. The only problem was, no one knew what they were joining. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, the story of Danny Wallace’s “Join Me”...Read more
Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq
Part Two
On March 20, 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq. More than 6 years later, we're still there. What happened? Were we prepared? We'll talk with the planners of the War in Iraq. From...Read more
Salman Rushdie's new novel is called "The Enchantress of Florence." It's a tale of two cities, consisting of stories tucked inside stories tucked inside stories...along the lines of Scheherazade's stories of "One Thousand and One Nights." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Salman...Read more
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Russia and China. They were the two Communist giants. Now each is carving out a new future. By most accounts, China is doing it better. It’s still an authoritarian state, but the economy if booming. And Russia? Well, it’s capitalism’s wild...Read more
Batman, Superman, the Green Lantern we all had our superheroes as kids. Maybe we still do today? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, SUPERHEROES. We'll celebrate Wonder Woman's 70th birthday with a look at her controversial new costume. We'll also explore the actual physics of...Read more
Gore Vidal has a special fondness for the Founding Fathers, especially George Washington. “The others were geniuses. He was not a genius” he says, but “he had a powerful character which got him through the revolution, since he was not much of a general. But he was a great leader.” We’ll talk...Read more
Chris Ayres never wanted to cover the war. He was perfectly content reporting on celebrity gossip in L.A. But through a twist of fate, he found himself embedded with Marines in Iraq, living in a Humvee and waiting for his death at the hands of the Republican Guard. In this hour of To the Best...Read more
Are you living the American Dream? Or just struggling to get by? Changing the minimum wage, cuts to food stamps, and health care coverage have been all over the news. What does it take to “make it” in America today?
Also, On Our Minds this week, Swedish crime fiction writer Jens Lapidus...Read more
With the war in Iraq winding down, now what? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at the war’s aftermath - and not only for Iraqis, but also for the millions of people who marched against the war. Does America’s quick victory mean the peace movement failed? And what about...Read more
Why do we assume more money is better? Maybe if we weren't so focused on how much we have, we'd ask a better question: How much is enough? We explore the relationship between money and happiness, and alternative forms of currency. Also, Great Britain's experiment in Gross...Read more
The Jewish High Holy Days come to an end every fall on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This year, we're thinking about atonement and forgiveness. Whether you're Jewish or non-Jewish, secular or religious, forgiveness is something we all struggle with. Today we explore the path to...Read more
For decades, men have written about their first sexual experiences, but there’s almost no literature like that for women. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, memoirist Mary Karr reflects on her first kiss and other rites of passage for girls. Also, Jonathan Kozol describes...Read more
What happens when a Little League game turns into an epic battle to save the world from an evil, shape-shifting Coyote, and the fate of the Universe hangs on an 11-year-old boy? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, kids books for adults. Also, remembering L. Frank Baum, the creator of...Read more
TTBOOK staffers share some of our favorite interviews and shows produced by our favorite Canadian. Read more
In the wake of a number of high profile shootings over the past year, people are talking about policing, racism, and injustice. But there's one issue we don't really talk all that much about: fear.This hour, we take a closer look at negative stereotypes about African American men, how those...Read more
"Shhh… I have a secret… Now, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you." Classic spy joke – but not so funny when it's true. In this hour of To The Best of Our Knowledge, we'll go the dark side of secrecy - warrantless wiretapping, secret CIA prisons, "extraordinary rendition,"...Read more
Violence may be a national scourge, but an awful lot of people devour shoot-‘em-up movies and video games. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the seduction of violence. Why, for instance, four and five-year-old children love fantasy games where they kill each other. Also, the...Read more
Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by Marxist rebels in Columbia while in the midst of her presidential campaign. She spent the next six and a half years in captivity chained, humiliated and abused. But her greatest fear was not death. It was losing her humanity. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
One of the biggest challenges a journalist can face is reporting a story when your connection to your source is compromised. They won't talk, or they can't talk, or it's your own father. Can anyone ever uncover the truth, the whole truth, about another person?Read more
Novelist John Updike doesn’t like doing interviews. At least until the interview starts. Then he realizes it’s kind of flattering to talk about himself. Now, he’s written a novel about a famous artist being interviewed. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, John Updike on why an...Read more
Your name is a collection of sounds and syllables that identify you. It's your tag, handle, label, second skin. It's written on your birth certificate and it'll be inscribed on your grave. But what does it actually mean? Names carry family dreams, expectations and legacies....Read more