Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Many of us first met Islam on 9/11 with planes slamming into the World Trade Center – not a very good first impression. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a proper introduction, as we talk with Muslims and Westerners who are redefining our relationship. From a Danish cartoonist with a...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the classroom filmstrip was everywhere.  They taught us to change our underwear at least twice a week, among other things.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll revisit the golden age of classroom filmstrips.  So sit up straight.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tragedy struck Ron Mallett when he was ten years old. His beloved father died and he wanted to bring him back. So he dreamed of building a time machine. Ron Mallett grew up to become a theoretical physicist. Now he studies quantum mechanics and he's still trying to figure out how to go back in...Read more

a man at the end of the world

How many ways can you imagine the end of the world?   To celebrate the end of 2012, we've gathered some of our favorite apocalyptic fiction.  Doomsday scenarios from award-winning novelists and short story writers, featuring  zombie invasions, mutant plagues, fire and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

East Meets West

Part Four

 

Imagine growing up in Pakistan. Islam is a way of life. You get up every morning at 4:30 to pray. Then when you're 18, you move to the American Midwest, Iowa, to attend college. That's the story Kumail...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When did "fat" become a four-letter word?  Leaders of the body acceptance movement say it's time to stop shaming fat people.  In this hour, curvy girls and plus-size women talk about the emotional and physical costs of America's toxic obsession with weight and body image. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Say the name "Robert Krulwich" and hard-core public radio listeners start smiling. These days Robert does a lot of science journalism, even though he admits he's no expert. He believes everyone's interested, even though they think it's too hard for them. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We all have our good days and our bad days, but chances are they’re nothing like what Andy Behrman has experienced.  Behrman would fly from Zurich to the Bahamas and back in three days to balance hot and cold weather.  On the bad days, he’d experience tornado-like rages of depression.  In this...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Photographers capture heartache and agony. What does it mean for them? And what does it mean for us, those viewing the photos? Do these images create empathy? Compassion? Or something else?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Fashion photographer David Jay recently sent us a book of his photos. The lighting was perfect, the settings intimate. The women, nearly naked, were gorgeous.  Taking in the beautiful images, something stood out – the mastectomy scars.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every person on earth is unique and special, but some people – maybe one in a hundred – are autistic. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we get to know a few autistic people with Asperger's Syndrome. We'll hear what it's like to try to live in the world when you have visionary...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

They weren’t exactly the Marx brothers, but Groucho had more in common with Karl Marx than you might think.  Both had minds that were lightning fast, and both were professional provocateurs.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll reassess these two legendary figures – the...Read more

bees

Bees are responsible for forty percent of the food we put in our mouths.  It sounds astonishing, but without bees, we could find ourselves facing food shortages and a collapse of the green and flowered world.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,  a peek inside the world...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s a mob scene in Madison, Wisconsin as novelist Mark Winegardner reveals the new Godfather.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge our yearly stage show at the Wisconsin Book Festival. Guests also include singer/songwriter Jane Siberry and the humor writers from The Onion.

This...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Turning thirty used to be embarrassing, an occasion for angst and misery.  Today young adults are embracing thirty as cause for celebration.  They’re renting yachts, giving speeches and spending thousands of dollars to celebrate the big three-oh.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you seen the David Lynch film “Mulholland Drive”?  Did you understand it?  One reviewer says watching “Mulholland Drive” is “like playing Twister and Scrabble simultaneously while high on LSD.”  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge two young men talk about their internet audio...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

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

There are many ways to live dangerously. Sure, you can take part in a death defying feat like skydiving, but living dangerously also sometimes involves taking intellectual risks, opening up, and being honest with yourself. To the Best of Our Knowledge recently travelled to Salt Lake City to...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Forty years ago the streets of Chicago exploded as police clashed with anti-war protesters at the Democratic National Convention. It's one of the momentous events that defined the Sixties. Or is it? Some historians now say the rise of the conservative movement is what truly made history in the...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Physicist Brian Greene sees an elegant universe – one where even baking a batch of cookies can yield surprising lessons about the fabric of the universe, or watching an egg splatter suggests a model for the Big Bang theory.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, thoughts from one of the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Steve Kissing seemed like a perfect child. He was an "A" student. He excelled as an athlete. He was even an altar boy. But Steve had a secret, a secret so dark he couldn't tell anyone. Steve was possessed by the devil. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, meeting the devil. From a boy...Read more

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