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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Eighty per cent of Americans say they believe in heaven. But when they're asked to describe it, many are at a loss for words. Do they think that there's another universe in the sky or do they believe that heaven is something more abstract and metaphorical? We'll explore our enduring fascination...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“We can be bought,” they said,” but we can’t be bored.”  The king and queen of American theater, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne turned down a fantastic sum from the movies  in the middle of the depression to continue to live their illusion on the stage.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In the history of near-fame experiences, one story stands out.  Pete Best was the Beatles’ drummer just a few months before “Love Me Do” became a smash hit.  His replacement, Ringo Starr, became a huge star.  And Pete Best?  He worked for decades as a civil servant in Liverpool.  In this hour of...Read more

a fence

In this age of globalization, why would anyone want borders, an army, currency?  Isn’t that kind of … old school?   Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you believe in social progress and the power of networks to solve problems?  Steven Johnson does.  And he's coined a new term for himself and others like  him -- the peer progressive movement.   We'll learn all about it as we explore how digital networks are changing our lives.Read more

a brightly lit bible

Buried scrolls, clay tablets, priceless artifacts and expensive forgeries – this week, we bring you stories from the strange and amazing world of biblical archeology.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's hard to wrap your head around the future of the human brrain.  Augmented intelligence, memory playback, downloadable skills - it's all coming.  We explore the future of the mind, and hear how a brain injury can transform your life.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The collapse of the twin towers gave birth to a strange new world.  It was a city of fire and dust, rubble crunching under foot and eerie underground rivers.  William Langewiesche  was the only journalist with unrestricted access to Ground Zero.  What he found there was startling, natural, and...Read more

hitchhiker

Does anyone still hitchhike?  Cult film director John Waters does.  At the age of 66, he hitchhiked 2,800 miles, from Baltimore to San Francisco.  He tells us about the people who picked him up, along with some who didn't.  And did the America Interstate System pave the way...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you ever find yourself on a dark country road in Ireland, bring along some salt, red thread, and a cross.  That’s what you’ll need to protect yourself from “the other crowd.”  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, the fairies of Ireland.  They’re magical, vengeful, and still alive and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever wished you cared less or been told to develop a thicker skin? For the polite and anxious among us, suddenly being immune to criticism and embarrassment might seem to be a superpower. In this hour, we’re exploring...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A police officer's shooting of a young, unarmed Afrian American man here in Madison joins a long list of national tragedies.  So we devote this hour to conversations about race and justice.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

beautiful food

Chefs and writers explore the language of food on the plate and on the page. We meet novelists who cook, chefs who write, and a poet of pies.  It's an hour of deliciousness in words and food.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever thought about money? Now, of course you have.  Talking about money permeates our existence.  But what if there wasn’t any money?  What would you do?

 Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It turns out that television may not be quite the "boob tube" and "the idiot box" that we thought it was. It seems that watching TV can actually make you smarter... by posing new cognitive challenges for your brain to solve. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore the...Read more

David Graeber speaks at Maagdenhuis occupation

David Graeber was an iconoclastic anthropologist and influential radical thinker, one who popularized the rallying cry "We are the 99%." He died on Sept. 2 in Venice, Italy at age 59. Read more

a man with prosthetic limbs

A fashion model with prosthetic legs… a musician who can’t hear… a writer who can’t see. Instead of disabled, differently-abled, handicapped – why not better-abled?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

These days it seems we just can’t get enough of it.  Over the past few years, luxury spending in the United States has been growing four times faster than overall spending.  We’re spending more money on more products and services that we don’t really need – like Evian bottled water and Prada...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Celebrate Midsummer's Eve with a visit to the fey folk. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll have an hour filled with stories of changelings and other-kin, Fairy Courts and green children. We'll conjure up a world of enchantment, but beware! There are no Tinkerbells in the world....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

So much of our daily lives gets turned into data -- our online shopping purchases, phone calls, family photos. We're all surrounded by data, and learning how to harness it could be more transformative than we realize. This week, a look at the new data specialists using their knowledge of numbers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From the minute we can pick up a crayon, most of us want to draw something - a house, a tree, the sun.  As we get older we aim for nuance and sophistication - landscapes and shadows, faces and expressions.  A gifted few will achieve something greater - they’ll make art.  On this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The holidays can be challenging.  All that togetherness can be like squishing a passel of porcupines into a sardine can.  In other words - not nice.  On the other hand, there is a bright side.  Po Bronson found it in the lives of families across the country.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

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