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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It used to be that comics were just for kids.   Today, we call them "graphic novels," and they're one of the fastest growing forms of American literature. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, how graphic art grew up...with Will Eisner's biographer, Jules Feiffer, Dennis Kitchen, and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you think about it, every day we receive countless services from complete strangers — the newspaper delivered to your door, the trash picked up at the crack of dawn, the fresh fruit for sale at the supermarket. There's a whole army of invisible workers powering our economy who we rarely get...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities, we're wondering what shapes urban cultures. In this hour, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk talks about how Istanbul shaped his writing. One historian argues that early liberal philosophies from Amsterdam shaped the United States. And we check in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's the liberal's apocalypse. Consider empty big-box stories, deserted highways, worthless pieces of paper we used to call money. The economy collapses. There's widespread violence and social unrest. The only people with a fighting chance ride out the storm in life-boat communities with access...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What if our lives were like DVDs?  What if we had alternative endings to look forward to, instead of death?  We explore our lust for immortality.  And we look at the many alternative endings that Ernest Hemingway wrote for his classic novel, "A Farewell to Arms."

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everybody gets excited about whatever's new, but what about what's really, really old?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we commemorate geologic time.  We'll meet the scientists who found the oldest object on Earth - a three point four billion year old zircon!  And the Jazz...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

tapes

Why do people embrace the experimental visual art of Mark Rothko but avoid the experimental music of Karlheinz Stockhausen?   That's the question that David Stubbs explores in his book, "Fear of Music."  We'll meet Stubbs in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge.  Also,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Suppose neuroscientists map the billions of neural circuits in the human brain....are we any closer to cracking the great existential mysteries - like meaning,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Mary Ann Caws is an internationally respected scholar of surrealism. She has translated many of the movements major texts and is the editor of “Surrealism (Themes and Movements).” Caws talks with Anne Strainchamps about the history of the surrealist movement. Also, we hear actor Steve O’Connell...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Kayfabe is an old carny term for fakery. Now it’s the code of honor for professional wrestling. Kayfabe means you never, EVER admit to ANYONE under ANY circumstances that pro wrestling’s fake. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge - the spectacle of professional wrestling. We’ll talk real...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but you still need a word to describe that glorious smell. We'll try out new words from the online world with a New York Times language blogger - words like YakkaWow and suicide cuisine. Also, the rise of a new world language called Globish....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine a huge corporation running like a well-oiled machine – with no one in charge.  That’s how ant colonies work, with not a single leader among 10,000 members.  How does anything get done?  In this hour of to the Best of Our Knowledge, a look inside a colony of stinging...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The sky is black. The wind’s picking up.  The hurricane is coming.  Nothing you can do about it.  But wait!  Scientists from Dyn-o-Storm fly into the hurricane.  They release a chemical that stops the hurricane dead in its tracks.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, should we?  Just...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every day you pick up the paper and there's another report about something you either should be eating or shouldn't. Omega 3-fatty acids, soy milk, broccoli - good. Trans fats, soda, fast food - bad. What if instead we just ate what made us happy? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Scientists are discovering how plants secretly talk to each other.  How smart is your geranium, and what does a tree know?  Today, we're eavesdropping on the secret language of plants.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We are connected -- probably connected in ways neither of us has dreamed of. Forget six degrees of separation; on Facebook we have only 3.74. And that's just today.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What's the centerpiece of the American Dream? Is it our belief that you can pull-yourself-up-by-your-boot-straps? Maybe it's our rugged individualism? Or maybe, just maybe, it's the lawn. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge the obsessive quest for the perfect lawn. Also, a little bunny...Read more

an ape

Are humans really unique?  Not as much as we think, says renowned primatologist Frans de Waal.  So what do our ape cousins - chimps & bonobos - think and feel?  Also, the remarkable story of a feral child who lived with monkeys.

 

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