Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Maybe it hits you the first time you get a mailing from AARP – all of a sudden, getting older isn't just about other people. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we spend time with some people who've chosen to face the rest of their lives in some unusual ways. Poker columnist James...Read more

a man in a cave

The Paleo Diet. Running barefoot. Look around, the modern caveman is among us.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ayn Rand didn't know how to make small talk; she lived for big ideas and bold statements.  She believed capitalism was the best social system ever invented, and even took to wearing a gold pin in the shape of a dollar sign.  Ayn Rand died nearly thirty years ago, but she's now inspiring a new...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Lilydale, New York isn’t your average small town.  In Lilydale, people say ghosts walk the streets and the neighbors can talk to the dead.  No, this is not fiction.  20-thousand visitors a year travel to Lilydale to consult the largest community of mediums in the world.  Is it all a gigantic...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Rising sea levels, brutal storms and droughts, record temperatures...is there anything we can do about climate change? As world leaders gather at the Paris Climate Summit, we consider a range of proposals - from geoengineering and new green technology to a post-carbon economy.   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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Rehearsing Shakespeare’s tragedy, MacBeth, one young actor found himself in the mood for mirth.  Like a specter rising from the mists, something began to take shape: a new MacBeth for the ages - with fewer daggers and more donuts.  In this hour of the Peabody-Awarding winning program To the Best...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When Donald Trump described his offensive remarks about women as "locker room talk," he implied that it's normal for men to engage in macho sexual braggadocio in gender-segregated spaces like men's locker rooms.  Sociologist Amy Schalet and law professor Terry Kogan trace hidden...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Muddy Waters grew up on a cotton plantation with an insatiable hunger to play music.  He beat on kerosene cans before he finally got a guitar.  Muddy Waters went on to become a legendary bluesman.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why some people grow up musical.  Also, pianist...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As a boy in northwest Ohio during the 1930's, Donald Richie spent a lot of time watching movies about exciting new worlds.  So it seems only fitting that Donald Richie went on to live in a different world.  For the past 50 years he’s lived in Japan, and has established a reputation as one the of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Captain William Kidd is considered to be one of the most notorious buccaneers ever to sail the Spanish Main.  But apparently history got it wrong – Captain Kidd wasn’t a pirate, he was a sea captain who hunted down pirates.  Talk about being misunderstood!.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every year billions of classified dollars are funneled into what defense analysts call “the black world.”  It’s a realm that uses code names like “Black Light,” “Classic Wizard,” and “Link Plumeria” - a place where even an idea can be top secret.  Stealth bombers came from the black world, and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

He was the most surprising Booker Prize winner in years.  DBC Pierre had been a con man and a drug addict before he became a writer.  Now he’s won one of the world’s great literary prizes.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk with some award-winning writers including DBC...Read more

person at chalkboard

Thousands of the world's languages are disappearing in the wake of globalization. And because language is the DNA of culture, a lost language is a lost culture. Today, stories from the frontlines of the language revitalization movement. Also, Dr. Larry Brilliant's improbable journey from...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

One of the top-selling songs last year was by rapper Kanye West.  But it wasn’t hardcore hip-hop, it was a gospel song called “Jesus Walks.”  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the rebirth of Gospel Music.  We’ll look at where gospel came from and where it’s going.  And, we’ll feel...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Survival.

The oldest living things on the planet and a list of everything you’ll need to know after the apocalypse.

But there’s one thing no one can survive. And that’s death. Or maybe not...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s the most contested piece of real estate on Earth.  Jews know it as the Temple Mount.  Muslims call it Al-Aqsa.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the controversy over this sacred site in Jerusalem’s Old City.  Also, why the Temple Mount inspires apocalyptic visions for some...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

Doug Gordon heads off to host and produce "Beta" on WPR Next.

TTBOOK staffers share some of our favorite interviews and shows produced by our favorite Canadian. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Space, the final frontier. But is science fiction the final frontier when it comes to being a literature of ideas? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll wax philosophical about science fiction with two of the genre's greatest writers -- George R.R. Martin and Ursula K. Le Guin....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

spare change

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

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