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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Busloads of Senior Citizens roll onto the Reservation for high stakes bingo.  Lottery tickets show up on people’s shopping lists in 47 states.  Practically every office has a pool on the NFL or the Final Four or the outcome of the latest reality television series.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

A peek into Steve's office.

In case it’s not obvious: we LOVE books on TTBOOK. But we’re also incredibly picky about which books we choose for interviews.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In Japan’s ancient Edo period, the math geek was born – but it’s not who you think!  Samurai, women, children and farmers were among the original creators of the sangaku - Japanese temple geometry.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, math for the gods.  Also, can numbers unlock the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Americans change their dining room tables about as often as they change their spouses, about one and a half times in their lives.  IKEA isn’t concerned about your marriage, but it does want to change the way you look at your furniture, and yourself.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Some critics call V.S. Naipaul the world’s greatest living writer.  But his harsh views on Islam and the Third World have sparked enormous controversy.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Naipaul talks about his life as a writer.  Also, poetry for the ages: we’ll hear Yeats, Auden and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You watch two trench-coated boys walk into their  high school and shoot everyone in sight. Then a demon drags them off to be tortured in Hell. No, it’s not the latest video game.  It’s Hell House, a Halloween haunted house put on by a church in Texas. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Your mother always told you money can’t buy happiness.  Well, she was wrong.  And economists have calculated the price.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the high cost of happiness.  Also, why we cry: from crocodile tears to the three-hankie movie.  Writer Andrew Solomon’s struggles...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Betsy Lerner was a chubby kid.  Then an overweight teenager.  Then, a compulsive eater with a secret food life.  Binging and dieting consumed her life – until the day she tried to kill herself.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the story of Betsy Lerner’s struggle with weight.  And,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The idea of creative collaboration is a relatively new one.  For centuries, science and culture focused on the self self-expression, self-realization.  But two is the magic number.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore creative partnerships.  Joshua Wolf Shenk talks about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Soup to Nuts

Part Six

Once upon a time, there was a chef who made the greatest cakes in the world. His name was Antonin Careme. But this is no fairy tale. It’s a true story of a man called the King of the Cooks. In this hour of To the Best...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Say you’re in Vegas playing high-stakes poker.  You haven’t slept in days.  To make matters worse, you’re being stared down by two of the best poker players in the world.  And...you’re bluffing.  So, you bet it all to bring the pot to well over a million dollars.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Did you ever notice your dog gets depressed when you do?  That your cat seems to make you feel more relaxed?  Every wonder why?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the connection between people and animals.  Primatologist Frans de Waal says it may not be opera and abstract art, but...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When and how did the universe begin? Why is there something rather than nothing? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll tackle the big questions about the universe. From Stephen Hawking's latest ideas about parallel universes and theories of everything to the quantum physics of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

America's gone craft crazy. Everyone's knitting, or keeping scrapbooks; throwing pots or wood-working. And naturally, there are new chains of stores that carry all the supplies these crafters need, or think they do. To the Best of Our Knowledge considers what we mean by the word "craft." Does it...Read more

self help books

Every new year brings a fresh start, another chance to remake yourself. We all aspire to be better people, but following through on our goals can often be difficult.Read more

colors and light

How do we know what's real?  Can science tell us, or is there an unseen reality we'll never understand?  We explore the borderlands of knowledge and reflect on some remarkable episodes in the history of science - Nobel laureates who investigated ghosts and a pioneer of quantum physics...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman has interviewed some of the biggest names in the celebrity constellation. But getting a celebrity to talk is no easy task. In fact, Klosterman says it's not in the celebrity's best interest to do any interviews at all. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

John Cheever was sometimes called the "Chekov of the Suburbs." Cheever's characters often find themselves struggling with issues of conformity and class in American suburbia. Much like their creator himself. We'll explore the life and work of John Cheever with his biographer, Blake Bailey. Also...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Future Perfect: Dreamers, Schemers & Visionaries

Part Two

 

It's not hard to see why economics is called "the dismal science" – after we were blind-sided by the worst financial meltdown in decades. But economics does have its...Read more

colors and light

We may think it’s pretty clear what is – and isn’t – science, but history is littered with cases where the line wasn’t so obvious.  For instance, Isaac Newton studied alchemy, and Galileo was a practicing astrologer.  This hour explores the edges of science, and we hear about the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sometimes, a single word speaks volumes about its era. Sputnik conjures up both the heady excitement of the early Space Race and the whole scary history of the Cold War. In this hour, To the Best of Our Knowledge touches on a few of these cultural touchstones....from Sputnik to Snoopy. We'll...Read more

book

We love books. We line them on shelves like totems. We pile them next to our beds in some hope they'll affect our dreams.  For many of us, books are sacred objects. And sometimes, just sometimes, they’re even magical.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As soon as you, or someone you love, has that first "senior moment" – you start to worry. Is this the beginning of the slippery slope of Alzheimer's Disease? Relax! There's something you can do. The good news is that most of us won't live long enough to get Alzheimer's. And the rest of us...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Welcome to the digital age. There’s information everywhere but do we know any more than we did twenty years ago? And for all that info... where's knowledge?Read more

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