The US will pull troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, leaving behind an enemy they've fought for more than a decade. This week, we explore Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency and find out what motivates them.Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
Parents worry that their kids spend too much time playing video games, but according to one new study, if you need surgery, you want the surgeon who grew up with a game controller in one hand. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why the future belongs to gamers. Imagine a...Read more
It's time to wish you a Happy 2006 – if you use the Gregorian Calendar. And a Happy 1427 by the Islamic calendar, or a Fruitful 4704 in China, where it's the Year of the Dog. But then, if you accept the Big Bang Theory, let us wish you a Happy 13 Billion, 700 Million. However you calculate it,...Read more
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
The Pentagon has something new: a microwave mounted on a Humvee that shoots an energy beam cooking everything in its path. Is this a new weapon in our war on terrorism? No, it’s the Marines’ “non-lethal” device for crowd control. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more
Read any good life-list books lately? How about "1,000 Places You Must Visit Before You Die?" or "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." There's no shortage of "life-list" books to read these days. What's next? "1,000 Life-List Books You Must Read Before You Die"? Probably. We'll explore...Read more
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
Think that a TV series based on the Coen Brothers' 1996 black comedy crime thriller, "Fargo," is a bad idea? Then you haven't seen "Fargo," The TV series. Creator and showrunner Noah Hawley talks about how he transformed the iconic film into the critically-acclaimed, award-winning TV series.Read more
Two years ago a professor in Wisconsin checked her mail and found a most unusual letter...from an Iraqi graduate student asking for scholarly advice. Since then professor Susan Friedman has exchanged hundreds of e-mails with academics in Iraq. And she's heard harrowing accounts of academic...Read more
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
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
Electrons to Enlightenment
Part Five
In the real world where we take out the garbage, we sometimes brush up against wonder and awe. We all look for it in different places. Some of us find it in God, like the great mystic poet...Read more
"Music can change the world." It's been said so many times - I wonder if it means anything anymore. Can it? Really, can music change the world? Can a song bring about peace? Or, overthrow a government? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll listen in on the soundtrack to war and...Read more
James Hood had a dream. He wanted to go to college and get an education. But there was a problem. Hood was a black man in segregated Alabama in 1963. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a variety of views and opinions from Black Americans on their expectations of freedom. We’ll...Read more
Ok, you choose: endure traditional strict religious strictures and a life of hard labor or, fully indulge in the pleasures of today? Amish youth are given that choice. When they turn 16 they're let loose to experience all the temptations the world. Then, they have to decide between the world and...Read more
Posters at Starbucks ask customers to focus on the world water crisis. Church congregations ask the faithful to go on a "carbon diet." Slate magazine asks readers to take a "green challenge." We've got green cars, green clothing, green politics and even green weddings. In this hour of To the...Read more
Do you ever think about the future? Not tomorrow or next month or post-election, but 100, 200 years in the future. Everyone alive now will be dead -- and what will be remembered? Which pop stars, movies and books will people still know? And will people's understanding of gravity...Read more
In the early 1950's two-year-old Jacqueline Henley in New Orleans became darker. After the neighbors complained, her aunt turned her over to New Orleans authorities. A black couple wanted to adopt Jacqueline but -- she had the word “white” stamped on her birth certificate. Next time on To...Read more
Electrons to Enlightenment
Part Four
Polls show that nearly half of all Americans believe the Biblical story of creation, while only a quarter accept evolution. The philosopher Daniel Dennett thinks we need to "break the spell" of...Read more
From Soup to Nuts:
Part Three
Meat and Potatoes isn't just what's for dinner. Meat and Potatoes is a way of life. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, food that sticks to your ribs. We'll get into the science of the French fry and...Read more
The average American spends more time on Facebook than with their pets or exercising -- and that's not counting Twitter, Instagram, or Vine. We're more connected than ever these days, but at what cost?Read more
We're keepin it surreal this hour with a hallucinatory vortex chock full of innovative fiction. Like Salvador Dali said -- "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision." Join us as we expand your vision and melt your mind....Read more