Today most of what we read is on a screen. So here's the question: Is there something different -- something better -- about reading a physical book? Or does it matter? We explore slow reading, e-reading, bibliotherapy and a novel that unfolds within another novel.Read more
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Episode Archives
June 22nd, 1977. Two college women are camping. A man runs over their tent in a pickup truck. Then he attacks the women with an axe. Fifteen years later, one of the women returns to central Oregon to try to solve the crime. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Terri Jentz shares...Read more
Barbara Moss needed a new face. Her mouth was so deformed she could pop a baby’s fist between her teeth and out again without opening her jaw. As a girl, she prayed for just a little bit of beauty. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, one woman discovers her true face. Also, why men...Read more
Toby Young thought he had it made. He had a prestigious job at Vanity Fair magazine, a press pass that got him in everywhere, and a suave British accent to boot. He was poised to take Manhattan. Then everything went wrong. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, flops, failures and...Read more
Most movie stars will do anything to stay in the limelight. But Debra Winger didn’t care. Six years ago, she walked out of Hollywood. She even taped her retirement card above her mirror so she’d see it every day. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Debra Winger talks about the...Read more
It's not quite the Manhattan that we're familiar with. "The New York Times" is available in a "War-Free Edition" and there are rumors of an escaped tiger on the prowl in the Upper East Side. This is the setting of Jonathan Lethem's critically-acclaimed new novel, "Chronic City." On this To the...Read more
A Swedish environmentalist believes we really should give back to the earth, even after we’ve died. Her company is trying to replace cremation with a technologically-enhanced form of organic composting, and she’s already got the support of King Carl Gustav and the Church of Sweden. In this...Read more
President Obama is out to remake America's relationship with the Islamic world. We'll explore what this means for both the Middle East and the U.S. We'll also look at the ongoing debate over Muslim immigration in Europe, and we'll talk with a Hollywood screenwriter about his new novel on the...Read more
It used to be simple to pick out a shade of paint, before computers made almost infinite gradations possible. Now if you stare at those samples long enough they all start to look alike. It turns out color is as much a mental construct as a physical substance. In this hour of To the Best of...Read more
Sometimes all you really want to take to bed is a good book. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, meet some passionate readers. We’ll also try to find out if big time critics really hate books.Read more
Global pandemics, alien invasions, the Second Coming....why do we love imagining the end of the world? We examine apocalyptic thinking – from vampire movies to the Book of Revelation.Read more
We’re all a little bit wild inside, but how often do we let it out? If you've been spending too much time indoors in front of a screen, maybe it's time for a dose of the real thing. This week,stories of people who found strength, wonder and joy by heading into the wild.Read more
Calling Lynne Cox a swimmer is like calling Mohammed Ali a tough guy. At age fourteen, she swam to Catalina Island from mainland California. At eighteen she swam between the islands of New Zealand. Years later, with miles of hard swims behind her, she turned her eye to the unthinkable - the...Read more
For the first time in American history, young women are choosing independence over marriage. Single women today outnumber married women and have more political power than ever before. It's what Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger and other feminist icons predicted. This hour, how...Read more
Next time you catch an old episode of the Flying Nun, you may want to pay attention. Because today’s convents are closing. The average nun is seventy years old, and even devout sisters often have to bite their tongues when they talk about the pope. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more
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
The Back to the Land spirit of the 60s lives on today, in the proliferation of farmer's markets, and the increased interest in sustainability and growing our own food. From the fight to end food waste in America to the art of living small, we'll find out what the Back to the Land spirit...Read more
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?
Whether black from a bottomless cup or as a Frappuccino mocha skim latte, it’s our culture’s elixir, coffee. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, java, joe, or a cup of mud. Most of us drink it everyday, but few of us know the effects it has on the world’s economy, or even...Read more
Forty years ago, the U.S. ended its war in Vietnam, but we're still fighting over its legacy - in foreign policy and military strategy, and also in books and movies. But there's one question Americans rarely ask: what does the war mean to the Vietnamese themselves? We'll hear several...Read more
It’s one of the great stories in the history of books. James Murray was a poor kid from Scotland who dropped out of school at age 14. Somehow, he taught himself the history of words in various languages, and went on to create the world’s greatest dictionary. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
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
After 11 years of isolation in New England, Nathan Zuckerman returns to New York City. Now 71, Zuckerman discovers that a lot has changed. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Nathan Zuckerman's creator, the renowned novelist, Philip Roth. And we'll find out how both Roth...Read more
As America endures the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the hardships our grandparents and great grandparents lived through are suddenly relevant again. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, stories from the Great Depression – advice from the generation that survived...Read more