If you find Shakespeare a bit intimidating, you might want to check out the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Its actors do a version of “Hamlet” forward and backwards – all in two minutes. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Shakespeare as you’ve never heard him before. Also, the great...Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
What makes a great school? Is it the quality of teaching, class size, or the curriculum? When it comes to school reform, everyone seems to have an opinion. Today, we're rethinking schools and the way we teach.Read more
We run for all sorts of reasons -- to lose 10 pounds, to win an Olympic medal, or simply because it’s fun. Some even run as a spiritual practice. Today, why we run - and how far and how fast can humans go?Read more
For eons Mars has been the toast of the galaxy – and has ignited the human imagination. The Red Planet is home to the God of War – and to little green men. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, exploring Mars. We’ll get the latest on NASA’s new Mars missions, and take a look at the...Read more
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
Sinatra swings it, Miles Davis jazzes it up, and Billy Holiday croons it from the heart. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, the biography of a great American love song. In our second annual Valentine’s Day Show the Rogers and Hart hit “My Funny Valentine.” And our listeners share true...Read more
Shuttered businesses line the familiar streets of producer Charles Monroe-Kane’s hometown in the Rust Belt in northeastern Ohio. The steel mill where his father worked is shut down, locked behind chains. Opioid abuse is...Read more
Ten years after the end of apartheid, what’s left to document the struggle? For the filmmakers of the documentary “Amandla,” there’s music. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the songs that faced down death, despair and terror on the road to equality in South Africa. Also, the...Read more
What animals will still be living in the year 3000? Forget about tigers, rhinos and pandas. They’ll go the way of the dodo bird. But scientist Peter Ward says rats and coyotes will flourish. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the future of evolution. Also, best-selling novelist...Read more
Bombay is the largest city in the world. And one of the most confounding. Bar dancers, gangs, and Bollywood all call Bombay home, for better or worse. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a Bombay-native takes us inside this Maximum City. Also, the writer of the hit movie "Monsoon...Read more
Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Brittney Spears – divas? Nah. Maria Callas – now she was a diva! In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, two great ladies with leather lungs – Maria Callas and Judy Garland – their triumphs and tragedies from Onassis to Oz. And other...Read more
Who says it's only humans who make art? Have you ever seen an elephant paint? Move over Jackson Pollock - elephant masterpieces are heading to the auction block! And when it comes to music well, Renee Fleming's got a nice voice, but have you have heard a whale sing? It's unbelievable. In this...Read more
Homer called salt a divine substance. Salt taxes built empires across Europe and Asia. They even sparked a revolution. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why salt is no ordinary rock. We’ll tell you how it’s changed the course of history. Also, the...Read more
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
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
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
They can talk to angels, they're intuitive, and their aura is an unusual vivid blue. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll find out about indigo children. The new age movement says they're here to save the world, but modern medicine says they're normal kids with attention deficit...Read more
When your country doesn’t live up to its own values, what do you do? Put your head under the covers or man the barricades? Fighting for freedom means different things to different people. In this hour, we talk with some of them -- from Wikileaks’ controversial founder Julian Assange, to the...Read more
By today’s medical definition, Brad Pitt is overweight, and Russell Crowe is obese. The standards are even tougher for women. But are those extra pounds really that bad? Maybe it’s time we all lighten up about fat. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why one expert says America’s...Read more
When the world turns green again, it makes us all a little giddy! In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll pull on our gum boots and get out into the garden with novelist Jamaica Kincaid, who’s grown a map of the Carribean at her Vermont home. Sharon Lovejoy, author of Roots, Shoots...Read more
Who really rules the internet? Cats, of course. We can't take the cuteness anymore so here it is -- our first and only show about cats. Cat videos, superstar cats, cat music, cat history, endangered cats... and a little, tiny bit about dogs.Read more
What goes into making new music? And how does hearing new music change the way we listen? From the Avant Garde composers of the 1920s, through Japanese noise music, to punk progenitor Richard Hell, we’re looking at how music - and how we hear it - changes. Read more
No matter what quiet corner of America you inhabit, you’ve heard about NASCAR. You may not understand it. You may not get it. But while you weren’t paying attention, those cars, driving in circles for hours, became our national pastime. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, car racing....Read more
What do Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and Madonna have in common? Not much, except the kind of blazing fame that turns relatively normal people into obsessive fans who would walk ten miles through a blizzard just to stand in celebrity garbage. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more