Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How do you soak in the essence of a city?  In New York, writer Colson Whitehead goes walking ... through Times Square, along Broadway, down into the subway.  In Memphis, critic Robert Gordon listens to its music - the blues, soul, rock-n-roll.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

These days, we're becoming more and more like corporations. We outsource our individual needs for everything from dating to weight loss. We brand ourselves. We behave like individuals in competition with each other rather than people with an opportunity to collaborate. But it doesn't have to be...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Democracy is one of those rubbery words. We kind of know what it means. But do we really? It’s voting and elections, but it’s much, much more than that. Democracy has inspired The Velvet Revolution and the Arab Spring.  It encouraged the Suffragists and the Civil Rights Movement. It stirred the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Japan has a “slow life” movement.  Italy has a “slow cities” movement.  Spain has a network of siesta salons.  And Americans?  10 to 15 million of us now meditate or do yoga.  Is it possible the world is finally ready to slow down?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge a look at the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The legendary movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn once said, you should never predict anything, especially the future.  But it’s human nature to go to extremes for a sneak peak of what lies around the corner.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, an astrophysicist sheds some light on...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

American citizens worry about suicide bombers on airplanes, but intelligence analysts say the real threat today is in cyberspace. Cyber attacks on American companies and military installations are on the rise. Could terrorist hackers take down America's power grid? Or financial networks. In...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

New York Times columnist David Brooks is best known for his political writing, but he's also fascinated by recent findings in psychology and neuroscience.  In fact he says many of our public policies fail because we're not actually the rational decision makers we think we are.  In this hour of...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

Nelson Algren said “Never play cards with a man called Doc.  Never eat at a place called Mum’s.  And never go to bed with a woman whose troubles are greater than your own.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll catch up with Studs Terkel to talk about why an American master like...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You know who they are – the cool kids – those above-it-all taste-makers whose fashion and entertainment choices predict what everyone else will be wearing and doing next year.  What’s their secret?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge exploring cool.  A frustrated surfer remembers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you remember the first time you saw a piece of art or heard a piece of music that shocked you?  Something you immediately knew your parents would hate?  Remember how good it felt, to like something bad?  In this show, we're talking about shock value — the virtues of transgressive, subversive...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The thrill of victory… the agony of defeat.  And the human drama of athletic competition.  We love sports. And every 4 years we get the pleasure to watch amateur athletes, at the top of their game, compete in the Olympics.  And that got us thinking about competition.  Because that’s what it’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Trayvon Martin’s death and George Zimmerman’s acquittal has sparked a debate over race this country hasn’t seen in many years.  So, whose America is it?  The young black teen in a hoodie?  The illegal immigrant who’s been living here for twenty years?  Muslims?  Native Americans? You?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Listen to the experts and they’ll tell you the suburbs are boring, stifling places to live, full of bad architecture.  Well, more than half of all Americans now live in suburbia.  Can so many people be wrong?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a defense of suburbs.  Also, playwright...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A car accident at twenty-one left John Callahan paralyzed.  He’s become a very successful cartoonist -- poking fun at disabilities and the idiosyncrasies of life.    His work has been described as “rude, shocking, tasteless, and depraved” – by his fans.  Next time on To...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

All the world's a stage! The Play's the thing. Fair is foul and foul is fair. Hardly a day goes by when the words that flowed so easily from Will Shakespeare's pen don't meet and greet us in the modern world. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, sweet William makes his way to the...Read more

film junkies stare at screens

It’s Oscar season and Hollywood is once again celebrating the best films of the year. It would seem that we're a nation obsessed with movies. As a country, we spend billions of dollars to watch them every year, and celebrate them with a variety of awards ceremonies. But what separates a...Read more

Barbara Ehrenreich

A collection of all of Barbara Ehrenreich's interviews on "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" over the years. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It sounds like a deal in the ads - submit your poems, have them set to music, and start a fascinating new career as a hit songwriter.  Of course your chance of success is slim to none and you have to pay for the privilege.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the strange subculture of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Here’s the bad news.  You can get the thing you most want - a BMW, the winning lottery ticket, and you still won’t be any happier.  The good news?  You can survive the most devastating catastrophes and you’ll be back on your feet in less time than you think.  Next time on To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Adventure writer Ann Jones recalls crossing Africa from Tangier to Cape Town in search of one special tribe.  They’re guided by the “feminine” principles of compromise, tolerance and peace.  Also, Tony Horwitz sets sail in the wake of Captain Cooke.  We’ll hear about a Frenchman who never went...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do African-Americans believe Jesse Jackson speaks for them? A resounding 72% between the ages of 18 and 45 say "No." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the battle between the Civil Rights generation and the Hip-Hop generation. We'll speak to young blacks about who does speak for them...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Plugged into devices, fixated on screens, their world muted by headphones jammed in their ears, college students on campus in Ann Arbor can seem oblivious to risk. Poet Laura Kasischke marvels at their fearlessness in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

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