Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would you do if you found yourself in the presence of murderous evil? Would you sell out to survive, or would you resist and try to hang onto your values? For how long? Maybe you reject the whole concept of evil. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll meet some people who aren't...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Before there was Wikipedia… Before there was Facebook and Twitter… there was Ward Cunningham.  The computer programmer who invented the first wiki, back in 1995.  Cunningham also did something even more radical – he didn’t patent his invention.  He passed up billions of dollars of potential...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Creative BrainCreativity is a little like obscenity:  You know it when you see it, but you can't exactly define it....unless you're a neuroscientist.  In labs around the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We explore music and memory in this hour -- Kurt Cobain's lasting impact 20 years after his death; insidious and infectious earworms; and the retro worldly music of Pink Martini.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Computers permeate our lives.  They scan our groceries.  They entertain us.  They keep us safe.  But, can they write a poem?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, will your desktop be the next Bard?  And, the life of the original rock n’ roll rebel: the 19th century French poet Arthur...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

For years poet and novelist Alice Walker told her friends she’d probably never write again.  But the events of September 11 changed all that.  And the poetry flowed.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Alice Walker on the role of the poet in a time of war.  Also, Iraqi poetry today. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

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There’s a powerful new voting bloc in America. They’re white, working class, and they live in places that have been left behind. We'll talk with "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance, and country music star Brandy Clark joins us in the studio to play some music and talk about her hometown.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Graphic novelist Neil Gaiman has a talent for creating strange and fantastic worlds.  His “Sandman” comic books helped spawn the Goth movement, and with characters called Dream and Death, he created a new mythology.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll visit with Neil Gaiman at...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Nerds are an easy target for humor in movies and on TV... with their thick black glasses, hopelessly out-of-fashion clothes, and over-enunciated diction. But there's a dark side to nerds. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll find out how the nerd stereotype is harming our children...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities, we're wondering what shapes urban cultures. In this hour, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk talks about how Istanbul shaped his writing. One historian argues that early liberal philosophies from Amsterdam shaped the United States. And we check in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Cameron Sinclair has something to say to architects out there: design like you give a damn. The founder of Architects for Humanity says the houses and office buildings we build today will literally shape the world our children inherit. So give a damn. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Eighty per cent of Americans say they believe in heaven. But when they're asked to describe it, many are at a loss for words. Do they think that there's another universe in the sky or do they believe that heaven is something more abstract and metaphorical? We'll explore our enduring fascination...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What if our lives were like DVDs?  What if we had alternative endings to look forward to, instead of death?  We explore our lust for immortality.  And we look at the many alternative endings that Ernest Hemingway wrote for his classic novel, "A Farewell to Arms."

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Think you know your history?  Then, of course, you remember Martin Luther King's famous "If I Had A Hammer" speech.  And you know that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife...and she was at rest on Mount Arafat.  And you don't need me to remind you that Marie Curie won the Noel Prize for inventing the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everybody gets excited about whatever's new, but what about what's really, really old?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we commemorate geologic time.  We'll meet the scientists who found the oldest object on Earth - a three point four billion year old zircon!  And the Jazz...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are you an experimental innovator who works by trial and error and is most creative later in life, like Cezanne? Or are you a conceptual young genius like Picasso? We'll explore a theory that those are the two life cycles of artistic creativity.Read more

tapes

Why do people embrace the experimental visual art of Mark Rothko but avoid the experimental music of Karlheinz Stockhausen?   That's the question that David Stubbs explores in his book, "Fear of Music."  We'll meet Stubbs in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge.  Also,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

America is in trouble. The decline of the dollar, climate change and the ugly math of Social Security and national debt are just a handful of the challenges facing the next generation. And who's to blame for the current mess? Baby Boomers - according to a growing movement, pitting one generation...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine a world where flying robots watch over our borders, assist with search and rescue missions, and survey roads and pipelines. Sounds like science fiction, but in many parts of the country it's a reality. This week, we explore the rise of drones, both as a military tool and a disruptive...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Scientists have proven what pet owners already knew - cuddling with your dog or cat is good for you – and for your pet.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, keeping animals well, and how they return the favor.  From gorilla conservation and eco-tourism to the dilemmas posed...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The pursuit of knowledge can make you do weird things.  Sir Isaac Newton explored his eye-socket with a wooden stick.  Swedish chemist Karl Scheele was undone by the toxic chemicals he insisted on tasting.  And a German scientist named Becher spent years trying to make gold from his own urine,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The sky is black. The wind’s picking up.  The hurricane is coming.  Nothing you can do about it.  But wait!  Scientists from Dyn-o-Storm fly into the hurricane.  They release a chemical that stops the hurricane dead in its tracks.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, should we?  Just...Read more

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