Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There are many ways to live dangerously. Sure, you can take part in a death defying feat like skydiving, but living dangerously also sometimes involves taking intellectual risks, opening up, and being honest with yourself. To the Best of Our Knowledge recently travelled to Salt Lake City to...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you believe those at the top of society deserve their success, doesn’t that mean you think those at the bottom deserve their failure?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk about status anxiety.  Also, we’ll find out why American poverty matters to everyone.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Remember the movie “Field of Dreams,” about Shoeless Joe Jackson with Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones?  Well, the Field of Dreams is a real place, not a Hollywood studio lot.  It’s a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa and it’s become something of a religious site for many baseball fans.  In this...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

20 years ago a group of musicians gathered in Trinity Church in Toronto and did something extraordinary. In one night, using only one microphone and with no budget, they recorded a masterpiece. The band is the Cowboy Junkies. And the album, "The Trinity Session." The Cowboy Junkies look back on...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When you think of great movie musicals, what comes to mind?  “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly swinging from a streetlight in the middle of a torrential downpour.  How about “A Hard Day’s Night” - with images of hysterical fans mobbing the Beatles at a train station.  According to Roger...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Racial sensitivity and political tolerance are clearly good, but is it possible to take them too far? This hour, a look at how we talk about touchy subjects -- whether political correctness is about safety or censorship.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Andrew Sullivan is not a Republican, but he calls himself a conservative.  He does not believe in using religion to ground political ideals.  But he himself is a person of faith.  And he endorsed John Kerry, although Ronald Reagan is one of his heroes.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Right after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair magazine, declared “irony is dead.”  Only a few months later Carter said, with a nudge and a wink, “I meant to say IRONING is dead - not irony.”  This time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll look at the rise of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ayn Rand didn't know how to make small talk; she lived for big ideas and bold statements.  She believed capitalism was the best social system ever invented, and even took to wearing a gold pin in the shape of a dollar sign.  Ayn Rand died nearly thirty years ago, but she's now inspiring a new...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

East Meets West

Part Two

 

A look at America's romance with Eastern spirituality: how did dharma retreats and yoga vacations become part of the Western lifestyle? Buddhist teachers explain what Buddhism has to offer a consumer...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Attention all readers of fiction! This is something you really want to hear. To the Best of Our Knowledge devotes itself to some of the great reads of the last year. Colum McCann talks about his National Book Award-winning novel, and we'll hear from fellow finalist Jayne Anne Phillips. We'll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Think you know about kung fu movies?  That they’re campy, badly dubbed flicks from the 70s?  Sometimes.  But they’re also graceful, noble, heroic feats of movie making.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the tiger, the crane, legends of the Shaolin (SHOW-lin) Temple, and the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Has the news of government surveillance gotten you thinking that Big Brother is watching? What can we do to protect our information, online and in the real world? We examine privacy - what it means and how it's changing.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

On a scale of one to ten, how happy would you say you are right now?  If someone could teach you how to be even happier, would you be interested?  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, how to boost your happiness IQ.  Also, eating for pleasure, with chef and food writer Deborah Madison. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The mind and the body meet in the brain.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, two of the world’s top brain doctors claim that what you feel affects how you feel.  Dr. Norman Rosenthal, the man who discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), says there’s an Emotional...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We’re exploring love by the  numbers, this week.  36 questions, 40 first dates, and 43 equations – it’s all part of the new mathematical science of love.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq

Part Five

 

At least 120 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began. They're targets for insurgents. But what are journalists to the US military? A necessary evil? Or...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would the Old Masters make of the exhibitions that get some elected officials so worked up?  They might have liked them!  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, new art and old masters.  Simon Schama paints Rembrandt as a prankster.  We’ll uncover the political...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If chocolate be the food of love, eat on!  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why chocolate may be the next big health food.  It's our Valentine’s Day special:  two best-selling romance writers share tricks of the trade.  And, listeners share their true stories of love at first sight...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every year billions of classified dollars are funneled into what defense analysts call “the black world.”  It’s a realm that uses code names like “Black Light,” “Classic Wizard,” and “Link Plumeria” - a place where even an idea can be top secret.  Stealth bombers came from the black world, and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What’s your billion dollar idea? You know, the one that’s going to change the world?  America’s the land of invention, right? And it’s that can-do spirit that makes this country great. But America’s no longer the global innovation giant it once was.

Where have you gone, Thomas Edison?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are Americans dumbing down instead of smartening up? Many surveys say yes. According to a 2006 National Geographic-Roper survey, nearly half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 don't think it's necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. In...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Hillary Clinton once described herself as a "Rorschach test." People see in her what they want, whether they love her or hate her. In this hour of To the Best Of Our Knowledge we'll talk about the complicated feelings many women have about Hillary, her marriage to Bill, and whether it's possible...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How far did your food travel to get to you today? 100 miles? A thousand? Or just down the street. No matter where today's meal came from, there's a story behind it. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, food stories. New York chef Dan Barber faces a moral crisis in the form of a...Read more

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