It’s Art & Craft week at TTBOOK, but we’re not gluing macaroni to cardboard.
From the halls of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, to MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms; from a craft studio on the coast of Maine, to "outsider artists" at the Venice Biennale... w...Read more
Another season of HBO's "Game of Thrones" is beginning, and the History Channel's "Vikings" is racking up ratings. Why are we so interested in the Middle Ages?Read more
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, choosing the life you want. Colette’s biographer talks about how the great French writer stayed saucy and sexually active into old age. Kay Redfield Jamison takes a look at the end of life - a view of the suicide epidemic. And...Read more
How much time do you spend thinking about the future? Oh sure, you’ve probably got plans for the weekend or are thinking about how your kids are doing in school.
But how much time to do we spend – as a nation, a global community – thinking about what our lives might look like in 50 or 100...Read more
Photographers capture heartache and agony. What does it mean for them? And what does it mean for us, those viewing the photos? Do these images create empathy? Compassion? Or something else?Read more
Peggy Orenstein didn't want children. At least she didn't think so. Children killed careers and turned smart, professional women into drones. Well, that's what Orenstein was afraid of, anyway. But after a death in the family, she changed her mind. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, to...Read more
Julian Barnes is one of England’s most celebrated novelists. He’s fascinated by the ways our minds play tricks with memory, especially as we age. It’s the subject of his Booker Prize winning novel “The Sense of an Ending” – one of several new books that explore the minefield of memory. We...Read more
Every person on earth is unique and special, but some people – maybe one in a hundred – are autistic. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we get to know a few autistic people with Asperger's Syndrome. We'll hear what it's like to try to live in the world when you have visionary...Read more
Dan Janzen is one of the world’s leading tropical biologists. He’s spent forty years working in the Cost Rican jungle, and there’s one creature that fascinates him above all others - the moth. Janzen has found nine-thousand different species of moth in Cost Rica. In this hour of To the Best...Read more
Maybe it hits you the first time you get a mailing from AARP – all of a sudden, getting older isn't just about other people. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we spend time with some people who've chosen to face the rest of their lives in some unusual ways. Poker columnist James...Read more
Where did we come from, and where are we going? Whether it's the Garden of Eden and Armageddon, or the Big Bang and the Big Freeze, we can't help but ponder our place in the universe. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we consider the universal course of time, from the beginning to...Read more
Piano lessons. For many of us those two words evoke only bad memories from our childhood. Piano lessons are shorthand for the oppression of children by mean and tyrannical adults. And no one captures this better than Dr. Seuss, the champion of all kids, underdogs and Whozits. In this hour of To...Read more
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
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
Ever wonder what it’s like behind on the scenes on TTBOOK? Being in studio while the energy and imagination of Sherman Alexie bounces off the wall? Or watching E.O. Wilson, one of the world’s preeminent biologists unfold the beauty of his mind and the ideas that keep him in love with the world...Read more
"Let me say this as plainly as I can" President Obama said recently, "By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." Obama's plan will bring home some 150,000 troops. But what are they coming home to? Their divorce rate is triple the national average. Alcoholism, four times the...Read more
Tucker Crowe is a reclusive musician. His devoted fans consider him to be the creator of the greatest breakup album ever recorded. But Tucker Crowe doesn't actually exist. He's a character in "Juliet, Naked"...the new novel from "New York Times" best-selling author, Nick Hornby. We'll talk to...Read more
You know the earth is round, the sky is up, and your dog loves you. But HOW do you know those things? This week, how we form opinions – the psychology and brain chemistry behind our beliefs.Read more
American companies generate a lot of wealth. But Americans aren't seeing much of it. Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff says that's because today's corporations are obsessed with one thing -- growth. We'll find out why our economy's operating system is broken and how we can fix it, as we rethink...Read more
Her novel “Bel Canto” was a hit so now novelist Ann Patchett is a star. But back when they were in college, it was her fellow student Lucy Grealy who got treated like a rock star. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at uncommon friendships. Ann Patchett tells how her...Read more
It’s the longest-running prime-time animated series in TV history...with sixteen seasons and more than 350 episodes. So far. Not bad for a four-fingered family whose first gig was doing animated segments on a TV variety show. In this hour of the Peabody Award Winning Program To the Best of Our...Read more
Shortly after her mother died of ovarian cancer, Jessica Queller had herself tested for the dreaded BRCA gene mutation. She tested positive, which meant she had an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer, and a nearly 50 percent chance of ovarian cancer. So Queller did the unthinkable: at...Read more
As the Dalai Lama turns 80, we reflect on his legacy and remarkable personal history. Also, how various Eastern spiritual traditions have taken root in the West - from yoga to meditation. And the legacy of California's famous utopian experiment at Esalen and its "religion of no religion."Read more