Sometimes it's better to forget than to remember. Maybe it's an embarrassing photo on Facebook. Or perhaps a collective memory that's been used by certain ethnic groups to stir up hatred of their enemies. We explore the science, history and philosophy of memory. Plus, filmmaker Whit Stillman on...Read more
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Episode Archives
Big box education is on the way out. Instead, imagine a future with schools of every variety available for mixing and matching, like sushi on a platter. Micro-schools, Waldorf Schools, part-time schools and more. That's the future as seen by Matt Hern, an advocate for what he calls de-...Read more
What’s the biggest threat to American supremacy? Islamic fundamentalism? China? How about Europe? Today Europe has more people, more trade, and more wealth than the U.S. And the European welfare state offers a potent alternative to American capitalism - and what government’s supposed to do...Read more
The geography of organized religion in America is changing. Today, more and more Americans identify themselves as spiritual, rather than aligning themselves with a particular religion. They're cobbling together faith and spirituality from sources all over the world, picking and choosing the...Read more
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
When the Soviet Union fell, China was poised to take over as America’s next great enemy. The 9/11 happened and there was a new enemy. So, what about China? Next time, we’ll take a closer look at China today and what the future holds for US/China relations. Also, a talk with Nobel prize-...Read more
When somebody asks Josh Ritter what kind of music he plays, sometimes he ends up lying. After all, Ritter's music is hard to describe - a little bit rock n' roll by way of Bruce Springsteen with a twist of Bob Dylan. Anyway you describe it, Josh Ritter has arrived. We'll get inside the music...Read more
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
In case it’s not obvious: we LOVE books on TTBOOK. But we’re also incredibly picky about which books we choose for interviews.Read more
Outsiders used to be the outcasts, misfits, and under-employed. Today, they're indie, alternative and ahead of their time. Outsiders are thriving and they're changing the way we think about what is mainstream and what is alternative. You might even say that outsiders are the new insiders.Read more
The Baobab looks like an upside down elephant. It’s enormous and gray, with little sprays of green at the top. According to an African creation myth, the Great Spirit gave each animal a gift. The hyena got the baobab and tossed it aside in disgust. But Thomas Pakenham thinks it’s one of the...Read more
Everywhere you turn at this time of year there are babies: Babies wrapped in swaddling cloths, babies lying in mangers, baby-faced cherubs, and baby angels. All to be expected of a holiday that celebrates the birth of a child. But then, birth is a pretty miraculous thing. In this hour of To the...Read more
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
Lynne Truss created a sensation in Britain with a book whose title is a punch line: it’s a punctuation joke that says a panda is a black and white mammal and it “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.” Rules for punctuation and a good life, in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge.Read more
Trick or Treat! These days, that means handing out candy, but once upon a time Halloween revelers often played nasty tricks. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the real history of Halloween. Also, why stories about monsters, ghouls and the supernatural keep popping...Read more
Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq
Part Four
President Obama says our combat mission in Iraq will end by August 31, 2010. This leaves many unanswered questions. What was our mission in Iraq? Did we succeed? What will...Read more
Ira Glass has helped reinvent storytelling on the radio. But he says it took him years to learn how to tell a good radio tale. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Ira Glass ont the art of telling stories. We’ll also visit The Moth – the mecca of storytelling in New York City. And...Read more
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
Nearly 2500 years ago, Socrates celebrated the pursuit of wisdom, and famously said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” But does rigorous self examination actually lead to a happy or fulfilled life? It didn’t seem to work some of history’s most famous philosophers, including...Read more
Apocalyptic thinking is everywhere, from predictions about Christian “end times” to the 2012 Mayan prophecy about the end of the world. So what’s going on? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk with renowned religious historian Elaine Pagels about the lasting impact of the...Read more
Emerging insights from the new science of astrobiology paints a picture of a universe seeded with potential life. While astronomers discover new exoplanets every other week or so, biologists are finding unexpected life in some of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Together, their work...Read more
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
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
As a boy in northwest Ohio during the 1930's, Donald Richie spent a lot of time watching movies about exciting new worlds. So it seems only fitting that Donald Richie went on to live in a different world. For the past 50 years he’s lived in Japan, and has established a reputation as one the of...Read more