Salman Rushdie's new novel is called "The Enchantress of Florence." It's a tale of two cities, consisting of stories tucked inside stories tucked inside stories...along the lines of Scheherazade's stories of "One Thousand and One Nights." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Salman...Read more
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Episode Archives
Are humans innately violent? If you stripped the civilization out of us, just how bad would we be?Read more
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Russia and China. They were the two Communist giants. Now each is carving out a new future. By most accounts, China is doing it better. It’s still an authoritarian state, but the economy if booming. And Russia? Well, it’s capitalism’s wild...Read more
On February 13th, 1945 Kurt Vonnegut and other American POWs were hiding in a cellar during the firebombing of Dresden. They were remarkably lucky, as 135,000 people died that night. During the bombing one soldier said, “I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight?” Nobody laughed but, as...Read more
Electrons to Enlightenment
Part Five
In the real world where we take out the garbage, we sometimes brush up against wonder and awe. We all look for it in different places. Some of us find it in God, like the great mystic poet...Read more
Are you living the American Dream? Or just struggling to get by? Changing the minimum wage, cuts to food stamps, and health care coverage have been all over the news. What does it take to “make it” in America today?
Also, On Our Minds this week, Swedish crime fiction writer Jens Lapidus...Read more
Paul Ewald is a cancer researcher. He says we're entering a golden era in cancer treatment based on one emerging idea: most cancers are caused by viruses. It's good news, according to Ewald, who says we'll be able to treat cancer preventively, with vaccines. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
With the war in Iraq winding down, now what? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at the war’s aftermath - and not only for Iraqis, but also for the millions of people who marched against the war. Does America’s quick victory mean the peace movement failed? And what about...Read more
Tenzin Palmo isn’t your ordinary Englishwoman. For twelve years she boiled snow for drinking water, lived without heat and electricity, and spent 12 hours a day propped up in a wooden box. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a Buddhist nun recalls her years of meditation in a lonely...Read more
Are we running out of water? Science writer Fred Pearce thinks so. He's traveled the world to investigate the current state of crucial water sources. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge Pearce talks about the defining crisis of the twenty-first century. Also, we'll explore the social...Read more
Reading a good book may be the most fun you can have sitting down. Books can be a hobby or a passion, an interest or an obsession. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, tales from book world. A former bookseller takes us to Hay on Wye - the Welsh town that’s well on its way to...Read more
Want to learn a second or third language? You don’t have to slave away in a French seminar – it only takes a minute or two to pick up “ob.” Next time on tob-oo thob-ah bob-est ob-of ob-our knob-ow-lob-edge. Or should I say To the Best of Our Knowledge, word games, and secret...Read more
In the wake of a number of high profile shootings over the past year, people are talking about policing, racism, and injustice. But there's one issue we don't really talk all that much about: fear.This hour, we take a closer look at negative stereotypes about African American men, how those...Read more
Good house-keeping used to go hand-in-hand with good citizenship. And remember the phrase, "cleanliness is next to godliness"? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, thoughts on the art of keeping house. We'll talk about the science of dust, meet the Queen of Clutter, and hear novelist...Read more
"Shhh… I have a secret… Now, I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you." Classic spy joke – but not so funny when it's true. In this hour of To The Best of Our Knowledge, we'll go the dark side of secrecy - warrantless wiretapping, secret CIA prisons, "extraordinary rendition,"...Read more
Of all the days in the life of Nelson Mandela - the days in jail, awaiting sentence and his election in 94 - one day stood out as the most nerve-wracking. The day of the Rugby World Cup in 1995 - South Africa versus New Zealand. But it was much more than a sports match. It was the chance to...Read more
There’s another September 11th. On that day thirty years ago, a military coup overthrew Chile’s elected president, Salvador Allende. Newly declassified documents show the C.I.A.’s extensive involvement in the coup. On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Pinochet file. Also,...Read more
Do you think your memory is a record of what actually happened? Chances are, it's not. New scientific findings show that with every act of remembering, our brains...Read more