Do you believe in magic? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk with some people who do. Join us for a conversation with America’s favorite witch – Starhawk. And uncover your own inner wizard! What Merlin, Dumbledore and Gandalf have to teach us all about living a life...Read more
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Episode Archives
Once upon a time, not so long ago, the classroom filmstrip was everywhere. They taught us to change our underwear at least twice a week, among other things. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll revisit the golden age of classroom filmstrips. So sit up straight.Read more
According to George Bernard Shaw, the seven deadly sins are food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. This time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll explore the more traditional Seven Deadly Sins. Musician Joe Jackson will tell us how lust, gluttony and the other sins...Read more
There are children who seem to be re-born into new families, while remembering specific and verifiable things about their former lives. It may be coincidence, or imagination, but some of their stories will curl your hair! In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a search for...Read more
Tragedy struck Ron Mallett when he was ten years old. His beloved father died and he wanted to bring him back. So he dreamed of building a time machine. Ron Mallett grew up to become a theoretical physicist. Now he studies quantum mechanics and he's still trying to figure out how to go back in...Read more
What does it take to become a U.S. president? Driving ambition, of course, but what else? We'll dissect a few presidents - from Lincoln and LBJ to Obama - and consider the chances of a female president in 2016.Read more
Most of us think in words, but not Temple Grandin. She thinks in pictures. Grandin is autistic, and visual thinking is common among people with autism. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Temple Grandin talks about how thinking in pictures has helped her help animals. Also, mark...Read more
A little laugh goes a long way. This week, we’re taking a crash course in how to be funny.
From Chicago’s famous Second City, to a humor research lab, this hour's a laugh riot. We also talk with a laughter coach, Canadian comic Mary Walsh, and longtime New Yorker humorist Ian...Read more
Are you afraid of getting old? Most people are, but studies show we're usually happier in our 60s and 70s. Aging often brings wisdom and resilience - and a new creative spark. We celebrate the fine art of aging - and hear about some artists who remade their careers late in life.Read more
Oh, city living. The crush of people, the crowd of buildings, the empty lots, the garbage-strewn slums.
More than half of us will be living urban by 2050. How will we manage?Read more
Even now, the oceans of the world are terra incognita. We’ve explored only 5-10 percent of them on a planet mostly comprised of water. What we’re missing couldsurprise us. This hour, we explore the mysteries of the deep. We’ll hear about the oceans’ oddest creatures...Read more
We all have our good days and our bad days, but chances are they’re nothing like what Andy Behrman has experienced. Behrman would fly from Zurich to the Bahamas and back in three days to balance hot and cold weather. On the bad days, he’d experience tornado-like rages of depression. In this...Read more
Fashion photographer David Jay recently sent us a book of his photos. The lighting was perfect, the settings intimate. The women, nearly naked, were gorgeous. Taking in the beautiful images, something stood out – the mastectomy scars.Read more
"Being a man, like being a woman, is something you have to learn." That's what Aaron Raz Link says. And Link should know. He began life as a girl named Sarah. And he started a new life as a gay man twenty-nine years later. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Aaron Raz Link,...Read more
Last week we lost one of the great scholars of religion. Huston Smith died at the age of 97. Smith's book “The World’s Religions” sold more than three million copies and is perhaps the most important book ever written on comparative religion. He also had a colorful personal history. In the early...Read more
Have you seen the David Lynch film “Mulholland Drive”? Did you understand it? One reviewer says watching “Mulholland Drive” is “like playing Twister and Scrabble simultaneously while high on LSD.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge two young men talk about their internet audio...Read more
Ten years ago, South African singer and activist Vusi Mahalesela had the thrill of his life. He sang at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the music and politics of South Africa - ten years after the end of apartheid.Read more
You’ve seen the Olympics on TV, but do you want to know what’s really happening in Utah? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a special program recorded in front of a live audience at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City. From the culture of snowboarding to past Olympic scandals. Plus...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
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
Lilydale, New York isn’t your average small town. In Lilydale, people say ghosts walk the streets and the neighbors can talk to the dead. No, this is not fiction. 20-thousand visitors a year travel to Lilydale to consult the largest community of mediums in the world. Is it all a gigantic...Read more
Rising sea levels, brutal storms and droughts, record temperatures...is there anything we can do about climate change? As world leaders gather at the Paris Climate Summit, we consider a range of proposals - from geoengineering and new green technology to a post-carbon economy. Read more
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments...” “Because I could not stop for death…”
First lines. Classic poems. But poetry’s no anachronism. It’s pulsing and swelling and beating new rhythms.
From online verse to the new US Poet Laureate, from poetry...Read more
Somewhere along the way, did we ruin poetry? Have the heartfelt angst of young lovers and the epic elegies of heroes become elitist and academic? But poetry is back, and we have new technology to thank.Read more