Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions, Part Two: What Does Evolution Want?
If there’s one strand of evolutionary theory that sticks in the craw of nearly every religious believer, it’s the idea that human beings are just an evolutionary accident. But...Read more
Today's entertainment industry is shrinking the gap between real life and fantasy. Popular television shows like Big Brother turn ordinary life into an engaging drama. Virtual worlds like Second Life give users a chance to recreate themselves with the click of a button. But how real is...Read more
Atheists are finally coming out of the closet, and in some cases denouncing religion. Others still crave a sense of the sacred even though they don’t believe in God. Do atheists have something to learn from religion? Why do so many people call themselves "spiritual but not religious"? And...Read more
The pint-sized wizard harry Potter has conquered the book world, and it’s not just kids who love him. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what’s behind Harry Potter’s popularity. Also, acclaimed author Katherine Paterson (pronounced Patterson) on the emotional lives of...Read more
Fifty Years ago James Watson and Francis Crick made history when they cracked the code for DNA. Watson was only 24 years old, and by no means the smartest scientist around. So why do some scientists make great discoveries? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, James Watson talks about...Read more
The East Village Opera Company's new album, "Olde School," was 300 years in the making. The group gives some of opera's greatest hits an extreme musical make-over, re-imagining them as popular songs. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet the co-founders of The East Village...Read more
Everyone in your Facebook feed is falling for fake news–sharing it even when there's no way it can be true. They keep falling for it. But not you, right? You’re smart, well-educated. You can tell the difference. Or can you?Read more
”Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” may not look like grist for the philosopher’s mill, but philosopher Bill Irwin says they have a few things to teach us. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, philosophy from Socrates to Wittgenstein, with a short detour through pop culture. Also...Read more
James Tiptree Jr. wrote some of the most critically-acclaimed science fiction stories in the 1960's and 1970's....classics like "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" and "The Women Men Don't See." But James Tiptree was actually the pseudonym of a 61-year-old woman, Alice B. Sheldon. In this hour of...Read more
Remember those great cars from the Fifties? The Redscare Phantom Witchhunter and the Bongo Beatnik Ferlinghetti TurboHipster? If you don’t recall them rolling off Detroit’s assembly lines, there’s a perfectly good reason. They never existed, except in the imagination of writer and illustrator...Read more
Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was one of nine U.S. presidents who had hooks for hands? Well, that's just one of countless facts included in John Hodgman's new almanac. But, as it turns out, all of these facts are fake. In this hour of the Peabody Award-winning To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more
As Cuba and the U.S. restore diplomatic relations, what's in store for Americans who want to visit Cuba? And for Cubans wanting more prosperity? Steve Paulson recently traveled to Cuba and brought back new stories about our island neighbor. From diplomacy to culture, we tackle jazz,...Read more
Leon Fleisher was once one of the world’s great pianists. Then a rare neurological disease left two fingers of his right hand clenched into his palm, and he could play only with his left hand for 37 years. At 76, Fleisher’s miraculously regained the use of his bad hand and he’s playing...Read more
Well we made it through the anticipated apocalypse.
One of this year's big novels is Colson Whitehead's sweeping historical novel, "The Underground Railroad." It's an unflinching look at the experience of slavery, inspired by the classic slave narratives. And being a sci-fi geek, Whitehead also weaves in bits of fantasy, creating an alternative...Read more
Do you get eight hours of sleep a night? If not, join the millions of sleep-deprived Americans stumbling through life half-awake. Scientists say our national sleep debt may be behind the epidemics of diabetes and obesity – maybe even cancer. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
Say you’re in Vegas playing high-stakes poker. You haven’t slept in days. To make matters worse, you’re being stared down by two of the best poker players in the world. And...you’re bluffing. So, you bet it all to bring the pot to well over a million dollars. In this hour of To the Best of...Read more
Alex Rider, Nancy Drew, The Cat in the Hat, and Harold and the Purple Crayon – for millions of children of all ages, they're some of the most imaginative and mysterious stories around. But as it turns out, the authors sometimes have their own, personal mysteries to share. In this hour of To the...Read more
Governors are slashing state spending, and the President has put some of his own party's favorite programs on the chopping block. But how much of the new austerity is really necessary, and how much is politics? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, is austerity a dangerous idea? Join...Read more
He was a wandering pilgrim who talked to birds, healed the sick and tamed wild beasts. He was also the closest thing to a medieval rock star - a man so revered in his lifetime that people tore at this clothes, desperate to touch a living saint. Today, St. Francis of Assisi is admired by both...Read more
Some critics call V.S. Naipaul the world’s greatest living writer. But his harsh views on Islam and the Third World have sparked enormous controversy. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Naipaul talks about his life as a writer. Also, poetry for the ages: we’ll hear Yeats, Auden and...Read more
When and how did the universe begin? Why is there something rather than nothing? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll tackle the big questions about the universe. From Stephen Hawking's latest ideas about parallel universes and theories of everything to the quantum physics of...Read more
You watch two trench-coated boys walk into their high school and shoot everyone in sight. Then a demon drags them off to be tortured in Hell. No, it’s not the latest video game. It’s Hell House, a Halloween haunted house put on by a church in Texas. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more
Here’s the bad news. You can get the thing you most want - a BMW, the winning lottery ticket, and you still won’t be any happier. The good news? You can survive the most devastating catastrophes and you’ll be back on your feet in less time than you think. Next time on To the Best of Our...Read more