Episode Archives

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TTBOOK

Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions, Part Five: Can Science be Sacred?

What if you don't believe in God, and the thought of church makes you queasy? Can you still experience the sacred? There's a growing movement of secular scientists who revel in the awe...Read more

Original Air Date:

December 19, 2010

record player

Are you a sucker for a sad song? “Greensleeves.” “Yesterday” by the Beatles. For some reason, we love a melancholy tune. But why?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll explore our love of sad music. We’ll look into the effects the minor third has on our brains and we’ll delve...Read more

Original Air Date:

December 12, 2010

friends

Everyone knows you can choose your friends, but not your family.  Well, maybe that used to be true, but today’s families are a lot more flexible about defining themselves.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll hear NPR’s Scott Simon rhapsodize about his two adopted...Read more

Original Air Date:

December 05, 2010

TTBOOK

"One of our true superstars of nonfiction." That's how David Foster Wallace described Lewis Hyde. Lewis Hyde talks about his book, "Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art." This classic text introduces us to the playful and disruptive side of imagination embodied in trickster...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 12, 2010

authentic shoes

There's no question – we crave authenticity. You want "real" Chinese or Mexican food? Then make sure you find a restaurant that makes food the way it's made in the old country. Music lovers are also obsessed with authenticity - from folk and blues to rap... just consider the mantra of hip hop...Read more

Original Air Date:

June 13, 2010

psychedelic colors

Timothy Leary nearly killed the psychedelic revolution. He did more than anyone to popularize LSD — but his indiscriminate use of mind-altering drugs created a backlash, and made them taboo for serious scholars. Read more

Original Air Date:

June 06, 2010

cave art

Is your knowledge Cavemen based on TV commercials? In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, Caveman. We'll discover how the Ice Age gave birth to the first modern humans. And, the real secret of evolution -- cooking. Also, the founder of today's caveman movement. He grunts in a more modern...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 16, 2010

TTBOOK

Worried about climate change? Trying hard to reduce your carbon footprint? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, living small and liking it – an argument in favor of the radically local life.Read more

Original Air Date:

May 02, 2010

believe in yourself, small child

We all know what's wrong. An economic recovery that just can't seem to get started. Furloughs, cutbacks and no money for anything. Well, cheer up! We'll focus on what can happen when you stay positive. Michael Gates Gill reminds us we have a lot to be grateful for, and Suzan Colon shares recipes...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 11, 2010

Spray Paint

You know Marcel Proust as the author of the massive autobiographical novel, "In Search of Lost Time." But did you know that Proust can also be considered a scientist? That's the argument that Jonah Lehrer makes in his book, "Proust Was A Neuroscientist." Lehrer explains how Proust made...Read more

Original Air Date:

March 21, 2010

yoga

For decades Carl Jung's "Red Book" remained the most famous unpublished book in the history of psychology. Jung refused to publish it during his lifetime, and his heirs kept it locked up after he died. The "Red Book" recorded Jung's visionary paintings and laid out his radical ideas for a new...Read more

Original Air Date:

March 21, 2010

colors

Mary Karr is a best-selling writer, a mother and an alcoholic. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, Karr talks about her journey from addiction to awe. Also, we hear from a doctor who claims he beat the bottle by taking a commonly prescribed drug that could help millions of people - if...Read more

Original Air Date:

March 07, 2010

old hands

Henry Alford believes that old people are wise. And to prove it, he interviewed many people over the age of seventy, including Phyllis Diller, Harold Bloom and a retired aerospace engineer who eats food out of the garbage. The result is Alford's new book, "How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 21, 2010

buddhism

Whose Islam is it anyway? Is Islam for the Jihadists or the Sufis? The Indonesians, the Saudis? And what about a Muslim convert in say, Iowa? This time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, a closer at who's claiming, and reclaiming, Islam. From the Sufi spiritualism of a Senegalese pop star to the...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 07, 2010

paint

Lynda Barry rules the pages of the alternative press as the Queen of Comics. Her new book is about liberating the creative process. Barry believes that deep down we're all artists, if we could just get out of our own way. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll talk about channeling...Read more

Original Air Date:

November 22, 2009

David Foster Wallace

When David Foster Wallace committed suicide in September of 2008, there was a tsunami of grief. Readers, writers and critics poured out their sorrows in print and online. If you hadn't been paying attention for all the love for DFW, the response might have caught you by surprise. Wallace's hyper...Read more

Original Air Date:

August 23, 2009

painting of a landscape

How much do you know about the place where you live? You probably know your neighbors, your local schools, the grocery store... but can you describe what your neighborhood looked like before there were houses in it? Can you name the native birds and plants and insects? How much local history can...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 24, 2009

TTBOOK

Why are we in Afghanistan? To destroy the Al-Qaeda? To make sure the Taliban doesn't get back in power? Both? What is the economic impact of the war on the US economy? And, just what would victory in Afghanistan look like anyway? The Obama Administration's refocusing the US military. But after...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 10, 2009

dog

Something's going on with America's dogs. For one thing, they're moving in with us. Forget the backyard dog house – last year, some 47 percent of dog owners reported that their canines slept on the bed with them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Michael Schaffer. He's...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 12, 2009

yoga

Imagine the loneliest place you can think of. For Robert Kull, that place was an island off the coast of Patagonia. A place where the barometer dipped and the wind howled off the ocean. Kull spent a year there, exploring complete solitude and seeking the answers to spiritual questions that had...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 01, 2009

spare change

How did our economists miss it? We're in a full-on economic crisis. Where was the warning? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at the so-called dismal science. We'll talk with the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics on why the alarm bells never rang. And, why is it that...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 01, 2009

a border collie runs with a ball

In Baltimore, Maryland, there's an octopus that likes to play with toys. In Vienna, Austria, there's a border collie with a vocabulary of 340 words - more than many toddlers. Southeast Asia is home to dozens of elephants who like to paint. Re-thinking animal intelligence--not only are they...Read more

Original Air Date:

July 13, 2008

a lonely guy

Men are under siege. They might be the stronger sex, but as far as cultural clout goes, they get the short end of the stick. One writer says the feminist movement lost its way and ended up making men the enemy. Is it time to save the males? Also, we remember the madcap genius of one of America's...Read more

Original Air Date:

June 29, 2008

a member of the press in a military helmet

When the war in Iraq started, over 770 journalists went with Coalition troops. 5 years later there are fewer than 20. What happened? In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, the embed system. How can journalists accurately report on the very soldiers who protect them? Has the US military...Read more

Original Air Date:

June 15, 2008

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