Episode Archives

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love neon sign

Red roses, chilled champagne, a candlelight dinner for two. Who cares?!?

This is the 21st century. We’ve got 30 million potential dates online. We’ve got every imaginable type of pornography at our fingertips. Odds are each of us could hook up with someone new tonight.

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

To mark the Winter Solstice, we’ll honor the sacred origins our secular Christmas decorations and hear a solstice story from India.  And to help you get through the long winter evenings, we’ll get some recommendations for your winter reading list.  Solstice myths and stories and provocative new...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Film-maker David Lynch has been "diving within" through the Transcendental Meditation technique for more than 30 years.  Now Lynch has created a foundation that wants to help students discover their full creative potential through T.M. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, David Lynch...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Christopher Hogwood was not your ordinary household pet. For one thing, he weighed 700 pounds. And he loved to drink beer. Christopher was a very large pig with a heart of gold. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the story of how Christopher Hogwood became the best-loved pig in...Read more

a woman plays guitar

Music and social change go hand in hand. We explore the secret history of protest music. Songs and social movements you might have missed -- from the early days of rock and roll to the non-violent hip hop message of FM Supreme.Read more

geometry in the dark

Reality is catching up to science fiction.  But there are still new science-fiction writers who are thinking the unthinkable and daring to go beyond the limits of our imaginations.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

spare change

Why do we assume more money is better?  Maybe if we weren't so focused on how much we have, we'd ask a better question:  How much is enough?  We explore the relationship between money and happiness, and alternative forms of currency.  Also, Great Britain's experiment in Gross...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Jewish High Holy Days come to an end every fall on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  This year, we're thinking about atonement and forgiveness.  Whether you're Jewish or non-Jewish, secular or religious, forgiveness is something we all struggle with.  Today we explore the path to...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever heard of Bibleman, the Caped Christian? This evangelical superhero quotes scripture while fighting villains. There's a Bibleman video series, as well as a live show, toys, and a computer game. Bibleman is just part of the seven-billion-dollar Christian pop culture industry. In...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

June 22nd, 1977. Two college women are camping. A man runs over their tent in a pickup truck. Then he attacks the women with an axe. Fifteen years later, one of the women returns to central Oregon to try to solve the crime. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Terri Jentz shares...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Couples know the frightening statistic: 50 percent of today’s marriages will fail.  And the real victims are the children.  As they grow up they are more likely to be aggressive or depressed, end up in mental health hospitals, or get divorced themselves.  In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

George Orwell wrote "1984" in response to two of the reigning ideologies of his day - fascism and communism. Does his dystopian story of Big Brother and Doublethink still matter today? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll talk with actor Tim Robbins, who recently staged a...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's time to wish you a Happy 2006 – if you use the Gregorian Calendar. And a Happy 1427 by the Islamic calendar, or a Fruitful 4704 in China, where it's the Year of the Dog. But then, if you accept the Big Bang Theory, let us wish you a Happy 13 Billion, 700 Million. However you calculate it,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Pentagon has something new: a microwave mounted on a Humvee that shoots an energy beam cooking everything in its path.  Is this a new weapon in our war on terrorism?  No, it’s the Marines’ “non-lethal” device for crowd control.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Vaclav Havel is President of the Czech Republic, but for many around the world, he's known as the poet in blue jeans, the dissident playwright who inspired a Velvet Revolution.  On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, President Havel talks art and politics.  And, we'll go back to when the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

While the debate about how to fix America’s schools rages on, millions of parents have their own solution – opting out of the system.  Homeschoolers in America usually make the choice for two reasons – to invest more religion in the curriculum or to embrace the vales of progressive education. ...Read more

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader speaking at a campaign event in Waterbury, CT

Selling out: we talk with two people who’ve vowed never to sell out: Ralph Nader, and Congressman Joe Walsh. Walsh says the Tea Party must be the party of no compromise. Also, someone often accused of selling out: Shepard Fairey; he went from making street art to designing an iconic Obama poster...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Toby Young thought he had it made.  He had a prestigious job at Vanity Fair magazine, a press pass that got him in everywhere, and a suave British accent to boot.  He was poised to take Manhattan.  Then everything went wrong.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, flops, failures and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s up for debate whether or not the business of America is business.  But like it or not, corporate culture touches us all.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the quirky online marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers from all over the world.  But is e-bay really the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Most movie stars will do anything to stay in the limelight.  But Debra Winger didn’t care.  Six years ago, she walked out of Hollywood.  She even taped her retirement card above her mirror so she’d see it every day.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Debra Winger talks about the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How's your basic knowledge of religion? Can you name the Ten Commandments? The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism? What happens during Ramadan? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll hear an argument for why every American should know the basics of the world's religions. Also, Muslim hip...Read more

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