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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever wished you cared less or been told to develop a thicker skin? For the polite and anxious among us, suddenly being immune to criticism and embarrassment might seem to be a superpower. In this hour, we’re exploring...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A husband, looking at his wife in a mirror maze, asks “are you coming or going?”  She answers “Yes, yes.”  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll look at the history of mirrors, as we reflect on the question “How do you know who you are?”Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“The medium is the message.”  “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.  We march backwards into the future.”   Those are just a few of Marshall McLuhan’s famous quotes.   McLuhan is one of the most influential media thinkers of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Things go better with "biting the wax tadpole"? That doesn't sound right, does it? Yet that's the literal translation of Coca-Cola that Chinese shopkeepers came up with...a set of characters pronounced "ke-kou ke-la." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the exotic world of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Whittier called them "the saddest words: it might have been."  But turn it around and you'll find places we create to replace the world we live in -- past, present and future.  On To the Best of Our Knowledge, other worlds. Scientist Brian Greene looks at the physics of the multiverse, and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The world of plants can be a dangerous place. Gorgeous monkshood, with stalks of purple blooms can cause delusions and death. A plump cashew can make you miserable if it isn't steamed properly. And aconite, almost indistinguishable from parsley can cause paralysis and stop your beating heart...Read more

woman on a mountain

There's been a hot spotlight shining down on women this past year.  From allegations of a war on women to the debate about reproductive rights, it's hard to tell how far women have come and just where they're going. So, what does feminism look like today? The first woman governor...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Maybe you can sing like Jennifer Lopez or Ricky Martin.  If not, looking like them is the next best thing.  Right now, it’s never been cooler to be Hispanic.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Latino Revolution.  From the rise of Latino-chic to the spicy secretes of salsa. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“We can be bought,” they said,” but we can’t be bored.”  The king and queen of American theater, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne turned down a fantastic sum from the movies  in the middle of the depression to continue to live their illusion on the stage.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A Swedish environmentalist believes we really should give back to the earth, even after we’ve died.  Her company is trying to replace cremation with a technologically-enhanced form of organic composting, and she’s already got the support of King Carl Gustav and the Church of Sweden.  In this...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

So much of our daily lives gets turned into data -- our online shopping purchases, phone calls, family photos. We're all surrounded by data, and learning how to harness it could be more transformative than we realize. This week, a look at the new data specialists using their knowledge of numbers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The holidays can be challenging.  All that togetherness can be like squishing a passel of porcupines into a sardine can.  In other words - not nice.  On the other hand, there is a bright side.  Po Bronson found it in the lives of families across the country.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Is the NSA wiretapping story really new? Sure, whistle blower Edward Snowden is all over the news. But people were talking about federal surveillance ten years before leaked documents about “Prism.” In this hour, we take a look at what we know about government surveillance and when we knew it...Read more

a girl making butterfly wings

Have you ever heard of an “Uncreative Writing” course?  In this class, students are penalized for showing any kind of originality.  Instead, they’re rewarded for plagiarism, plundering and stealing. We’ll meet the man behind “Uncreative
Writing” – poet Kenneth Goldsmith.  Also,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Walk into the children's section of any bookstore and the magic wands and secret portals almost materialize in front of you. Wizards, witches, demons, time travel, dragons, orphans, orphaned dragons – doesn't anyone know how to write a non-magical book anymore?! In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sometimes all you really want to take to bed is a good book.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, meet some passionate readers.  We’ll also try to find out if big time critics really hate books.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every year, Americans spend billions of dollars to try to improve themselves. They buy books and CDs, go to seminars...some even walk over hot coals in their bare feet. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll try to find out if the self-help movement is really helping us.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

David Rothenburg is a philosopher and a jazz clarinetist, who also loves birds.  So one day he sat down in the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and started playing music.  Lo and behold, a white-crested laughing thrush started singing with him, riffing on the tunes he played.  Since then Rothenburg...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Poet Nick Lantz has a darkly satirical take on American culture. Lately, he’s been thinking about political spin and how politicians speak. In this interview—the third in our series ...Read more

farm fields

The Back to the Land spirit of the 60s lives on today, in the proliferation of farmer's markets, and the increased interest in sustainability and growing our own food.  From the fight to end food waste in America to the art of living small, we'll find out what the Back to the Land spirit...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Whether black from a bottomless cup or as a Frappuccino mocha skim latte, it’s our culture’s elixir, coffee.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, java, joe, or a cup of mud.  Most of us drink it everyday, but few of us know the effects it has on the world’s economy, or even...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ever dream of finding buried treasure?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, real-life treasure hunters like the two small-time prospectors who risked their lives in the Canadian tundra, and found one of the world’s biggest diamond mines.  Also, hunting for dinosaur bones in the Gobi...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What’s the best way to get someone to talk?  NPR’s Terry Gross has done more interviewers than just about anyone else in public radio.  But she prefers to talk to them long distance, with no eye contact.   In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Terry Gross on the art of the interview.Read more

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