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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A car accident at twenty-one left John Callahan paralyzed.  He’s become a very successful cartoonist -- poking fun at disabilities and the idiosyncrasies of life.    His work has been described as “rude, shocking, tasteless, and depraved” – by his fans.  Next time on To...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When the world turns green again, it makes us all a little giddy!  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll pull on our gum boots and get out into the garden with novelist Jamaica Kincaid, who’s grown a map of the Carribean at her Vermont home.  Sharon Lovejoy, author of Roots, Shoots...Read more

film junkies stare at screens

It’s Oscar season and Hollywood is once again celebrating the best films of the year. It would seem that we're a nation obsessed with movies. As a country, we spend billions of dollars to watch them every year, and celebrate them with a variety of awards ceremonies. But what separates a...Read more

cool cat

Who really rules the internet?  Cats, of course.  We can't take the cuteness anymore so here it is -- our first and only show about cats.  Cat videos, superstar cats, cat music, cat history, endangered cats... and a little, tiny bit about dogs.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Andre Agassi says he always hated tennis, even though it's what made him rich and famous. But maybe that's not surprising, considering how his father used to browbeat him into hitting 2500 balls a day when he was seven years old, and later sent him off to a tennis academy, which Agassi calls a "...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Busloads of Senior Citizens roll onto the Reservation for high stakes bingo.  Lottery tickets show up on people’s shopping lists in 47 states.  Practically every office has a pool on the NFL or the Final Four or the outcome of the latest reality television series.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Betsy Lerner was a chubby kid.  Then an overweight teenager.  Then, a compulsive eater with a secret food life.  Binging and dieting consumed her life – until the day she tried to kill herself.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the story of Betsy Lerner’s struggle with weight.  And,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Canal Street flooded with so much water it looks like an actual canal.  People mourning the loss of their homes and loved ones.  The Gulf Coast will never be the same after the devastation that Hurricane Katrina has caused.  In this hour of the Peabody-Award-Winning program To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The idea of creative collaboration is a relatively new one.  For centuries, science and culture focused on the self self-expression, self-realization.  But two is the magic number.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore creative partnerships.  Joshua Wolf Shenk talks about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Homer called salt a divine substance.  Salt taxes built empires across Europe and Asia.  They even sparked a revolution.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why salt is no ordinary rock.  We’ll tell you how it’s changed the course of history.  Also, the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Soup to Nuts

Part Six

Once upon a time, there was a chef who made the greatest cakes in the world. His name was Antonin Careme. But this is no fairy tale. It’s a true story of a man called the King of the Cooks. In this hour of To the Best...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A restaurant wasn't always a place to eat.  It used to be a thing to eat - a cup of medicinal broth to restore your health.  These days Americans eat almost half their meals out, so how did the modern restaurant evolve?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the rise of the restaurant. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every day you pick up the paper and there's another report about something you either should be eating or shouldn't. Omega 3-fatty acids, soy milk, broccoli - good. Trans fats, soda, fast food - bad. What if instead we just ate what made us happy? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Pragmatic.Problem-solving. And non-partisan -- Mayors just might be the next best hope for democracy.Read more

colors and light

We may think it’s pretty clear what is – and isn’t – science, but history is littered with cases where the line wasn’t so obvious.  For instance, Isaac Newton studied alchemy, and Galileo was a practicing astrologer.  This hour explores the edges of science, and we hear about the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Future Perfect: Dreamers, Schemers & Visionaries

Part One

 

Imagine a poor child in Uruguay. Now imagine giving that young girl a hundred-dollar laptop computer. Imagine the educational opportunities that this laptop will provide...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In America’s struggle with race, one man is trying to keep it real.  His website dares to post the questions we’re afraid to ask out loud.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the quest for racial understanding from the founder of the Y-Forum.  Also, the sweet and sorrowful history of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sometimes, a single word speaks volumes about its era. Sputnik conjures up both the heady excitement of the early Space Race and the whole scary history of the Cold War. In this hour, To the Best of Our Knowledge touches on a few of these cultural touchstones....from Sputnik to Snoopy. We'll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Oliver Sacks has an unusual problem.  He can't recognize other people's faces.  In fact, he doesn't always recognize himself when he's looking in the mirror.  Sacks is also a neurologist who's fascinated by brain disorders.  We'll talk with Sacks and with the painter Chuck Close, who also...Read more

book

We love books. We line them on shelves like totems. We pile them next to our beds in some hope they'll affect our dreams.  For many of us, books are sacred objects. And sometimes, just sometimes, they’re even magical.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Meaning of Life

Part Three

 

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we consider the good stuff. Love. Poetry. Pleasure. Chocolate. Art. Beauty. New York Times Art Critic Michael Kimmelman says the beauty of beauty is that...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What’s the biggest threat to American supremacy?  Islamic fundamentalism?  China?  How about Europe?  Today Europe has more people, more trade, and more wealth than the U.S.  And the European welfare state offers a potent alternative to American capitalism - and what government’s supposed to do...Read more

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