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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are you planning to see the world this summer? Or enjoy the frugal pleasure of a stay-cation? Remember, the best travel isn't about miles logged – it's about minds expanded. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, travel stories. Travel guru Rick Steves develops an unexpected passion for...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If grocery shopping isn’t your thing, here’s a new way to put food on the table: try sticking your arm under a rock until a big ol’ catfish clamps onto to you.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, noodling for catfish and other southern pastimes.  Also, Texas singer Steve Earle’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

John Brown was a terrorist, a man who led a raid in Kansas that butchered five unarmed men. He was also, arguably, of the few white people in 1850s America who was totally color blind. According to a new book he was "the man who killed slavery and sparked the Civil War." So, was John Brown a "...Read more

book pile

We're keepin it surreal this hour with a hallucinatory vortex chock full of innovative fiction.  Like Salvador Dali said -- "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."   Join us as we expand your vision and melt your mind....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Born 200 years ago, Charles Darwin was a revolutionary figure, and yet polls show that more than half of all Americans still don't accept his theory of evolution. So, is Darwinian evolution compatible with faith in God? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what Darwin himself thought...Read more

language

If you think the influence of Shakespeare is confined to the page and the stage, think again. Take starlings, the aggressive European birds who’ve pushed a lot of Native American birds out of their nests. They were introduced by a Shakespeare fanatic, who loosed dozens of them in Central Park....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Remember what it was like to be a kid, playing outside with friends for hours at a time? Sure, it may just seem like fun and games, but it may also have been invaluable training for life as an adult.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We explore music and memory in this hour -- Kurt Cobain's lasting impact 20 years after his death; insidious and infectious earworms; and the retro worldly music of Pink Martini.Read more

voter sticker from Arizona

With the elections approaching, candidates and campaigns are working hard to get out the vote. But what would it take to get people politically involved all year round? This hour we explore a few ways, whether it's by using games to make the political process more fun, or mobilizing activists...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In the recent election, the Tea Party emerged as a major force in American politics.  It's a striking story, when a few years before, the "New York Times" was speculating about the demise of the Republican party.  So, why the game change, after Barack Obama won the White House on a surge of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You’re part of the “Freedom Movement,” - a group of anti-globalization anarchists.  You’re blowing up security stations to fight “The Corporation.” Sounds like a scene out of Seattle during the World Trade Organization protests of a few years ago, doesn’t it?  But it’s not.  It’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You know those end of the year lists?  Best books, movies, music and so on?  This hour, To the Best of Our Knowledge shares the best interviews from 2015.  Plus a booklist or two.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Batman, Superman, the Green Lantern we all had our superheroes as kids. Maybe we still do today? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, SUPERHEROES. We'll celebrate Wonder Woman's 70th birthday with a look at her controversial new costume. We'll also explore the actual physics of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you want to know the truth about J.D. Salinger, good luck.  To this day we know more about his fictional character Holden Caulfield than we do about the man who created him.  In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge, literary life after Salinger’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Gore Vidal has a special fondness for the Founding Fathers, especially George Washington.  “The others were geniuses.  He was not a genius” he says, but “he had a powerful character which got him through the revolution, since he was not much of a general.  But he was a great leader.”  We’ll talk...Read more

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.

...Read more

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