Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

With the emergence of barefoot running, the sport suddenly is red hot again.  But barefoot or not, are human bodies really born to run?  We'll check in on the science or runner's high this hour, and try to unlock the secrets of the Kenyans - the fastest people on earth. Also, Olympic medalist...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There's still debate about climate change, but one thing's for sure – these days nothing's sure about the weather. Northerners can golf in December, spring shows up early, and mosquitoes are movin' on up. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, wacky weather and what you can do to help....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Jacques Derrida and the philosophical movement known as deconstruction were once the rage on college campuses. Those days have passed, but deconstruction's influence is everywhere. We talk with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who first translated Derrida's landmark book "Of Grammatology" into...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The East Village Opera Company's new album, "Olde School," was 300 years in the making. The group gives some of opera's greatest hits an extreme musical make-over, re-imagining them as popular songs. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet the co-founders of The East Village...Read more

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

”Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” may not look like grist for the philosopher’s mill, but philosopher Bill Irwin says they have a few things to teach us.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, philosophy from Socrates to Wittgenstein, with a short detour through pop culture.  Also...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

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

Back in 1967, Noam Chomsky wrote a famous essay called "The Responsibility of Intellectuals." Chomsky was furious about what he called "the deceit and distortion surrounding the American invasion of Vietnam." And he urged intellectuals "to speak the truth and expose lies." So what is the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Who are you? White or black, Muslim or Christian, working class or wealthy? Most of us rotate through many different cultural identities, at work and at home. And sometimes, reconciling them is hard.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What if our lives were like DVDs?  What if we had alternative endings to look forward to, instead of death?  We explore our lust for immortality.  And we look at the many alternative endings that Ernest Hemingway wrote for his classic novel, "A Farewell to Arms."

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It was the best of times for Pattie Boyd. Her modeling career was booming and the sixties were exploding on the London scene. One day she got a call - she'd been cast in a Beatles film. The rest is history. We'll meet the woman who inspired three of the most famous rock songs of all time,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The atom bomb's ability to kill people makes it a literal dangerous idea.  But there are other kinds of dangerous ideas -- ideas that are contrary, counterintutive and just plain unconventional.  It's that kind of dangerous idea that we explore in this hour.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Fifty Years ago James Watson and Francis Crick made history when they cracked the code for DNA. Watson was only 24 years old, and by no means the smartest scientist around. So why do some scientists make great discoveries? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, James Watson talks about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everyone in your Facebook feed is falling for fake news–sharing it even when there's no way it can be true. They keep falling for it. But not you, right? You’re smart, well-educated. You can tell the difference. Or can you?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

Alex Rider, Nancy Drew, The Cat in the Hat, and Harold and the Purple Crayon – for millions of children of all ages, they're some of the most imaginative and mysterious stories around. But as it turns out, the authors sometimes have their own, personal mysteries to share. In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ahh, nature!  It’s always such fun to watch on television.  Let someone else stalk grizzlies and wrestle Amazonian snakes – real nature is hard work. But it doesn’t have to be.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we invite you to step out of your front door into the natural world.  You...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

E’len see la luma nomih tyelvoh.  That’s Elvish for “A star shines upon the hour of our meeting.”  Even if you don’t believe in Elves it’s hard to resist the enchanting languages J.R.R. Tolkien created for the creatures of Middle Earth.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we find out...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Celebrate Halloween with this spooky hour full of ghost stories from our wonderful listeners, and real-life tales of the paranormal.   Haunted houses, near-death experiences, and spectral raccoons...  so many ways to be un-dead.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Science fiction offers us visions of histories we don't know -- histories of the future and the past.  Today, legendary science fiction writers talk about science, utopia, and the imagination.  Plus, the winners of our 3 Minute Futures fiction contest!

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Robert Olen Butler had a crazy idea.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist wanted to show how writers really work.  So he created his own web site, pointed a camera at his word processor, and wrote...every night for three weeks.  Believe it or not, thousands of people tuned in for the these...Read more

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