Remember the movie “Field of Dreams,” about Shoeless Joe Jackson with Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones? Well, the Field of Dreams is a real place, not a Hollywood studio lot. It’s a cornfield in Dyersville, Iowa and it’s become something of a religious site for many baseball fans. In this...Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
20 years ago a group of musicians gathered in Trinity Church in Toronto and did something extraordinary. In one night, using only one microphone and with no budget, they recorded a masterpiece. The band is the Cowboy Junkies. And the album, "The Trinity Session." The Cowboy Junkies look back on...Read more
Where did we come from, and where are we going? Whether it's the Garden of Eden and Armageddon, or the Big Bang and the Big Freeze, we can't help but ponder our place in the universe. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we consider the universal course of time, from the beginning to...Read more
Piano lessons. For many of us those two words evoke only bad memories from our childhood. Piano lessons are shorthand for the oppression of children by mean and tyrannical adults. And no one captures this better than Dr. Seuss, the champion of all kids, underdogs and Whozits. In this hour of To...Read more
What would you die for? And what are you willing to kill for? Democracy?On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the meaning of democracy. We’ll hear from writers Alice Walker, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Alende and Margaret Atwood. Also, tomorrow’s citizens. Are schools giving children...Read more
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, James Bradley remembers his father the war hero, who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima. Martin Amis comes to terms with his famous father – the writer Kingsley Amis. And the story of a military father who was an officer but no gentleman...Read more
Lace up the hiking boots and grab the bug spray! Spring is here and we're heading Into The Woods. Learn how to read a forest. Unlock the meanings hidden in leaf and bole, twig and soil. And celebrate the woods in fairytale, myth, story and song.Read more
Ayn Rand didn't know how to make small talk; she lived for big ideas and bold statements. She believed capitalism was the best social system ever invented, and even took to wearing a gold pin in the shape of a dollar sign. Ayn Rand died nearly thirty years ago, but she's now inspiring a new...Read more
On a scale of one to ten, how happy would you say you are right now? If someone could teach you how to be even happier, would you be interested? Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, how to boost your happiness IQ. Also, eating for pleasure, with chef and food writer Deborah Madison. ...Read more
The mind and the body meet in the brain. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, two of the world’s top brain doctors claim that what you feel affects how you feel. Dr. Norman Rosenthal, the man who discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), says there’s an Emotional...Read more
Emerging insights from the new science of astrobiology paints a picture of a universe seeded with potential life. While astronomers discover new exoplanets every other week or so, biologists are finding unexpected life in some of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Together, their work...Read more
Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq
Part Five
At least 120 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began. They're targets for insurgents. But what are journalists to the US military? A necessary evil? Or...Read more
Nearly 2500 years ago, Socrates celebrated the pursuit of wisdom, and famously said “the unexamined life is not worth living.” But does rigorous self examination actually lead to a happy or fulfilled life? It didn’t seem to work some of history’s most famous philosophers, including...Read more
Belly up to the bar as To the Best of Our Knowledge spends an hour with drinkers and drunks. Meet the man who invented the Cosmopolitan. He says it’s a really simple drink. All you need is fresh lime juice.Read more
It's a post-apocalyptic novel that's been compared to Stephen King's "The Stand" and Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." It covers a vast time span and features a different kind of vampire, known as "virals." It's called "The Passage" and it's one of this summer's hottest books. We'll meet the author...Read more
Malcolm Gladwell is living proof that a new hairstyle can change your life. After he grew out his hair, people started treating him differently. He racked up speeding tickets. He was surrounded by policemen who thought he was a rapist on the loose. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more
For centuries Western travelers have felt the pull of exotic places. Tibet has always held a special fascination. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, is the Western romance with Tibet grounded in reality, or based on some notion of Shangri-La? Also a look at Bruce...Read more
Every year billions of classified dollars are funneled into what defense analysts call “the black world.” It’s a realm that uses code names like “Black Light,” “Classic Wizard,” and “Link Plumeria” - a place where even an idea can be top secret. Stealth bombers came from the black world, and...Read more
Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Jordan, Oman, Syria even Madison, Wisconsin, and the list grows day by day. People are filling the streets and demanding change. They want different things, but their protests have one thing in common: they have no leaders. They're organizing without...Read more
Sales clerks at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, reportedly call the best-selling "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", "the girl who pays our paychecks". The award-winning Swedish crime thriller has sold so many copies, publishers are racing to find the next Scandinavian best-seller. We meet...Read more
The way we think about animals often defies logic. In America, dogs may sleep on our beds, but in Korea, they often end up on the dinner plate. Some people may be horrified by a pet boa constrictor's appetite for live mice, but a cat that roams outside is a far deadlier killer. And...Read more
Mimi Sheraton loves bialys - those Jewish crusty roles with the toasted onion center. She picks one up every morning from her local Manhattan bakery. Sheraton set out to visit the Polish town of Bialystock to find the people who invented this magical bread. But the thriving town of 50,000 didn’t...Read more
Imagine a country where Islam is the dominant religion but Christians, Jews and Muslims still live together peacefully – a place where philosophers from all three religions talk and debate openly. Well, there was once such a culture in the Middle Ages. For centuries, Al Andalus was the beacon of...Read more
The Buena Vista Social Club made history as the top-selling record in world music. It also put Cuban music on center stage, and sparked a brisk tourist trade to Cuba. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk with Ry Cooder, the mastermind behind Buena Vista Records. Also, why...Read more