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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Celebrate Midsummer's Eve with a visit to the fey folk. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll have an hour filled with stories of changelings and other-kin, Fairy Courts and green children. We'll conjure up a world of enchantment, but beware! There are no Tinkerbells in the world....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

President Obama is out to remake America's relationship with the Islamic world. We'll explore what this means for both the Middle East and the U.S. We'll also look at the ongoing debate over Muslim immigration in Europe, and we'll talk with a Hollywood screenwriter about his new novel on the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From the minute we can pick up a crayon, most of us want to draw something - a house, a tree, the sun.  As we get older we aim for nuance and sophistication - landscapes and shadows, faces and expressions.  A gifted few will achieve something greater - they’ll make art.  On this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's hard to wrap your head around the future of the human brrain.  Augmented intelligence, memory playback, downloadable skills - it's all coming.  We explore the future of the mind, and hear how a brain injury can transform your life.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It used to be simple to pick out a shade of paint, before computers made almost infinite gradations possible.  Now if you stare at those samples long enough they all start to look alike.  It turns out color is as much a mental construct as a physical substance.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree is having a difficult time.  Her mother has just died and business is down at her family’s gator-wrestling theme park, Swamplandia!   So begins Karen Russell’s critically-acclaimed debut novel, “Swamplandia!”  In this hour of TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE, we’ll meet...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

On this 4th of July weekend we ask a simple question: Who is a patriot?Read more

DNA

Can science conquer death? It may seem like an absurd question, but some people think it's possible. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Aubrey de Grey, a maverick English scientist who's identified seven major kinds of molecular and cellular damage. He thinks we can prevent...Read more

An independent woman.

For the first time in American history, young women are choosing independence over marriage.  Single women today outnumber married women and have more political power than ever before.  It's what Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger and other feminist icons predicted.  This hour, how...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Next time you catch an old episode of the Flying Nun, you may want to pay attention.  Because today’s convents are closing.  The average nun is seventy years old, and even devout sisters often have to bite their tongues when they talk about the pope.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Forty years ago, the U.S. ended its war in Vietnam, but we're still fighting over its legacy - in foreign policy and military strategy, and also in books and movies. But there's one question Americans rarely ask: what does the war mean to the Vietnamese themselves?  We'll hear several...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When Rae Armantrout recently won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry the first thing she said was curious. Read them out loud, she said.

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, poetry out loud. Rae Armantrout reads her poems, Natalie Merchant sings our favorite classic poems, and Bobby...Read more

beautiful food

Chefs and writers explore the language of food on the plate and on the page. We meet novelists who cook, chefs who write, and a poet of pies.  It's an hour of deliciousness in words and food.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s one of the great stories in the history of books.  James Murray was a poor kid from Scotland who dropped out of school at age 14.  Somehow, he taught himself the history of words in various languages, and went on to create the world’s greatest dictionary.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever thought about money? Now, of course you have.  Talking about money permeates our existence.  But what if there wasn’t any money?  What would you do?

 Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As Western economies struggle, some Eastern economies are booming.  India and China now threaten to surpass the West as economic – and political – superpowers.   But it’s not just politics that’s changing in South Asia.  Across the region, centuries-old religious traditions are also entering a...Read more

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you believe that the government is keeping secrets from us? That the military is hiding evidence of alien visitations? Maybe you have a hard line to the truth -- or maybe you're a sucker for conspiracy theories. Today, we explore why we love conspiracy theories and why we believe them.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

When Charles Mingus died, his widow took his ashes to India and scattered them in the Ganges.  But that wasn’t the end.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Sue Mingus talks about the legacy of her late husband’s music: his spirituality, his anger, and his love.  Also, a conversation...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Outlet malls are America's number-one travel destination. They get more visitors every year than Times Square, Disney World and the Grand Canyon combined. We definitely have a lust for low prices. But this discount culture comes with a high cost. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Patti Smith revolutionized rock'n'roll in the Seventies by fusing poetry with rock music. Now, she's written a remarkable memoir about her emergence as an artist, and her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In this hour of To the Best of our Knowledge, we'll talk with Patti Smith...Read more

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