Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Big box education is on the way out. Instead, imagine a future with schools of every variety available for mixing and matching, like sushi on a platter. Micro-schools, Waldorf Schools, part-time schools and more. That's the future as seen by Matt Hern, an advocate for what he calls de-...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would you do if being a woman just didn't feel right? What if being a man didn't feel right either?

In the West, a few people are choosing to leave gender behind all together. Call them gender queer, third gender or gender guerillas… people are challenging all of our notions of “he...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We are connected -- probably connected in ways neither of us has dreamed of. Forget six degrees of separation; on Facebook we have only 3.74. And that's just today.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What do you think of when you hear the word "ventriloquism"?  A showman with a wisecracking wooden boy on his lap?  There's more to ventriloquism than verbal jousting between a man and his dummy.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore the cultural history of ventriloquism...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In February and March of 1974, the legendary science-fiction author, Philip K. Dick, had a series of religious and visionary experiences.  He spent the remaining eight years of his life writing thousands of pages of notes to try to come to terms with the meaning of these strange events.  In this...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Despite the refinancing frenzy, the American Dream isn’t about real estate.  It means being free to make a new life for yourself.  Regardless of the place or the circumstances of your birth.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we celebrate the American Dream.  We’ll meet a man who...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Listen to the experts and they’ll tell you the suburbs are boring, stifling places to live, full of bad architecture.  Well, more than half of all Americans now live in suburbia.  Can so many people be wrong?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a defense of suburbs.  Also, playwright...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When suicide bombers blow up crowded marketplaces, or a lone shooter attacks a nightclub, one question we’re always left with is why. What ideology or belief or loyalty would compel someone to do something so horrific? This hour, a look at the underlying psychology of political violence.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

All the world's a stage! The Play's the thing. Fair is foul and foul is fair. Hardly a day goes by when the words that flowed so easily from Will Shakespeare's pen don't meet and greet us in the modern world. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, sweet William makes his way to the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How do you soak in the essence of a city?  In New York, writer Colson Whitehead goes walking ... through Times Square, along Broadway, down into the subway.  In Memphis, critic Robert Gordon listens to its music - the blues, soul, rock-n-roll.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everywhere you turn at this time of year there are babies: Babies wrapped in swaddling cloths, babies lying in mangers, baby-faced cherubs, and baby angels. All to be expected of a holiday that celebrates the birth of a child. But then, birth is a pretty miraculous thing. In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever been to "Reloville"? Or maybe you live there. There's more than one. You can find them in Atlanta, Dallas and Denver, among other places. "Relovilles" are the sprawling subdivisions where mid-level managers and executives live – for a few years before they uproot their families and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A poster at Starbucks asks customers to focus on the world water crisis. A congregation asks the faithful to go on a carbon diet. The local grocery now charges for a plastic bag. We've got green cars, green clothing, green investments, and even green weddings. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the mystique of Native Americans.  We hear they’re close to the land; they have sacred knowledge.  But Indian writer Sherman Alexie says that’s bunk, that the “the whole New Age movement is based on as many stereotypes as genocide was.”  What makes a...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Simon Winchester tells the remarkable story of Krakatoa.  The volcanic eruption spewed chunks of land 25 miles into the air.  The blast was heard three thousand miles away.  And it kicked up monstrous tidal waves that killed nearly forty  thousand...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

An early spring thaw is good news if you live in a snow belt state. But it's not just the snow mound at the bottom of the driveway that's melting right now – the polar ice caps are melting too. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, stories from the lands of snow and ice. What do we...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As the Bible famously says, "there is nothing new under the sun." That's pretty bleak. If it's all been said and done before, what's left? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, remix culture. Digital sampling, audio hacking, mash-ups… In today's music and art it's all about mix and remix...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Outsiders used to be the outcasts, misfits, and under-employed. Today, they're indie, alternative and ahead of their time. Outsiders are thriving and they're changing the way we think about what is mainstream and what is alternative. You might even say that outsiders are the new insiders.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ask any babbling baby.  Talking’s fun!  At least it is until the grammarians get after you.  But Patricia O’Connor says we can all relax, there’s nothing wrong with splitting an infinitive and there never was.  In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge we...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You know who they are – the cool kids – those above-it-all taste-makers whose fashion and entertainment choices predict what everyone else will be wearing and doing next year.  What’s their secret?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge exploring cool.  A frustrated surfer remembers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

"Life resembles a novel more often than novels resemble life." -- George SandRead more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The thrill of victory… the agony of defeat.  And the human drama of athletic competition.  We love sports. And every 4 years we get the pleasure to watch amateur athletes, at the top of their game, compete in the Olympics.  And that got us thinking about competition.  Because that’s what it’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Thirty years ago, the Iranian Revolution rocked the Middle East and upended the country's cozy relationship with America. We'll take stock of Iran three decades later as we examine the country and it's culture through music, film and politics. Also Salman Rushdie reflects back on "The Satanic...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

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