Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Spiderman had a pretty good summer last year, but J.K. Rowling wasn’t worried.  When the sixth Harry Potter book came out, children trampled the web-slinger in their rush to bookstores and libraries.  Which makes perfect sense to author and Arthurian scholar Jane Yolen.  She says it’s all about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Can you imagine spending a week at an airport?  By choice?  Alain de Botton did exactly that.  He tells us about it, as we explore airports and air travel.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

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

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

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Who says it's only humans who make art? Have you ever seen an elephant paint? Move over Jackson Pollock - elephant masterpieces are heading to the auction block! And when it comes to music well, Renee Fleming's got a nice voice, but have you have heard a whale sing? It's unbelievable. In this...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

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

Classical musicians don't come with better pedigrees than violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. She's been wowing audiences since she was four, performs all over the world and has commissioned many new works. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Meyers talks about why she chose to record popular...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine losing your lover, mother, stepfather and sister in less than eight months. That's what happened to country music singer/songwriter Carlene Carter. Her mother is June Carter Cash and her stepfather is Johnny Cash. Carlene Carter drew on all of this loss and tragedy to create a new album...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It will go down as one of the most amazing archeological discoveries in history. Homo naledi - a new species of human-like fossils found in South Africa - is already rewriting the story of human evolution. These 15 skeletons are the largest cache of pre-human bones ever found. But so far,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we ask a blunt question: Did we win? We're not the only ones asking. The phrase "did we win the war in Iraq" has been searched over 7 million times on Google. The war has cost an estimated 860...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

They can have sex twenty times a day.  Their teeth are harder than steel.  And the ones that live in the city are twice as big as their country cousins.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk rats with Robert Sullivan, who spent a year investigating rats in a New York City...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A restaurant wasn't always a place to eat.  It used to be a thing to eat - a cup of medicinal broth to restore your health.  These days Americans eat almost half their meals out, so how did the modern restaurant evolve?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the rise of the restaurant. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every day you pick up the paper and there's another report about something you either should be eating or shouldn't. Omega 3-fatty acids, soy milk, broccoli - good. Trans fats, soda, fast food - bad. What if instead we just ate what made us happy? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The world’s oceans are emptying at an alarming rate.  Fish populations are dwindling and dozens of species are going extinct.  Is this something to worry about?  Not as long as you like plankton stew.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll meet the controversial scientist who jump-...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Scientists are discovering how plants secretly talk to each other.  How smart is your geranium, and what does a tree know?  Today, we're eavesdropping on the secret language of plants.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

Electrons to Enlightenment

Part One

 

Do science and religion have to be at war with each other? Francis Collins doesn't think so. The head of the Human Genome Project, is also an evangelical Christian. But biologist and atheist...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You're driving along a dark road when you're distracted by what appears to be a flight of arrows. You crash into a ravine and suffer horrible burns over most of your body. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll talk to Andrew Davidson about his debut novel "The Gargoyle." It's been...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Meaning of Life

Part Three

 

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we consider the good stuff. Love. Poetry. Pleasure. Chocolate. Art. Beauty. New York Times Art Critic Michael Kimmelman says the beauty of beauty is that...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Mel Brooks’ play “The Producers” is Broadway’s biggest hit in years, but it’s not for everyone – not at a hundred bucks a ticket.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, does theater still matter?  We’ll talk with playwright Wendy Wasserstein and critic Frank Rich.  Also, Samuel Beckett’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What’s the biggest threat to American supremacy?  Islamic fundamentalism?  China?  How about Europe?  Today Europe has more people, more trade, and more wealth than the U.S.  And the European welfare state offers a potent alternative to American capitalism - and what government’s supposed to do...Read more

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