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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Massacre at Wounded Knee - 10 Years Later

One of the most horrific episodes in American history occurred on December 29, 1890. The U.S. Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Lakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and massacred some 300 people. The details of the carnage of the Wounded Knee Massacre are almost unbearable. As Black Elk, the Lakota medicine man who witnessed the massacre, put it, “Something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died." This tragedy is the bleak backdrop for Jonis Agee's new novel, "The Bones of Paradise." Set 10 years after the Wounded Knee Massacre, all the characters in her novel - from white cattle ranchers to the Lakota - are wrestling with the ghosts of the massacre. Agee tells Steve Paulson about the origins of her novel.

 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tom Wolfe reads "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

Tom Wolfe reads the opening to "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and explains why it's his favorite.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Business of Predicting the Future

There's money to be made in the future. It's Liz Crawford's job to help big corporations figure out how to prepare for possible futures.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Strangest Playground In the World

In a small town in northern Wales you'll find a playground where it's normal for kids to play with rusty tools or build fires. It's called the Land, and it's an example of an adventure playground — where kids are free to take risks. The Land's manager, Claire Griffiths, gives us an insider's view of an adventure playground.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sonic Sidebar: Umberto Eco on Beauty

Philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco wrote a history of beauty. A few years later, he followed it up with a study of ugliness. Here’s what he found

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Russ Feingold on the Senate Intelligence Committee

Senator Russ Feingold is a Democrat from Wisconsin who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Walking England's Coast

Jules Pretty spent a year circumnavigating England's southeastern coast on foot.  He discovered tidal paths, secret roads, and beaches covered in tiny fragments of 18th century human bones.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Stephen Thompson on “The Onion A.V. Club"

Stephen Thompson is an editor at The Onion newspaper, and editor of “The Onion A.V. Club: The Tenacity of the Cockroach.”

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