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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Terry Ryan tells Jim Fleming that her mother loved crafting contest entries and matched her efforts to the tastes of specific judges. And we hear some of her winning verses.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Stephen Thompson is the founder of the A.V. Club, the arts section of the satirical newspaper, "The Onion," originally based in Madison, Wisconsin.  Thompson eventually left Madison for Washington DC, to work at NPR as an editor and reviewer at NPR Music.     In this interview, Thompson tells Steve Paulson about the forces that drew "The Onion" staff to New York, and what it means to be an artist in the Heartland.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There was a time when others bagged your groceries, planned your trips and pumped your gas, but now they're just another part of our daily routines. Craig Lambert says these are a few examples of the "shadow work" we've unwittingly taken on in service of companies and other organizations. He warns that it's chipping away at our leisure time, and turning us all into middle class serfs.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff takes us on a tour through the virtual world of Second Life.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Piers Vitebsky is an anthropologist who studies the Eveny or Reindeer People of Siberia.  They depend on the reindeer for their survival.  They keep herds of them for meat -  but their connection goes even deeper.  Vitebsky says that they also have personal, consecrated reindeer animal doubles, which they believe will die for them.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wendy Burden is the author of "Dead End Gene Pool," a memoir of her childhood among wealthy but highly dysfunctional remnants of the Vanderbilt fortune.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Shane Harris tells Steve Paulson that our government is collecting masses of data on ordinary people in its efforts to catch terrorists.

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