Are you an experimental innovator who works by trial and error and is most creative later in life, like Cezanne? Or are you a conceptual young genius like Picasso? We'll explore a theory that those are the two life cycles of artistic creativity.Read more
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Episode Archives
Everybody needs a little help, and some of us need a lot. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll meet some helpers - and they’re not all human. We’ll visit a stable where they do equine assisted therapy, and we’ll hear from a writer who’s a volunteer fireman in his small hometown...Read more
When he was 10-years-old, Brian Raftery realized he couldn't sing. Despite his lack of vocal prowess, Raftery is obsessed with karaoke. He's traveled around the world to trace karaoke's evolution from a cult fad to a multimillion-dollar industry. In this hour, we'll explore the world of karaoke...Read more
Kayfabe is an old carny term for fakery. Now it’s the code of honor for professional wrestling. Kayfabe means you never, EVER admit to ANYONE under ANY circumstances that pro wrestling’s fake. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge - the spectacle of professional wrestling. We’ll talk real...Read more
A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but you still need a word to describe that glorious smell. We'll try out new words from the online world with a New York Times language blogger - words like YakkaWow and suicide cuisine. Also, the rise of a new world language called Globish....Read more
The sky is black. The wind’s picking up. The hurricane is coming. Nothing you can do about it. But wait! Scientists from Dyn-o-Storm fly into the hurricane. They release a chemical that stops the hurricane dead in its tracks. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, should we? Just...Read more
With the emergence of barefoot running, the sport suddenly is red hot again. But barefoot or not, are human bodies really born to run? We'll check in on the science or runner's high this hour, and try to unlock the secrets of the Kenyans - the fastest people on earth. Also, Olympic medalist...Read more
Jacques Derrida and the philosophical movement known as deconstruction were once the rage on college campuses. Those days have passed, but deconstruction's influence is everywhere. We talk with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who first translated Derrida's landmark book "Of Grammatology" into...Read more
Have you ever wished you cared less or been told to develop a thicker skin? For the polite and anxious among us, suddenly being immune to criticism and embarrassment might seem to be a superpower. In this hour, we’re exploring...Read more
If you ever find yourself on a dark country road in Ireland, bring along some salt, red thread, and a cross. That’s what you’ll need to protect yourself from “the other crowd.” Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, the fairies of Ireland. They’re magical, vengeful, and still alive and...Read more
Samuel Adams couldn’t ride a horse to save his life, and had a tendency to drool. As if that’s not bad enough, John Adams was a roly-poly fellow who spent his free time fantasizing about becoming the next American King. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a revisionist’s take on the...Read more
A husband, looking at his wife in a mirror maze, asks “are you coming or going?” She answers “Yes, yes.” Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll look at the history of mirrors, as we reflect on the question “How do you know who you are?”Read more
Things go better with "biting the wax tadpole"? That doesn't sound right, does it? Yet that's the literal translation of Coca-Cola that Chinese shopkeepers came up with...a set of characters pronounced "ke-kou ke-la." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the exotic world of...Read more
The world of plants can be a dangerous place. Gorgeous monkshood, with stalks of purple blooms can cause delusions and death. A plump cashew can make you miserable if it isn't steamed properly. And aconite, almost indistinguishable from parsley can cause paralysis and stop your beating heart...Read more
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
The atom bomb's ability to kill people makes it a literal dangerous idea. But there are other kinds of dangerous ideas -- ideas that are contrary, counterintutive and just plain unconventional. It's that kind of dangerous idea that we explore in this hour.Read more
So much of our daily lives gets turned into data -- our online shopping purchases, phone calls, family photos. We're all surrounded by data, and learning how to harness it could be more transformative than we realize. This week, a look at the new data specialists using their knowledge of numbers...Read more
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
The holidays can be challenging. All that togetherness can be like squishing a passel of porcupines into a sardine can. In other words - not nice. On the other hand, there is a bright side. Po Bronson found it in the lives of families across the country. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
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
Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions, Part Two: What Does Evolution Want?
If there’s one strand of evolutionary theory that sticks in the craw of nearly every religious believer, it’s the idea that human beings are just an evolutionary accident. But...Read more
Television used to be formulaic. Today, it’s the best gig around. We examine the explosion of high quality TV, from The Sopranos and The Wire to Mad Men, and talk with the creator of HBO’s True Detective.Read more