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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Author, Author

Part Two

 

It's been called divine and it's been called disgusting. it's arguably one of the most important books of all time. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" as we ask the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Dreams can be a pleasant diversion from the daily grind or something with the potential to transform, entertain, and even heal. On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the power of dreams and the science of sleep.Read more

the thinker

Thoughts about thinking, including Daniel Goleman on "Emotional Intelligence" and Daniel Kahneman on "Thinking, Fast and Slow."Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The past is nebulous - a place no one can go.  When we try to get our bearings there, we often find more than one truth.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll go back to Vietnam with Senator Bob Kerrey.  And, one woman pieces together her past in war-torn Liberia.  Also, paying...Read more

book pile

We're keepin it surreal this hour with a hallucinatory vortex chock full of innovative fiction.  Like Salvador Dali said -- "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."   Join us as we expand your vision and melt your mind....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Bible and the Quran are some of our most sacred and revered texts. They're also full of violent passages. Is religion the source of violence and intolerance around the world?  We look at how sacred texts inspire both violence and liberation.Read more

language

If you think the influence of Shakespeare is confined to the page and the stage, think again. Take starlings, the aggressive European birds who’ve pushed a lot of Native American birds out of their nests. They were introduced by a Shakespeare fanatic, who loosed dozens of them in Central Park....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The cultural revolution changed everything for Hao Jian Tian.  When he was ten years old, Tian studied piano.  Reluctantly.  So when his piano teacher was hauled off to jail, it was a day of celebration.  No more piano lessons.  No more practicing.  But years later, music caught up with Hao...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Picking up a bottle of wine for dinner used to be simple. It pretty much depended on how much you wanted to spend, since everything came from France. Not anymore! We'll look at what happened to the wine world in 1976, when wine from the Napa Valley won a blind tasting and turned the industry...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Electrons to Enlightenment

Part Three

 

One of the Dalai Lama's favorite places in America is a neuro-biology lab at the University of Wisconsin, looking for scientific proof that meditation works. In other labs across the country,...Read more

beautiful food

Imagine a farm five stories tall, powered by the sun, watered by the rain. Cabbage and carrots, tomatoes and eggplant grow on living walls. Tens of thousands of fish swim in aquaponic tanks. In this hour, the urban farm of the future gets real. Also, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We’ve heard a lot about Islamic fundamentalists who hate the West. Some people can’t wait for the United States to invade Afghanistan.  But no one would be happier to see the back of Osama bin Laden than the Average Afghan.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the crucial...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“Good fences make good neighbors." Robert Frost writes in Mending Wall.  Is he right? Maybe homemade chocolate chip cookies or lending a lawnmower are more neighborly. I guess it depends on who your neighbors are.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a visit with former Israeli commando Uri Avnery, who went on to become an outspoken critic of Israeli policy. He's seen his office bombed. He's been beaten and once barely survived an assassination attempt. Today Avnery is calling for a separate...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Christopher Hogwood was not your ordinary household pet. For one thing, he weighed 700 pounds. And he loved to drink beer. Christopher was a very large pig with a heart of gold. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the story of how Christopher Hogwood became the best-loved pig in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's called the Turing Test, an annual event in which the most advanced computer programs try to fool a panel of judges into mistaking them for real people.    And real people compete to try to win the coveted "Most Human Human Award."  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Contemporary nomads are primitive, tribal people who chase the seasons to fresh water and greener pastures.  They’re not middle aged American women who’ve published scores of children’s books, or not usually.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll meet Rita Golden Gelman,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you want to know the truth about J.D. Salinger, good luck.  To this day we know more about his fictional character Holden Caulfield than we do about the man who created him.  In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge, literary life after Salinger’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Laura Blumenfeld’s father was a tourist in Jerusalem when he was shot in the head.  The shooter was a member of the PLO.  He had lousy aim – his victim lived.  But Blumenfeld never forgot that day.  In fact, she vowed to find the man responsible and take revenge.  She kept her word.  Her story...Read more

military helmet

The US will pull troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016, leaving behind an enemy they've fought for more than a decade. This week, we explore Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency and find out what motivates them.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

For decades “imperialism” was a dirty word, and all talk of empire seemed old-fashioned.  Now some people say a new empire has emerged – the American Empire.  But is America’s unrivaled power good for the world?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the debate over American supremacy.  ...Read more

game over

Parents worry that their kids spend too much time playing video games, but according to one new study, if you need surgery, you want the surgeon who grew up with a game controller in one hand.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why the future belongs to gamers.  Imagine a...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Read any good life-list books lately? How about "1,000 Places You Must Visit Before You Die?" or "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." There's no shortage of "life-list" books to read these days. What's next? "1,000 Life-List Books You Must Read Before You Die"? Probably. We'll explore...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Think that a TV series based on the Coen Brothers' 1996 black comedy crime thriller, "Fargo," is a bad idea? Then you haven't seen "Fargo," The TV series.  Creator and showrunner Noah Hawley talks about how he transformed the iconic film into the critically-acclaimed, award-winning TV series.Read more

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