Episode Archives

Filter episodes by the year they originally aired.
To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Meaning of Life

Part Four

 

Pete Best should have been famous beyond his wildest dreams. He had Ringo's job just months before the Beatles' "Love Me Do" became a smash hit. But he got tossed out of the band and ended up working...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

From Soup to Nuts:

Part Two

This may be the century when Americans forget how to cook. We're just too busy. Take-out's too easy. And, who needs to cook when you can buy ready-made...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There’s another September 11th.  On that day thirty years ago, a military coup overthrew Chile’s elected president, Salvador Allende.  Newly declassified documents show the C.I.A.’s extensive involvement in the coup.  On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the Pinochet file.  Also,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You know those end of the year lists?  Best books, movies, music and so on?  This hour, To the Best of Our Knowledge shares the best interviews from 2015.  Plus a booklist or two.Read more

camera

When we’ve had enough of reality, we often seek escape in a movie.   But we don’t have to shut off our brains when we visit the cinema.  Some films actually encourage us to use our minds.  This hour, we explore philosophy through the lens of filmRead more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever wondered why Homer’s “Iliad” is still so popular?  Bestselling writer Thomas Cahill says it’s because it’s a real boy’s story.  On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, our enduring fascination with the Ancient Greeks.  Also, an archaeologist who’s excavating the real Troy. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Is religion dangerous? Sam Harris blames the violent verses in the Koran and the Bible for inciting religious conflict around the world. Renowned religious historian Karen Armstrong says the core message of the major religions is the Golden Rule. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What if our lives were like DVDs?  What if we had alternative endings to look forward to, instead of death?  We explore our lust for immortality.  And we look at the many alternative endings that Ernest Hemingway wrote for his classic novel, "A Farewell to Arms."

 Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Words can change lives.  Just look at the “at-risk” students in Erin Gruwell’s class.  Many of them were branded “unteachable.”  Then they read Anne Frank’s diary, and started to keep their own journals.  The experience was electrifying.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Siberia is the name for a place we tend to think of as a metaphor as much as a destination on the map. Writer Ian Frazier indulged what he calls his dread Russia love with travels through Siberia, tracing the path of prisoners on their way to lonely exile and through mosquito-ridden swamps at...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Crime may not pay but writing crime fiction does. Just ask the Swedish writer, Henning Mankell. Or those who write "Tartan Noir"...Scottish detective fiction. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore Northern Europe's fictional crime wave. Also, Roger Ebert on film noir.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Who are you?

A man? A woman?

Are you a success? A failure?

A parent? An athlete? A wallflower?

A Christian? A Buddhist? A baker? 

If we are only a collection of stories about ourselves... what's the truth of who "we" are? 

Looking for UNCUT...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine a huge corporation running like a well-oiled machine – with no one in charge.  That’s how ant colonies work, with not a single leader among 10,000 members.  How does anything get done?  In this hour of to the Best of Our Knowledge, a look inside a colony of stinging...Read more

hitchhiker

Does anyone still hitchhike?  Cult film director John Waters does.  At the age of 66, he hitchhiked 2,800 miles, from Baltimore to San Francisco.  He tells us about the people who picked him up, along with some who didn't.  And did the America Interstate System pave the way...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities, we're wondering what shapes urban cultures. In this hour, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk talks about how Istanbul shaped his writing. One historian argues that early liberal philosophies from Amsterdam shaped the United States. And we check in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As artists and scientists explore the edges of our senses, what we touch, taste, see, smell, and hear is changing. 

In this hour we hear from a psychiatrist who’s using touch to help people recover from trauma, investigate a mysterious sensory experience that gives some people euphoric...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh made his name when he broke the story of the My Lai Massacre.  Looking back you have to wonder: why did Lt. William Calley tell Hersh he’d killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians?  On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge Hersh says “because I asked him...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

holding hands in hospital

Modern medicine can treat disease at a molecular—or even atomic – level.  And today’s surgeons can fix things the naked eye can’t even see.  But there’s one thing every patient wants that no technology in the world can provide: compassion.  In this hour, doctors talk about the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Future Perfect: Dreamers, Schemers & Visionaries

Part Three

 

Our environment is in trouble. It's not hard to imagine global catastrophe as problems like climate change and overpopulation take their toll. But there's always hope...Read more

Pages