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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Nelson Algren said “Never play cards with a man called Doc.  Never eat at a place called Mum’s.  And never go to bed with a woman whose troubles are greater than your own.” In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll catch up with Studs Terkel to talk about why an American master like...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Everything you know about Indians is wrong. That's the starting point for Paul Chaat Smith, who says it's time to hit the reset button and re-think everything we know about Native American culture.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Comedian Howie Miller says that's what he does as a...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Despite the refinancing frenzy, the American Dream isn’t about real estate.  It means being free to make a new life for yourself.  Regardless of the place or the circumstances of your birth.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we celebrate the American Dream.  We’ll meet a man who...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When suicide bombers blow up crowded marketplaces, or a lone shooter attacks a nightclub, one question we’re always left with is why. What ideology or belief or loyalty would compel someone to do something so horrific? This hour, a look at the underlying psychology of political violence.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ahh, nature!  It’s always such fun to watch on television.  Let someone else stalk grizzlies and wrestle Amazonian snakes – real nature is hard work. But it doesn’t have to be.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we invite you to step out of your front door into the natural world.  You...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Celebrate Halloween with this spooky hour full of ghost stories from our wonderful listeners, and real-life tales of the paranormal.   Haunted houses, near-death experiences, and spectral raccoons...  so many ways to be un-dead.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What do you do if you're a struggling artist in search of recognition? Well, if you're Lynn Hershman Leeson, you write reviews of your work under pseudonyms and get them published in local newspapers. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll find out how Hershman Leeson uses her art...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

They’re the bad boys of the numerical system.  You never know when one is going to crop up, or why.  Mathematicians have agonized over their mysteries for years, some predicting a mystical order where only chaos appears.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the world of prime numbers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Imagine a scenario where universes bubble up out of black holes.  Space itself can boil, and humankind may have to fight for survival by building gigantic atom-smashers the length of several star systems.  That future may be closer than you think.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wiring the BrainScientists are launching one of the most audacious projects ever conceived:  a detailed map of the human brain, neuron by neron, synapse by synapse.  For some scientists...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you find Shakespeare a bit intimidating, you might want to check out the Reduced Shakespeare Company.  Its actors do a version of “Hamlet” forward and backwards – all in two minutes.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, Shakespeare as you’ve never heard him before.  Also, the great...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Spiderman had a pretty good summer last year, but J.K. Rowling wasn’t worried.  When the sixth Harry Potter book came out, children trampled the web-slinger in their rush to bookstores and libraries.  Which makes perfect sense to author and Arthurian scholar Jane Yolen.  She says it’s all about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Outsiders used to be the outcasts, misfits, and under-employed. Today, they're indie, alternative and ahead of their time. Outsiders are thriving and they're changing the way we think about what is mainstream and what is alternative. You might even say that outsiders are the new insiders.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Was Henry David Thoreau a failure? Hardly. Today, he's considered one of America's great writers. But his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, called him the worst kind of failure: a dreamer. At Thoreau's funeral, Emerson said Thoreau was born for greatness, but he lacked ambition. He was nor more than...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

American citizens worry about suicide bombers on airplanes, but intelligence analysts say the real threat today is in cyberspace. Cyber attacks on American companies and military installations are on the rise. Could terrorist hackers take down America's power grid? Or financial networks. In...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When Meg Gaines was diagnosed with terminal cancer, her doctor told her to go home and think about the quality, not the quantity, of her days.  Instead she grabbed him by the bow-tie and said “I don’t think you understand.  I intend to live.”  Today Meg Gaines is helping other cancer patients...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you have a tattoo?  One in five American adults do.  It seems there are tattoo parlors everywhere.  What’s most popular?  Quotes from great works of literature. "So it goes."Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you believe that the government is keeping secrets from us? That the military is hiding evidence of alien visitations? Maybe you have a hard line to the truth -- or maybe you're a sucker for conspiracy theories. Today, we explore why we love conspiracy theories and why we believe them.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Who says it's only humans who make art? Have you ever seen an elephant paint? Move over Jackson Pollock - elephant masterpieces are heading to the auction block! And when it comes to music well, Renee Fleming's got a nice voice, but have you have heard a whale sing? It's unbelievable. In this...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Classical musicians don't come with better pedigrees than violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. She's been wowing audiences since she was four, performs all over the world and has commissioned many new works. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Meyers talks about why she chose to record popular...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Some critics call V.S. Naipaul the world’s greatest living writer.  But his harsh views on Islam and the Third World have sparked enormous controversy.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Naipaul talks about his life as a writer.  Also, poetry for the ages: we’ll hear Yeats, Auden and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You watch two trench-coated boys walk into their  high school and shoot everyone in sight. Then a demon drags them off to be tortured in Hell. No, it’s not the latest video game.  It’s Hell House, a Halloween haunted house put on by a church in Texas. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Here’s the bad news.  You can get the thing you most want - a BMW, the winning lottery ticket, and you still won’t be any happier.  The good news?  You can survive the most devastating catastrophes and you’ll be back on your feet in less time than you think.  Next time on To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When Charles Mingus died, his widow took his ashes to India and scattered them in the Ganges.  But that wasn’t the end.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Sue Mingus talks about the legacy of her late husband’s music: his spirituality, his anger, and his love.  Also, a conversation...Read more

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