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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are you afraid of getting old? Most people are, but studies show we're usually happier in our 60s and 70s. Aging often brings wisdom and resilience - and a new creative spark. We celebrate the fine art of aging - and hear about some artists who remade their careers late in life.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

East Meets West

Part Five

 

Tariq Ramadan is a controversial philosopher who believes Muslims can thrive in secular, Western society. Ayaan Hirsi Ali disagrees. She's an equally controversial figure who's living under a death threat...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The physics world has a darling - it's called string theory. The idea that the universe is composed of infinitesimal vibrating strings. String theory has been the subject of bestselling books, popular TV series and countless articles. But is it a dead end street? In this hour of on To the...Read more

bees

Bees are responsible for forty percent of the food we put in our mouths.  It sounds astonishing, but without bees, we could find ourselves facing food shortages and a collapse of the green and flowered world.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,  a peek inside the world...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Roast pig may look delicious on the holiday table, but you might pass on the pork if you met Piglet.  That famous New Zealand pig swam in the ocean each day, loved the violin and, as the story goes, sang to the moon.  But she was more than an exceptional pet.  To one man she was an  ambassador...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Turning thirty used to be embarrassing, an occasion for angst and misery.  Today young adults are embracing thirty as cause for celebration.  They’re renting yachts, giving speeches and spending thousands of dollars to celebrate the big three-oh.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The state of Israel turns Sixty in 2008, but what is its future as a Jewish democracy? The Arab population in Israel will soon outnumber the Jews. Even diehard Zionists are calling for the creation of a Palestinian state. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at the role Israeli...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Life’s a sim and then you’re deleted.  We always thought the computers would get us one day.  Maybe they already have.  According to one philosopher, odds are we’re already living the Matrix as mere programs in a computer simulation.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tribute albums, reunion tours and mash-ups.  If pop culture’s all about the new, why is there so much wallowing in our immediate past?  Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about his book, “Retromania.”   Is this retromania a death knell for our own originality?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Science and the Search for Meaning: Five Questions, Part Four: Can Islam and Science Coexist?

Islamic culture was once the center of the scientific world. During Europe's Dark Ages, Baghdad, Cairo and other Middle Eastern cities were the key repositories of ancient...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Soup to Nuts

Part Four

They say variety is the spice of life. But let's be honest, spices are really the spice of life. Pepper, oregano, vanilla. . . parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, things get...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Jesse Gilmour was fifteen-years-old and he was flunking every subject at school. So what did his father, David Gilmour, do? He told Jesse that he could drop out and that he wouldn't have to work or pay rent. All he had to do was watch three movies every week with his dad. Movies that his...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ayn Rand didn't know how to make small talk; she lived for big ideas and bold statements.  She believed capitalism was the best social system ever invented, and even took to wearing a gold pin in the shape of a dollar sign.  Ayn Rand died nearly thirty years ago, but she's now inspiring a new...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

How much time do you spend thinking about the future? Oh sure, you’ve probably got plans for the weekend or are thinking about how your kids are doing in school.

But how much time to do we spend – as a nation, a global community – thinking about what our lives might look like in 50 or 100...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Julian Barnes is one of England’s most celebrated novelists.  He’s fascinated by the ways our minds play tricks with memory, especially as we age.  It’s the subject of his Booker Prize winning novel “The Sense of an Ending” – one of several new books that explore the minefield of memory.  We...Read more

city at daybreak

Every sixty seconds, 259 new people show up in the world's cities. No one is building housing for them. No government is planning for them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the evolving city in a world of a billion squatters, with another billion on the way.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Charles Monroe-Kane grew up hearing voices in his head. For years he tried to drown them out with potentially lethal quantities of hard drugs and alcohol. Lithium saved his life but coming clean about his past hasn't been easy. How do you admit, as a public radio producer, that for years you had...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

James Hood had a dream.  He wanted to go to college and get an education.  But there was a problem.  Hood was a black man in segregated Alabama in 1963.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a variety of views and opinions from Black Americans on their expectations of freedom.  We’ll...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Posters at Starbucks ask customers to focus on the world water crisis. Church congregations ask the faithful to go on a "carbon diet." Slate magazine asks readers to take a "green challenge." We've got green cars, green clothing, green politics and even green weddings. In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Would you recognize a genius if you met one?  We’ll introduce you to four geniuses – or at least four people who just landed MacArthur “genius" awards: classical pianist Jeremy Denk, jazz musician Vijay Iyer, fiction writer Karen Russell and astrophysicist Sara Seager.  Also, practical tips on...Read more

Fitbit and notebooks

A few years ago, the notion of the "quantified self" was the domain of a relatively small group of hackers, engineers, and computer enthusiasts. Now, under its many names—lifelogging, self-tracking, fitness monitoring—it's become one of the fastest growing segments of the technology...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A year and a half ago Gary Wolkstein’s doctor told him he had cancer of the spine, that it was terminal, and that he had just a few months left to live.  Today Gary’s in fine health.  Not, it wasn’t a miracle cure, it was a mistake.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

John Brown was a terrorist, a man who led a raid in Kansas that butchered five unarmed men. He was also, arguably, of the few white people in 1850s America who was totally color blind. According to a new book he was "the man who killed slavery and sparked the Civil War." So, was John Brown a "...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Salman Rushdie's new novel is called "The Enchantress of Florence." It's a tale of two cities, consisting of stories tucked inside stories tucked inside stories...along the lines of Scheherazade's stories of "One Thousand and One Nights." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Salman...Read more

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