Child rape at Penn State. A murderous rampage in Norway. A new civil war in Sudan. Ruthless drug cartels. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hate Crimes. Murder. Genocide. What is wrong with us? Are we really that bad?Read more
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Episode Archives
The American middle class used to be living proof that the American dream was alive and well, providing homes and modest savings to anyone willing to work. It’s another story today. In this hour, the decline of the middle class. How rising levels of income inequality shattered...Read more
Your mother always told you money can’t buy happiness. Well, she was wrong. And economists have calculated the price. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the high cost of happiness. Also, why we cry: from crocodile tears to the three-hankie movie. Writer Andrew Solomon’s struggles...Read more
Have you ever been to "Reloville"? Or maybe you live there. There's more than one. You can find them in Atlanta, Dallas and Denver, among other places. "Relovilles" are the sprawling subdivisions where mid-level managers and executives live – for a few years before they uproot their families and...Read more
Electrons to Enlightenment
Part One
Do science and religion have to be at war with each other? Francis Collins doesn't think so. The head of the Human Genome Project, is also an evangelical Christian. But biologist and atheist...Read more
In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the mystique of Native Americans. We hear they’re close to the land; they have sacred knowledge. But Indian writer Sherman Alexie says that’s bunk, that the “the whole New Age movement is based on as many stereotypes as genocide was.” What makes a...Read more
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
When your country doesn’t live up to its own values, what do you do? Put your head under the covers or man the barricades? Fighting for freedom means different things to different people. In this hour, we talk with some of them -- from Wikileaks’ controversial founder Julian Assange, to the...Read more
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
By today’s medical definition, Brad Pitt is overweight, and Russell Crowe is obese. The standards are even tougher for women. But are those extra pounds really that bad? Maybe it’s time we all lighten up about fat. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why one expert says America’s...Read more
Bottle caps, coins, dolls, rocks. My Aunt Mary’s ceramic chickens. Most of us collect something. It seems to be in our genes. And for most of us it’s a fun hobby. For others, it can get a little time consuming. But for a few, collecting is an total obsession.
Amanda Petrusich is a music...Read more
Jane Scott keeps strange company. While other women her age spend their time in knitting circles, Scott’s still hanging out with rockers like Lou Reed and Alice Cooper (and showing off her backstage pass.) It’s her job. Or at least it was until she retired as rock critic for the Cleveland...Read more
You know who they are – the cool kids – those above-it-all taste-makers whose fashion and entertainment choices predict what everyone else will be wearing and doing next year. What’s their secret? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge exploring cool. A frustrated surfer remembers...Read more
The thrill of victory… the agony of defeat. And the human drama of athletic competition. We love sports. And every 4 years we get the pleasure to watch amateur athletes, at the top of their game, compete in the Olympics. And that got us thinking about competition. Because that’s what it’s...Read more
Pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman has interviewed some of the biggest names in the celebrity constellation. But getting a celebrity to talk is no easy task. In fact, Klosterman says it's not in the celebrity's best interest to do any interviews at all. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
Future Perfect: Dreamers, Schemers & Visionaries
Part Two
It's not hard to see why economics is called "the dismal science" – after we were blind-sided by the worst financial meltdown in decades. But economics does have its...Read more
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
As Western economies struggle, some Eastern economies are booming. India and China now threaten to surpass the West as economic – and political – superpowers. But it’s not just politics that’s changing in South Asia. Across the region, centuries-old religious traditions are also entering a...Read more
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
Adventure writer Ann Jones recalls crossing Africa from Tangier to Cape Town in search of one special tribe. They’re guided by the “feminine” principles of compromise, tolerance and peace. Also, Tony Horwitz sets sail in the wake of Captain Cooke. We’ll hear about a Frenchman who never went...Read more
Imagine that you grow up with dreams of fame and fortune. You're going to become a world-famous rock star. The only problem is your childhood friend becomes the world's biggest rock star instead. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Neil McCormick shares his story of being upstaged...Read more
From trance music to ecstatic dance, from Burning Man to psychedelic mushrooms, Americans are awash in weird and intense experiences - and maybe even inventing a new kind of religion. Is this just a bunch of New Age thrill-seekers getting off, or is something deeper going on? We explore the...Read more
By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we ask a blunt question: Did we win? We're not the only ones asking. The phrase "did we win the war in Iraq" has been searched over 7 million times on Google. The war has cost an estimated 860...Read more
They can have sex twenty times a day. Their teeth are harder than steel. And the ones that live in the city are twice as big as their country cousins. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll talk rats with Robert Sullivan, who spent a year investigating rats in a New York City...Read more