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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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Mary Ann Caws is an internationally respected scholar of surrealism. She has translated many of the movements major texts and is the editor of “Surrealism (Themes and Movements).” Caws talks with Anne Strainchamps about the history of the surrealist movement. Also, we hear actor Steve O’Connell...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tariq Ramadan has been called the Muslim Martin Luther King, and he's often described as Europe's most important Muslim intellectual.  Hundreds of young Muslims turn up at his talks, and tapes of his lectures are widely circulated.  He travels throughout the Islamic world, trying to build...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's hard to wrap your head around the future of the human brrain.  Augmented intelligence, memory playback, downloadable skills - it's all coming.  We explore the future of the mind, and hear how a brain injury can transform your life.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ok, take a breath. Close your eyes. Recall the home of your childhood.  Can you smell the cookies in the kitchen? Can you open a drawer in your bedroom? Do you see the sunlight through a window? Every building has a story. . . And not only a story, every building has a sound.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever wished you cared less or been told to develop a thicker skin? For the polite and anxious among us, suddenly being immune to criticism and embarrassment might seem to be a superpower. In this hour, we’re exploring...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Is there such a thing as true, original creativity? Or "Are we just seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants?", to paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the question of where good ideas come from. Steven Johnson will tell us about...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The collapse of the twin towers gave birth to a strange new world.  It was a city of fire and dust, rubble crunching under foot and eerie underground rivers.  William Langewiesche  was the only journalist with unrestricted access to Ground Zero.  What he found there was startling, natural, and...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are humans innately good? Do we have a generosity gene? Is there an inherent desire to help our fellow human beings? Or, are we natural born sinners who have to fight, tooth and nail, to conquer our inherent tendencies towards selfishness, destruction and war. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The East Village Opera Company's new album, "Olde School," was 300 years in the making. The group gives some of opera's greatest hits an extreme musical make-over, re-imagining them as popular songs. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet the co-founders of The East Village...Read more

static screen

Failure is a four letter word in America. Most of us do everything we can to avoid it.  But what if we've got the wrong idea about failure - and it's all a matter of learning the right way to do it? This hour, one psychologist's take on how to embrace the fall.  And comedian...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

”Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” may not look like grist for the philosopher’s mill, but philosopher Bill Irwin says they have a few things to teach us.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, philosophy from Socrates to Wittgenstein, with a short detour through pop culture.  Also...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When do we most need our leaders? In times of crisis? In times of war? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge Winston Churchill's biographer Martin Gilbert explains how the man who offered his nation only blood, sweat, toil and tears made it believe that was enough. And he says Churchill's...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would a secular society really look like?  We take an unconventional look at religion, the fiction it inspires, and reflect on why William James' classic book on mysticism, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," still matters.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What are the great country music singles?  Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” probably.  George Jones’ “slobbing tearjerker,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today.”  What about the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women”? and Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay?  According to the book “Heartaches by the...Read more

beautiful food

Chefs and writers explore the language of food on the plate and on the page. We meet novelists who cook, chefs who write, and a poet of pies.  It's an hour of deliciousness in words and food.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever thought about money? Now, of course you have.  Talking about money permeates our existence.  But what if there wasn’t any money?  What would you do?

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

So much of our daily lives gets turned into data -- our online shopping purchases, phone calls, family photos. We're all surrounded by data, and learning how to harness it could be more transformative than we realize. This week, a look at the new data specialists using their knowledge of numbers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The pint-sized wizard harry Potter has conquered the book world, and it’s not just kids who love him.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, what’s behind Harry Potter’s popularity.  Also, acclaimed author Katherine Paterson (pronounced Patterson) on the emotional lives of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The holidays can be challenging.  All that togetherness can be like squishing a passel of porcupines into a sardine can.  In other words - not nice.  On the other hand, there is a bright side.  Po Bronson found it in the lives of families across the country.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It turns out that television may not be quite the "boob tube" and "the idiot box" that we thought it was. It seems that watching TV can actually make you smarter... by posing new cognitive challenges for your brain to solve. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll explore the...Read more

David Graeber speaks at Maagdenhuis occupation

David Graeber was an iconoclastic anthropologist and influential radical thinker, one who popularized the rallying cry "We are the 99%." He died on Sept. 2 in Venice, Italy at age 59. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Alex Rider, Nancy Drew, The Cat in the Hat, and Harold and the Purple Crayon – for millions of children of all ages, they're some of the most imaginative and mysterious stories around. But as it turns out, the authors sometimes have their own, personal mysteries to share. In this hour of To the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

E’len see la luma nomih tyelvoh.  That’s Elvish for “A star shines upon the hour of our meeting.”  Even if you don’t believe in Elves it’s hard to resist the enchanting languages J.R.R. Tolkien created for the creatures of Middle Earth.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we find out...Read more

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