Malcolm Gladwell knows how to succeed in show business without really trying -- write a story for The New Yorker about a psychiatrist who studies serial killers. Then a playwright will take some of the words from your article and use them in a Broadway play. Next time on To the Best of Our...Read more
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Episode Archives
It doesn’t get much more American than a waitress in a diner taking your order. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the diner. For some, like painter Edward Hopper, the diner is a muse. For others it’s just a greasy spoon. But have we romanticized the endless cups of coffee and the...Read more
Film on radio? Why not? This hour, join us LIVE from the historic Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, for a special “Wisconsin Film Festival edition” of To The Best of Our Knowledge for film on radio. We’ll talk Dogme with “Italian for Beginners” director, Lone Scherfig. Also, the anti-...Read more
What goes on inside the mind of a painter, or a musician, or a poet? What sparks creativity? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, new neuroscience takes us inside the creative mind. We’ll talk about brain imaging studies of jazz musicians, and cosmologist Brian Swimme explores the...Read more
For years poet and novelist Alice Walker told her friends she’d probably never write again. But the events of September 11 changed all that. And the poetry flowed. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Alice Walker on the role of the poet in a time of war. Also, Iraqi poetry today. ...Read more
Back in 1967, Noam Chomsky wrote a famous essay called "The Responsibility of Intellectuals." Chomsky was furious about what he called "the deceit and distortion surrounding the American invasion of Vietnam." And he urged intellectuals "to speak the truth and expose lies." So what is the...Read more
Who are you? White or black, Muslim or Christian, working class or wealthy? Most of us rotate through many different cultural identities, at work and at home. And sometimes, reconciling them is hard.Read more
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."
It was the best of times for Pattie Boyd. Her modeling career was booming and the sixties were exploding on the London scene. One day she got a call - she'd been cast in a Beatles film. The rest is history. We'll meet the woman who inspired three of the most famous rock songs of all time,...Read more
America is in trouble. The decline of the dollar, climate change and the ugly math of Social Security and national debt are just a handful of the challenges facing the next generation. And who's to blame for the current mess? Baby Boomers - according to a growing movement, pitting one generation...Read more
Scientists have proven what pet owners already knew - cuddling with your dog or cat is good for you – and for your pet. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, keeping animals well, and how they return the favor. From gorilla conservation and eco-tourism to the dilemmas posed...Read more
Suppose neuroscientists map the billions of neural circuits in the human brain....are we any closer to cracking the great existential mysteries - like meaning,...Read more
Is there anything science won’t tackle? The latest question neuroscientists are taking on is, “What makes something beautiful?” We're checking in with the scientists, the philosophers and the artists in this hour.Read more
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
Take a stroll through a natural history museum these days and you’ll not only see dinosaurs, you’ll smell them. Get a whiff of T-rex’s halitosis, his dinner leftovers, and, well, how should I put this – his droppings, too! In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, museums that tickle your...Read more
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
Think you know your history? Then, of course, you remember Martin Luther King's famous "If I Had A Hammer" speech. And you know that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife...and she was at rest on Mount Arafat. And you don't need me to remind you that Marie Curie won the Noel Prize for inventing the...Read more
Are you an experimental innovator who works by trial and error and is most creative later in life, like Cezanne? Or are you a conceptual young genius like Picasso? We'll explore a theory that those are the two life cycles of artistic creativity.Read more
Al Green is often referred to as the minister of L-O-V-E. You know, a couple of candles, a back-rub, and Al Green on the stereo. In 1976, Al Green put all that behind him and became a real minister – the Reverend Al Green of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, Tennessee. But now he's...Read more
When the Taliban took control of Kabul, many Afghans destroyed their books and TV sets. Belquis Ahmadi’s family left the country when women lost their rights. Today, Ahmadi lives in exile, campaigning for women to play a major role in a new Afghan government. Her story in this...Read more
Ben Kilham has some unusual playmates - black balls of fur who scratch, wrestle and climb all over him. They are orphaned bear cubs. And Kilham is their surrogate mom. He’s raised two dozen bear cubs and then released them into the wild. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll trek...Read more
Phil Harvey gives away tens of millions of dollars every year to fight AIDS and promote family planning in such places as India, Brazil, Vietnam and Ethiopia. Where does the money come from? Harvey runs the largest mail-order erotica business in the world. In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more
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
Magic is an art, a philosophy, and a way of seeing the world. In this hour, we learn magic tricks from a stage magician, travel to India's last magician's colony, explore shamanic magic, and talk with magical novelists Erin Morgenstern (Night Circus) and Deborah Harkness (...Read more