Episode Archives

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bonobos

Imagine a relative who thinks sex is like a handshake.  Who organizes orgies with the neighbors, doesn't mind if their partner sleeps around and firmly believes females should be in charge of everything.  Actually, those ARE your relatives.  They're bonobo apes and they share...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's been called all kinds of things: God, Brahman, Nirvana, All, Dao. But renowned religion writer Karen Armstrong says we've often lost sight of what this ultimate reality means, so it's not surprising it can seem so unbelievable. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Karen Armstrong...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When’s the last time you were wonderstruck? Would your life be richer for more wonder? What wonder is, how to make it, where to find it and what it does for us... we all get gently awed in this hour.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you believe those at the top of society deserve their success, doesn’t that mean you think those at the bottom deserve their failure?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll talk about status anxiety.  Also, we’ll find out why American poverty matters to everyone.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

camera

When disaster strikes, photojournalists run toward it instead of away. Usually, with a camera in hand. Their job is to get up close to tragedy and danger, to document things we need to see, in the hopes of somehow making a difference.  This hour we’re talking with some of the world’s great...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

They can talk to angels, they're intuitive, and their aura is an unusual vivid blue. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll find out about indigo children. The new age movement says they're here to save the world, but modern medicine says they're normal kids with attention deficit...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The scene is a gritty punk club.  Dark and smoky with sticky floors.  A crowd shuffles and talks, waiting for the music.  One man takes the stage.  He sits down and plays – not rock, not techno, but the solo cello suites of J.S. Bach.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, breaking the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

"Being a man, like being a woman, is something you have to learn." That's what Aaron Raz Link says. And Link should know. He began life as a girl named Sarah. And he started a new life as a gay man twenty-nine years later. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Aaron Raz Link,...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ten years after the War on Terror began, militant Islamic teenagers are still blowing themselves up in crowded streets.  What makes someone willing to become a human bomb?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, how religious radicalization works and new techniques for...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What would you die for? And what are you willing to kill for? Democracy?On this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the meaning of democracy. We’ll hear from writers Alice Walker, Sherman Alexie, Isabel Alende and Margaret Atwood.  Also, tomorrow’s citizens.  Are schools giving children...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, James Bradley remembers his father the war hero, who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima.  Martin Amis comes to terms with his famous father – the writer Kingsley Amis.  And the story of a military father who was an officer but no gentleman...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

On a scale of one to ten, how happy would you say you are right now?  If someone could teach you how to be even happier, would you be interested?  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, how to boost your happiness IQ.  Also, eating for pleasure, with chef and food writer Deborah Madison. ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Rehearsing Shakespeare’s tragedy, MacBeth, one young actor found himself in the mood for mirth.  Like a specter rising from the mists, something began to take shape: a new MacBeth for the ages - with fewer daggers and more donuts.  In this hour of the Peabody-Awarding winning program To the Best...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Steve Kissing seemed like a perfect child. He was an "A" student. He excelled as an athlete. He was even an altar boy. But Steve had a secret, a secret so dark he couldn't tell anyone. Steve was possessed by the devil. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, meeting the devil. From a boy...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When Donald Trump described his offensive remarks about women as "locker room talk," he implied that it's normal for men to engage in macho sexual braggadocio in gender-segregated spaces like men's locker rooms.  Sociologist Amy Schalet and law professor Terry Kogan trace hidden...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Cosmologist Janna Levin feels cramped.  Thirty billion light years just isn’t enough space for her.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we consider the Universe Beyond Einstein.  Janna Levin tackles the shape and size of space.  Also, we’ll try to catch a gravity wave, marvel at the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Vivek Maddala knows how to tell a good story. He can put a lump in your throat or make you laugh out loud. His themes are timeless and universal. Maddala composes music for silent films. In this hour of To The Best Of Knowledge, how to construct a narrative. From writing silent film music to...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Somewhere along the way, did we ruin poetry? Have the heartfelt angst of young lovers and the epic elegies of heroes become elitist and academic? But poetry is back, and we have new technology to thank.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Double-crossin’ dames.  Grifters on the make in sleazy dive bars.  Dead men that are heavier than broken hearts.  Some think his novels are just pulp fiction, but to others Raymond Chandler is one of the greatest American writers of the 20th Century.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge...Read more

a dancer in red lighting

Want to improve your mood? Just dance. This hour we’re talking with people who’ve found an easy way to keep themselves happy, to build friendships, and make art. We’re checking in with neuroscientists too, to hear just what happens in our brains when we’re dancing. Also, how dancing...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Belly up to the bar as To the Best of Our Knowledge spends an hour with drinkers and drunks.  Meet the man who invented the Cosmopolitan.  He says it’s a really simple drink.  All you need is fresh lime juice.Read more

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