Episode Archives

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chris ware on "society is nix"

Whether you call them graphic novels or comic books, there’s no denying that they offer limitless creative storytelling possibilities. Chris Ware and Marjane Satrapi are two of the most critically-acclaimed graphic novelists. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Ware and Satrapi will...Read more

Original Air Date:

November 26, 2006

Roses are red.  Violets are blue.  My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun.  A sadder and a wiser man, he rose the morrow morn.  I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock.  In this...Read more

Original Air Date:

October 29, 2006

"Bodyworlds" exhibit

"We're all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God.  Humanity is just a work in progress."  So said Tennessee Williams.  Inventor and visionary Ray Kurzweil believes the new, improved version of humanity could feature computers the size of blood cells implanted in our brains....Read more

Original Air Date:

October 15, 2006

a rear tail fin on a classic car

You remember the good old days, don't you? The music was better. The food was better. Cars were better. Everything was better really. Now, everything is all fancy and everyone is in a big rush. But not back then...  Those were the days, weren't they? In this hour of To The...Read more

Original Air Date:

October 08, 2006

candles

What do you call young people who strap on explosive vests and detonate them in a crowded marketplace? President Bush says they're fascist terrorists. The Western press labels them suicide bombers. But to a Muslim, particularly one who's sympathetic to their political ideology,...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 03, 2006

ukuleles

You might have thought that the ukulele was gone for good after Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips for the umpteenth time. But singer/songwriter Victoria Vox is doing her part to bring the ukulele back into popular music. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, we'll meet Victoria Vox....Read more

Original Air Date:

July 23, 2006

checkmate in chess

They say his stare could give you ulcers or migraines. It could even drive you crazy. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, the greatest chess player ever, Garry Kasparov. His most famous opponent was the IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue. Kasparov shocked the chess world when, at...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 28, 2006

a book shop

Here's a conundrum. Some say the number of Americans who read books for pleasure is at an all time low, yet the internet's teeming with literary blogs, and just about everyone who cares about writing has a manuscript of their own stashed in a desk drawer somewhere. In this hour of To The Best Of...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 16, 2006

blindfolded mannequin

Susan Krieger knew she was losing her sight, but she still didn't want to admit she was going blind. Then one day she stepped off a curb and a car hit her. After that, she took lessons walking with a white cane, and learned how to hear buildings as she passed them. In this hour of To The...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 09, 2006

statue

We talk with E.O. Wilson about the growing rift between science and religion. We'll also get a very different take on religious belief from historian Garry Wills, author of "What Jesus Meant."Read more

Original Air Date:

March 26, 2006

a tibetan bell

Choying Drolma didn't want to get married. So, she chose the only option available to a Tibetan girl – she became a Buddhist nun. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, how music and the monastic life drew one woman beyond Tibet and into the world. Also, the making of a Western yogi. And...Read more

Original Air Date:

March 19, 2006

Tristran Shandy

Laurence Sterne's 18th Century novel "Tristram Shandy" is a staple of college English Literature courses everywhere. The 600-odd page book-within-a-book-within-a-book is filled to the brim with digressions, stunts and frazzled chronology. For many it's unreadable. For sure it's unfilmable. This...Read more

Original Air Date:

March 12, 2006

a green building

Rebuilding has gone on in New Orleans, Sri Lanka, Kashmir, and other places devastated by natural disasters. But what kind of structures are going up? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, green architects and designers talk about building for the future. Also, a look at the latest...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 26, 2006

lightbulbs

What's the big idea? Well, it turns out there are three of them...the soul, Europe and the experiment. Those are the three big ideas that Peter Watson uses to focus his history of ideas. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, we'll talk about the history of ideas...from fire to Freud.Read more

Original Air Date:

February 26, 2006

Story of O

"Story of O" scandalized a nation. And a nation not easily scandalized - France! The anonymous tale of complete submission was called vulgar by some, brilliant by others. In any case, what kind of person could write such a book? In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, we'll find out the...Read more

Original Air Date:

February 12, 2006

ice cubes

Ice is amazing stuff. A few cubes in a glass and you have a refreshing drink. A light glaze on a highway and you have a tragedy waiting to happen. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, a visit with a woman who knows pretty much all there is to know about ice. And, where there's ice,...Read more

Original Air Date:

January 22, 2006

gorilla

Do animals have culture? The orangutans of Sumatra certainly do. They've learned how to fish honey out of tiny termite nests, and to scoop the pulpy food out of razor-sharp fruits. What's more, they've passed on this knowledge to their offspring. Now, scientists think these primates may offer...Read more

Original Air Date:

January 15, 2006

a record player

What makes a classic?  Well, for one thing, it’s got to have some staying power.  The Bob Dylan song, “Like A Rolling Stone,” certainly fits the bill. It was recorded more than fifty years ago but it’s still considered by many to be the greatest pop single ever made.  In...Read more

Original Air Date:

November 13, 2005

Woman on a bike

Linda Ellerbee believes in taking big bites. And she's not just talking about food. Ellerbee likes to take big bites out of elsewhere. In fact, that's the way she defines adventure. In this hour of the Peabody Award-winning program To The Best Of Our Knowledge, journalist Linda Ellerbee tells us...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 04, 2005

a man becomes a living cereal bowl

Can white guys be hip? Many have tried but only a few have achieved true hepcat status - Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce, maybe Jack Kerouac. But compare them to Miles Davis and you have to wonder if they're really just hipster wannabes. We'll dig into the history of hip, and see how it's so often tied...Read more

Original Air Date:

August 21, 2005

Chinese flag

Forget the Middle East.  Robert Kaplan says the war in Iraq is just a blip on the radar screen.  The next U.S. military challenge will be in the Pacific - against China.  In this hour of the Peabody Award Winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll look at a changing China...Read more

Original Air Date:

August 14, 2005

A Tale from the Decameron by John William Waterhouse

Middle English isn’t what it used to be.  Add a back-beat, some high-flying rhymes, and you’ve got a hot new version of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the madcap transformation of one of literature’s oldest classics from history to hip hop...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 15, 2005

A "Good News" newspaper

Mountain climber Warren MacDonald was 32 when his doctors told him he’d spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. It’s not that he didn’t believe them. After all, he’d just lost both his legs. But Warren MacDonald refused to be defeated by the worst news he could ever hear.  He...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 10, 2005

a big sign reading "funland"

There’s no writer who’s hipper, more self-consciously knowing, than David Foster Wallace.  But even he can take only so much ironic hipness.  He says it is relentlessly corrosive to the soul. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, assessing the state of fiction, with David...Read more

Original Air Date:

April 03, 2005

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