Do you remember the first time you saw a piece of art or heard a piece of music that shocked you? Something you immediately knew your parents would hate? Remember how good it felt, to like something bad? In this show, we're talking about shock value — the virtues of transgressive, subversive...Read more
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Episode Archives
Trayvon Martin’s death and George Zimmerman’s acquittal has sparked a debate over race this country hasn’t seen in many years. So, whose America is it? The young black teen in a hoodie? The illegal immigrant who’s been living here for twenty years? Muslims? Native Americans? You?Read more
East Meets West
Part Three
The ancient trading routes through Persia, India and China were once the crossroads between East and West. Is the blogosphere the new Silk Road? Hear heartrending e-mails between an American professor and...Read more
How do you soak in the essence of a city? In New York, writer Colson Whitehead goes walking ... through Times Square, along Broadway, down into the subway. In Memphis, critic Robert Gordon listens to its music - the blues, soul, rock-n-roll. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll...Read more
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
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
The legendary movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn once said, you should never predict anything, especially the future. But it’s human nature to go to extremes for a sneak peak of what lies around the corner. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, an astrophysicist sheds some light on...Read more
Lynne Truss created a sensation in Britain with a book whose title is a punch line: it’s a punctuation joke that says a panda is a black and white mammal and it “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.” Rules for punctuation and a good life, in this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge.Read more
As the Bible famously says, "there is nothing new under the sun." That's pretty bleak. If it's all been said and done before, what's left? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, remix culture. Digital sampling, audio hacking, mash-ups… In today's music and art it's all about mix and remix...Read more
Ask any babbling baby. Talking’s fun! At least it is until the grammarians get after you. But Patricia O’Connor says we can all relax, there’s nothing wrong with splitting an infinitive and there never was. In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge we...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
From Soup to Nuts
Part Four
They say variety is the spice of life. But let's be honest, spices are really the spice of life. Pepper, oregano, vanilla. . . parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, things get...Read more
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
When you think of great movie musicals, what comes to mind? “Singing in the Rain” with Gene Kelly swinging from a streetlight in the middle of a torrential downpour. How about “A Hard Day’s Night” - with images of hysterical fans mobbing the Beatles at a train station. According to Roger...Read more
Ever want to chuck everything and just live your dream? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we meet several people who are doing just that. One of them's a hot young actor, starring in a smash Broadway musical. Another is a middle-aged husband and father who published a small magazine...Read more
Racial sensitivity and political tolerance are clearly good, but is it possible to take them too far? This hour, a look at how we talk about touchy subjects -- whether political correctness is about safety or censorship.Read more
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
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
Lilydale, New York isn’t your average small town. In Lilydale, people say ghosts walk the streets and the neighbors can talk to the dead. No, this is not fiction. 20-thousand visitors a year travel to Lilydale to consult the largest community of mediums in the world. Is it all a gigantic...Read more
Rising sea levels, brutal storms and droughts, record temperatures...is there anything we can do about climate change? As world leaders gather at the Paris Climate Summit, we consider a range of proposals - from geoengineering and new green technology to a post-carbon economy. Read more
As a boy in northwest Ohio during the 1930's, Donald Richie spent a lot of time watching movies about exciting new worlds. So it seems only fitting that Donald Richie went on to live in a different world. For the past 50 years he’s lived in Japan, and has established a reputation as one the of...Read more
How much time do you spend thinking about the future? Oh sure, you’ve probably got plans for the weekend, maybe you’re looking for a new job or thinking about how your kids are doing in school.
But how much time to do we spend – as a nation, a global community – thinking about...Read more
What do Hip-Hop and traditional Delta Blues have in common? Down in the bijous and hollers of Mississippi - a lot more than you think. Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, the new revolution in Roots Music. Also, the debate over what’s authentic country music. And, we’ll talk to Nora ...Read more
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