Episode Archives

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Barbara Ehrenreich

A collection of all of Barbara Ehrenreich's interviews on "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" over the years. Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The downhill skiers in Sochi know cold weather, but for real cold -- try diving into freezing water above the Arctic Circle!  In this hour, some sports too cold even for the Winter Olympics.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Are you deadline driven?  Most focused, most productive as “zero hour” approaches?  Well, what about the ultimate end, the true end of the time frame. 

Deadline, indeed. 

How does knowing that you’re going to die affect your life?  In this hour we’re minding mortality.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

American flags are everywhere.  U.S. soldiers are once again heroes.  And some people say it’s downright unpatriotic to criticize the president or the war against terrorism.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the new meaning of patriotism and the crackdown on dissent....Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do African-Americans believe Jesse Jackson speaks for them? A resounding 72% between the ages of 18 and 45 say "No." In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the battle between the Civil Rights generation and the Hip-Hop generation. We'll speak to young blacks about who does speak for them...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Plugged into devices, fixated on screens, their world muted by headphones jammed in their ears, college students on campus in Ann Arbor can seem oblivious to risk. Poet Laura Kasischke marvels at their fearlessness in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You’ve seen the Olympics on TV, but do you want to know what’s really happening in Utah?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a special program recorded in front of a live audience at Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City.  From the culture of snowboarding to past Olympic scandals.  Plus...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Last week we lost one of the great scholars of religion. Huston Smith died at the age of 97. Smith's book “The World’s Religions” sold more than three million copies and is perhaps the most important book ever written on comparative religion. He also had a colorful personal history. In the early...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

Ten years ago, South African singer and activist Vusi Mahalesela had the thrill of his life.  He sang at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the music and politics of South Africa - ten years after the end of apartheid.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

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

Emerging insights from the new science of astrobiology paints a picture of a universe seeded with potential life. While astronomers discover new exoplanets every other week or so, biologists are finding unexpected life in some of the most inhospitable environments on earth. Together, their work...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Boots on the Ground: Stories from the War in Iraq

Part Five

 

At least 120 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the war began. They're targets for insurgents. But what are journalists to the US military? A necessary evil? Or...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Worried about your kids spending too much time in front of the television, what do you do? Tell them to turn off the TV. Unless you're Mark and Nancy Jacobson. They packed up their three children and took them around the world for three months. The Jacobsons visited the burial pyres in the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Politics has such a bad reputation it’s a wonder anyone would run for office.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we’ll hear from a few people who are out to transform the way we do politics.  Also activist Si Kahn talks about the art of the political song.  And we’ll look back at one...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

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

dog

The way we think about animals often defies logic.  In America, dogs may sleep on our beds, but in Korea, they often end up on the dinner plate.  Some people may be horrified by a pet boa constrictor's appetite for live mice, but a cat that roams outside is a far deadlier killer. And...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Mimi Sheraton loves bialys - those Jewish crusty roles with the toasted onion center. She picks one up every morning from her local Manhattan bakery. Sheraton set out to visit the Polish town of Bialystock to find the people who invented this magical bread. But the thriving town of 50,000 didn’t...Read more

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