Episode Archives

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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Lauren Weedman grew up knowing she was adopted.  When she became a teenager, she decided she wanted to meet her birth mother, but the hospital records were sealed and the search seemed hopeless.  Then Lauren’s mom got in on the act, and today Lauren has two moms – and a one woman show...Read more

Original Air Date:

May 12, 2002

Soldiers on in the battlefield prior to the World War I Christmas Truce

On Christmas Eve of 1914, German soldiers in the Flanders trenches lit candles on small Christmas trees.  British, French, Belgian and German troops serenaded each other with songs.  Soon enemy soldiers broke bread with each other and exchanged letters.  In this hour of To the...Read more

Original Air Date:

December 16, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Comfort food’s selling like hotcakes.  People haven’t forgotten the importance of good nutrition, but these days we crave things that’ll make us feel better.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, seeking solace in a scary world.  Diane Ackerman talks about her garden, and...Read more

Original Air Date:

December 02, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Most of us probably have heard of someone else who shares our name, and there are probably others, but unlike British comedian Dave Gorman, we haven’t traveled 24 thousand miles and spent thousands of dollars to meet all of them.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, magnificent...Read more

Original Air Date:

November 25, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You think Greta Garbo was good at ducking the paparazzi?  She could have learned a thing or two from the giant squid.  No one has ever seen one alive.  Zoologist Clyde Roper should know, he’s spent most of his life in pursuit of this low profile ocean monster.  In this hour...Read more

Original Air Date:

November 25, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Maybe home is where you live, raise your family and mow the grass. Or it's where you grew up. Or where the whole clan gathers for major holidays. Wherever home is, it's never mattered more. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, stories of home, from the Texas hill country to the ‘hood....Read more

Original Air Date:

November 04, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We’ve got a million expressions for death: kicking the bucket, checking out, buying the farm - but what do we do when words aren’t enough?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, artisans are finding new passages through grief, from graffiti memorials to handcrafted coffins. ...Read more

Original Air Date:

October 28, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sometimes you can’t separate beauty from brutality in the African bush. Safari guide Mark Ross is still figuring it out.  In 1999, Ross and a group of  tourists were kidnaped by Rwandan rebels. What happened that day changed the rest of his life. Next time on To the Best of Our...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 16, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Organic food is now a booming billion dollar industry.  And today’s top chefs are its biggest cheerleaders.  They say locally-grown, organic food will help save the planet.  But not everyone agrees.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, an argument for why celebrity...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 02, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Have you ever had one of those moments when you know you really should think about a different line of work?  For Daniel Pink, it was a scorching hot June day in Washington, D.C. when he almost threw up on Al Gore.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Daniel Pink’s career as...Read more

Original Air Date:

September 02, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A couple of years ago writer Michael Pollan was curious about the world of illegal, underground marijuana gardens.  What he found surprised him.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Mary Jane goes high tech.  A look at drug cultures past and present, a visit to a rave,...Read more

Original Air Date:

August 26, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Suppose you grew up with one of the world’s great scientists.  How would that shape your view of the world?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, an intimate look at the great conservationist Aldo Leopold: we’ll talk with three of his children.  Also, comic novelist David...Read more

Original Air Date:

August 19, 2001

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

With hundreds of millions of people moving into cities, we're wondering what shapes urban cultures. In this hour, Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk talks about how Istanbul shaped his writing. One historian argues that early liberal philosophies from Amsterdam shaped the United States. And we check in...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The atom bomb's ability to kill people makes it a literal dangerous idea.  But there are other kinds of dangerous ideas -- ideas that are contrary, counterintutive and just plain unconventional.  It's that kind of dangerous idea that we explore in this hour.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

So much of our daily lives gets turned into data -- our online shopping purchases, phone calls, family photos. We're all surrounded by data, and learning how to harness it could be more transformative than we realize. This week, a look at the new data specialists using their knowledge of numbers...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The holidays can be challenging.  All that togetherness can be like squishing a passel of porcupines into a sardine can.  In other words - not nice.  On the other hand, there is a bright side.  Po Bronson found it in the lives of families across the country.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

a woman with head pain

You stub your toe, hit your head on an open cupboard, slam your fingers in a car door, slice your hand on the sharp lip of can, or lick an envelope the wrong way. Your toes throbs, your head aches, your fingers pound, your hand hurts, your lip smarts.

Pain is your body’s way of letting...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The East Village Opera Company's new album, "Olde School," was 300 years in the making. The group gives some of opera's greatest hits an extreme musical make-over, re-imagining them as popular songs. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we'll meet the co-founders of The East Village...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

George Burns lived a good long life, hanging on to one hundred.  These days scientists say that’s no big deal.  According to them, some of us may be tottering around the golf course when we’re 150.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the quest for immortality – how long can science...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

”Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons” may not look like grist for the philosopher’s mill, but philosopher Bill Irwin says they have a few things to teach us.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, philosophy from Socrates to Wittgenstein, with a short detour through pop culture.  Also...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Do you get eight hours of sleep a night?  If not, join the millions of sleep-deprived Americans stumbling through life half-awake.  Scientists say our national sleep debt may be behind the epidemics of diabetes and obesity – maybe even cancer.  In this hour of To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Say you’re in Vegas playing high-stakes poker.  You haven’t slept in days.  To make matters worse, you’re being stared down by two of the best poker players in the world.  And...you’re bluffing.  So, you bet it all to bring the pot to well over a million dollars.  In this hour of To the Best of...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The sky is black. The wind’s picking up.  The hurricane is coming.  Nothing you can do about it.  But wait!  Scientists from Dyn-o-Storm fly into the hurricane.  They release a chemical that stops the hurricane dead in its tracks.  Next time on To the Best of Our Knowledge, should we?  Just...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was one of nine U.S. presidents who had hooks for hands? Well, that's just one of countless facts included in John Hodgman's new almanac. But, as it turns out, all of these facts are fake. In this hour of the Peabody Award-winning To the Best of Our Knowledge,...Read more

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