Episode Archives

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self help books

Every new year brings a fresh start, another chance to remake yourself. We all aspire to be better people, but following through on our goals can often be difficult.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As soon as you, or someone you love, has that first "senior moment" – you start to worry. Is this the beginning of the slippery slope of Alzheimer's Disease? Relax! There's something you can do. The good news is that most of us won't live long enough to get Alzheimer's. And the rest of us...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

America was once a nation of readers, but now experts warn that reading is in decline as our cultural life moves online. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, an hour in praise and defense of the book. Ursula Le Guin takes book publishers to task and a beloved children's book editor...Read more

book

We love books. We line them on shelves like totems. We pile them next to our beds in some hope they'll affect our dreams.  For many of us, books are sacred objects. And sometimes, just sometimes, they’re even magical.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Shuttered businesses line the familiar streets of producer Charles Monroe-Kane’s hometown in the Rust Belt in northeastern Ohio. The steel mill where his father worked is shut down, locked behind chains. Opioid abuse is...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ten years after the end of apartheid, what’s left to document the struggle?  For the filmmakers of the documentary “Amandla,” there’s music.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the songs that faced down death, despair and terror on the road to equality in South Africa.  Also, the...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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

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

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

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

Bright young men and women used to graduate and head for Wall Street or a top corporate law firm. Today, more and more of them are heading back to the land. After all, which would you rather do wear a suit and slave in a cubicle or spend your days on your own land, growing food for...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

From Boston to Berkeley, people are going raw.  Vegetarians, vegans and Atkins followers are old hat – the hottest trend in food is cool.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, why the raw food movement has people turning off their ovens and trumpeting the healing powers of uncooked food...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

Most people want to do the right thing.  But what if your survival depended on doing something wrong?  Something deeply repellent.  Something evil.  And what if the police told you to?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the consequences of moral choices, from Nazi Germany to American...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

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We’ve all heard we live in “the information age,” but what does this mean?  We’ll give you a short history of information – from talking drums onward.  But do we now have too much information?  We’ll hear how information overload is actually re-wiring our brains.  Also, the new theory in physics...Read more

a man in a cave

The Paleo Diet. Running barefoot. Look around, the modern caveman is among us.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

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

East Meets West

Part Two

 

A look at America's romance with Eastern spirituality: how did dharma retreats and yoga vacations become part of the Western lifestyle? Buddhist teachers explain what Buddhism has to offer a consumer...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Think you know about kung fu movies?  That they’re campy, badly dubbed flicks from the 70s?  Sometimes.  But they’re also graceful, noble, heroic feats of movie making.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge the tiger, the crane, legends of the Shaolin (SHOW-lin) Temple, and the...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

The mind and the body meet in the brain.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, two of the world’s top brain doctors claim that what you feel affects how you feel.  Dr. Norman Rosenthal, the man who discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), says there’s an Emotional...Read more

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