Episode Archives

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A protest at Standing Rock

More than 100 Native Americans nations have come to Standing Rock in solidarity to protest for water rights. This hour we ask a deceptively simple question: Who owns water?

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basement

Popular myths, urban legends and just plain lies.  Why do we persist in believing things that just aren't true?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s Art & Craft week at TTBOOK, but we’re not gluing macaroni to cardboard. 

From the halls of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, to MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms; from a craft studio on the coast of Maine, to "outsider artists" at the Venice Biennale... w...Read more

city at daybreak

Every sixty seconds, 259 new people show up in the world's cities. No one is building housing for them. No government is planning for them. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the evolving city in a world of a billion squatters, with another billion on the way.Read more

bonobos

Imagine a relative who thinks sex is like a handshake.  Who organizes orgies with the neighbors, doesn't mind if their partner sleeps around and firmly believes females should be in charge of everything.  Actually, those ARE your relatives.  They're bonobo apes and they share...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Photographers capture heartache and agony. What does it mean for them? And what does it mean for us, those viewing the photos? Do these images create empathy? Compassion? Or something else?Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Did you know that novelist Thomas Hardy had a second career as a poet? Or that many people don't find their artistic passions until after the age of 85? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, we talk about change over time - that is, how change is really a lifelong project. A former monk...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every person on earth is unique and special, but some people – maybe one in a hundred – are autistic. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we get to know a few autistic people with Asperger's Syndrome. We'll hear what it's like to try to live in the world when you have visionary...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

For journalists, the first days of Donald Trump’s presidency have been a bit surreal.  We find ourselves wondering how legendary muckrakers might have reacted to some of these first press briefings. So delving into the TTBOOK...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

"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

Are you planning to see the world this summer? Or enjoy the frugal pleasure of a stay-cation? Remember, the best travel isn't about miles logged – it's about minds expanded. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, travel stories. Travel guru Rick Steves develops an unexpected passion for...Read more

book pile

We're keepin it surreal this hour with a hallucinatory vortex chock full of innovative fiction.  Like Salvador Dali said -- "Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."   Join us as we expand your vision and melt your mind....Read more

language

If you think the influence of Shakespeare is confined to the page and the stage, think again. Take starlings, the aggressive European birds who’ve pushed a lot of Native American birds out of their nests. They were introduced by a Shakespeare fanatic, who loosed dozens of them in Central Park....Read more

a politically divided map

 Political animosity between the right and the left is off the charts.  Social scientists say we're living in one of the most polarized periods in history and that conservatives and liberals don't just disagree anymore. They hate everything about each other.  It's time to de-...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

We explore music and memory in this hour -- Kurt Cobain's lasting impact 20 years after his death; insidious and infectious earworms; and the retro worldly music of Pink Martini.Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Noelle Howey got the shock of her life when she was 14.  She found out her dad liked to wear women’s clothes.  In fact, he really wanted to be a woman.  So he re-lived his teenage years ... as a girl, just as Noelle herself hit adolescence.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge stories...Read more

voter sticker from Arizona

With the elections approaching, candidates and campaigns are working hard to get out the vote. But what would it take to get people politically involved all year round? This hour we explore a few ways, whether it's by using games to make the political process more fun, or mobilizing activists...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

a workspace with notebook, coffee, laptop and notebook

American companies generate a lot of wealth. But Americans aren't seeing much of it. Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff says that's because today's corporations are obsessed with one thing -- growth. We'll find out why our economy's operating system is broken and how we can fix it, as we rethink...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It’s the longest-running prime-time animated series in TV history...with sixteen seasons and more than 350 episodes. So far.  Not bad for a four-fingered family whose first gig was doing animated segments on a TV variety show.  In this hour of the Peabody Award Winning Program To the Best of Our...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

For decades “imperialism” was a dirty word, and all talk of empire seemed old-fashioned.  Now some people say a new empire has emerged – the American Empire.  But is America’s unrivaled power good for the world?  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the debate over American supremacy.  ...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

You’re part of the “Freedom Movement,” - a group of anti-globalization anarchists.  You’re blowing up security stations to fight “The Corporation.” Sounds like a scene out of Seattle during the World Trade Organization protests of a few years ago, doesn’t it?  But it’s not.  It’s...Read more

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

If you want to know the truth about J.D. Salinger, good luck.  To this day we know more about his fictional character Holden Caulfield than we do about the man who created him.  In this hour of the Peabody-Award winning program To the Best of Our Knowledge, literary life after Salinger’s...Read more

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