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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Anne Strainchamps asks Columbia College philosopher Stephen Asma what his colleagues make of the soul these days.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Award-winning author Salman Rushdie talks to Steve Paulson about his new novel, "The Enchantress of Florence".

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar has spent much of his career regarding the pain of others. He delves into issues like war or globalization with giant installations and photos. But his work does not take use a grand scale, instead, he drills down to one individual. His most famous work is 6-year project on the Rwandan Genocide called “The Rwanda Project.”

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There's an entire sector of the economy run by people who are working diligently to get inside your head and harvest your attention? Does that creep you out?  They're called the Attention Merchants. And their business model consists of attracting your attention and then reselling it for profit. They're ad-based TV channels, clickbait producers and the big social media producers. Law professor Tim Wu is the author of "The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads." 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was the rare book that changed how we think.  On its 50th anniversary, historian of science Tom Broman talks about Kuhn's legacy and we hear excerpts from Kuhn's book.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She is dedicated to re-foresting Africa and talks with Steve Paulson about some of her Greenbelt Movement projects. Her memoir is called "Unbowed."

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Steve Paulson reports on the state of Chinese literature today. He talks with Annie Wang, Nobel Prize Laureate Gao Xingjian and National Book Award winner Ha Jin.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

James Gleick is a science writer with a particular interest in the cultural impact of technology. He's written a number of best-selling books, including "The Information," "Faster," and "Chaos." And Gleick's just come out with a mind-bending book called "Time Travel: A History."

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