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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Thebe Medupe is an astrophysicist and producer of the documentary film "Cosmic Africa." He tells Anne Strainchamps about spending time with the Kalahari Bushmen...

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The protest at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has caught fire. Its camp is now larger than most small towns in North Dakota. The protest is not just about an oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois. It's about water. Journalist John Fleck, who's spent decades writing about water disputes in the West, tells Anne Strainchamps how the Standing Rock protest figures into this history.

 

 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sudha Koul is a Kashmiri Hindu living in the United States.  Koul says her homeland is the most beautiful place on Earth.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tom Lutz wrote "Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America." He tells Steve Paulson it was his way of dealing with his teen-age son, who never left the couch.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Anne Strainchamps sat down with the great Turkish writer Elif Shafak. Her latest novel, “The Architect’s Apprentice,” is an epic tale set in the height of the Ottoman Empire. It has bloodshed. It was palace intrigue. It has romance. And, yes, it has architecture.

Shafak’s tale centers around a 16th century mosque architect named Mimar Sinan. Though a character in her novel, Sinan was also a real person – considered to be the greatest architect in the Islamic World.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wu Man is a professional Chinese musician living in the West. Her instrument is the pipa, a stringed instrument plucked like a guitar.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Jazz pianist and cognitive scientist Vijay Iyer just won a MacArthur "genius" award.  He's also landed a job at Harvard teaching music.  He tells Anne Strainchamps how he incorporates science into his music.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When you talk about Japanese popular culture, there's one name that towers above all others.  Literally.  Godzilla.  The giant green lizard recently became an official Japanese citizen.  William Tsutsui knows all there is to know about this larger-than-life movie star; he's the author of "Godzilla on My Mind."

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