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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

“We gon’ be alright.” That line from Kendrik Lamar hit song, “Alright” became the rallying cry, an anthem, for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Those lines are also the title of Jeff Chang’s new book. In it Chang gives us powerful and provocative essays on race, desegregation and hip-hop.

Rehman Tungekar sat down with Chang to talk about the important role that hip hop plays in creating lasting political change.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

According to self-described "space dork" Andy Weir, he was just sitting around at home one day imagining a manned Mars mission — not with any goal in mind, but just as a thought experiment. Soon, he realized this would be a pretty good premise for a story. And boy was he right. His novel "The Martian" started as a series of blog posts and has become a blockbuster motion picture. In this interview, he reads excerpts from the novel and discusses the balance between pure fantasty and scientific accuracy in science fiction.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

"There is nothing romantic about death," Christian Wiman says.

The poet and editor of Poetry Magazine has been battling blood cancer for years. In his most recent book of poems he breathes life into writing about mortality.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wild Forager Sam Thayer teaches classes on wild harvesting and says in his work, the first thing he has to deal with is fear.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

TTBOOK producer Charles Monroe-Kane is a great storyteller who's led an adventurous life. Here's a wild story from his memoir "Lithium Jesus" about smuggling mob money when he lived in Prague in the '90s.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Tyler Cowen tells Jim Fleming he has no problem with movie stars recommending political candidates, and that many celebrities use their clout to support charities or advance social causes.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Steven Okazaki is a third generation Japanese-American and an Academy Award winning film-maker. He tells Jim Fleming that Japanese-Americans face racism both at home and in Japan.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ron Mallett is a theoretical physicist at the University of Connecticut who wrote a memoir about his personal quest to travel back in time.

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