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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Suspicious Minds

There's a short story about a guy who's so afraid of other people reading his mind that he wears a tin foil hat to protect his thoughts. The tin foil part is crazy, but protecting your mind is maybe not such a bad idea. Academic psychologist Rob Brotherton says there are certain psychological traits that predispose people to believe in conspiracy theories. For example, there's an experiment done by a group of psychologists in Amsterdam. It involves a group of subjects and a messy desk.

FIND OUT HOW LIKELY YOU ARE TO BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES BY TAKING ROB'S QUIZ.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Watch This! "Salinger" & "Shakespeare Uncovered"

This week in Watch This! we talk about "Salinger" and "Shakespeare Uncovered."

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The Hindus: An Alternative History

American Wendy Doniger holds two doctorates in Sanskrit and Indian studies from Harvard and Oxford. She’s the author of numerous books on Hinduism and has translated several Sanskrit texts. She’s widely considered one of the most important scholars on Indian religion in the world. So it might surprise you that there is one country in the world she can’t visit: India.

Doniger’s books have been targeted by Hindu Nationalists and by India’s ruling right-wing BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Her latest, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,” was the subject of a major lawsuit in India, and its publisher, Penguin Books India, not only pulled the book from circulation but destroyed all remaining copies. Since then, Doniger has received many death threats inside of India and no longer feels safe visiting there. But as she told Steve Paulson, her writing about Hinduism hasn’t changed in over 40 years. What has changed is India.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Why Some Breakups Are More Painful Than Others

Why is it that certain people bounce back after a relationship ends, whereas for others it takes years to recover? Graduate researcher Lauren Howe says it has to do with the stories we tell ourselves.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Ronald Aronson on "Camus and Sartre"

Ronald Aronson is the author of “Camus and Sartre: The Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel That Ended It.”  Aronson recounts the relationship and the very public dispute between two of the twentieth century’s leading intellectuals.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Stephen Batchelor on Rethinking Buddhism

Stephen Batchelor wants contemporary Buddhists to re-think the life of the Buddha.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Scott Topper on Meditation

Scott Topper reads from the meditation journal he kept after learning a simple meditation from Buddhist monk George Churinoff.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Salman Rushdie on "The Wizard of Oz"

Salman Rushdie tells Steve Paulson about his very first memories of "The Wizard of Oz."

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