Audio

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Best-selling writer Elizabeth Gilbert brings an intrepid 19th century woman botanist to life in her latest novel, "The Signature of All Things."  In this conversation, she introduces us to the wonder of moss, Darwin's correspondance with "lady scientists" and the 16th century mystic, Jacob Boehme.

How do you make music from plants?  Here's a recent article about the artist Mileece.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sherman Alexie is one of America’s most acclaimed young writers with strong opinions about what it means to be a “real” Indian.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

A film from the point-of-view of the perpetrators, not the victims, of the 1965 killing of over 1,000,000 suspected Communists in Indonesia.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wendy Shanker is the author of “The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life.”  She tells Anne Strainchamps that she prefers “fat” to the euphemisms and says that she is healthy and happy despite her size. 

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sarah Winchester (born 1840) was the heiress to the Winchester Estate with a 50% holding of the Winchester Repeating Rifle Company. She used her vast fortune to construct a mansion for 38 consecutive years.

Popular legend held that she was cursed by all those who were killed by Winchester rifles. The only way to alleviate her suffering was to continue to add on to her mansion, filling it with strange sealed rooms and staircases and corridors leading nowhere. Pamela Haag tells her tale and gives it some meaning beyond a mere ghost story.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Will Friedwald, author of “Stardust Melodies,” tells Steve Paulson about Billy Strayhorn’s Song “Lush Life.”

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

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."

Pages

Subscribe to Audio