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To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Making Democracy Fun

Correction: This interview refers to a survey finding that only 22% of Americans trust government at all levels. The actual survey was limited to trust in the federal government, and found that 22% of Americans trusted the government in Washington "almost always or most of the time".

We all know it's important to be involved in local government, but can political participation also be fun? Josh Lerner thinks so. He believes local governments could boost the fun factor in the political process by borrowing a few ideas from game design.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

On Our Minds: James McBride

James McBride won the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird," his novel about the abolitionist John Brown.  He explains why he doesn't like most fictional portraits of slavery and how he tried to tell a different story.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Lendol Calder on Debt

Lendol Calder says being in debt is a good thing.  He tells Steve Paulson that consumer credit drives the world economy.

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Patti Smith

Punk legend Patti Smith.  40 years ago, she came out with the seminal punk album Horses –with cover photo by her friend and lover Robert Mappelthorpe.

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Mario Vargas Llosa on the dictator Trujillo

Mario Vargas Llosa is one of the godfathers of Latin American fiction. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010.  He also once ran for president of his native country, Peru.  Politics and literature are the driving forces in his life.

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Jimi FlorCruz on Journalism in China

Jimi FlorCruz tells Steve Paulson that political events in the Philippines made it impossible for him to return from what was supposed to be a three week visit to China.

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New Environmental Paradigm - Bill McKibben

Environmentalist Bill McKibben believes it's time for a new environmental paradigm:  small and local.

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Recovering the Lossiness of “Tom’s Diner”

MP3 formatting compresses audio so that the file becomes 75 to 95 percent smaller. But what are we missing?

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