Everyone worries, but some people are world-class worriers; they tremble and sweat as they imagine everything that could go wrong. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the anatomy of worry, and its crippling cousin - depression. Also, novelist Martin Amis on the metaphysics of despair.

Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell tells Jim Fleming how productive worry becomes toxic worry and what you can do to prevent it. Hallowell practices in Cambridge, MA and is the author of "Worry: Controlling It and Using It Wisely." Also, Joel Smith, formerly Vice President of Stanford and President of Denison University, suffers from severe depression. He tells Judith Strasser about his suicide attempt; why he thinks electic shock therapy is not worth it; and what people could usefully say and do to help their depressed acquaintances. Smith is writing a series of essays on what it's like to live openly with a mental illness. His article "Depression: Darker than Darkness" appeared in The American Scholar, Volume 66, Number 4, Autumn 1997.

Diane Ackerman is the author of "A Natural History of the Senses," and "A Slender Thread: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of Crisis." She tells Steve Paulson how she became a volunteer at her local crisis hotline; remembers her funniest and most dramatic calls; and says that the volunteers have to learn the art of active listening.

The latest from British novelist Martin Amis is a noir thriller called "Night Train," whose plot is set in motion by an apparent suicide. Amis tells Steve Paulson that suicide figures in several of his books, probably because his daughter's mother killed herself when the child was two. Amis is a popular science buff and tells Steve that pondering the mysteries of the universe is more inspiring to him than any religion.

Distribution dates:

• week of 03/15/98 - hour 3
• week of 06/06/99 - hour 2