To The Best of Our Knowledge

from Wisconsin Public Radio

Look at the bright side. Keep a positive attitude. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps. If you set your mind on it, you can do anything. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a rosy view of optimism and wishful thinking. And for you cynics? A look at the positive power of negative thinking. So chin up, it's a walk down the sunny side of the street.

Richard Weiss is the author of "The American Myth of Success." He tells Steve Paulson why figures like Horatio Alger, Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie are so compelling for Americans, and why we're unlikely to give up our national optimism. Also, Julie Norem is the author of "The Power of Negative Thinking." She tells Jim Fleming about her strategy of "defensive pessimism," and explains the good it can do.

SEGMENT 2:

David Perkins, founding member of Harvard think tank Project Zero, talks with Anne Strainchamps about Eureka Moments. His book is "The Eureka Effect: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking." Also, Episcopal priest Matthew Fox was a member of the Dominicans when he wrote "Original Blessing." He tells Steve Paulson why the belief in Original Sin is destructive and leads to a culture of pessimism.

SEGMENT 3:

Robert Zubrin is president of the Mars Society and author of many books, including "The Case for Mars: The plan to settle the red planet and why we must." He explains how he thinks we should go about it, and how settling a new world will save this one. And he describes how NASA's using his ideas.

http://www.marssociety.org

Books:

• Matthew Fox, Original Blessing (Tarcher Putnam)
• Julie K. Norem, The Positive Power of Negative Thinking: Using Defensive Pessimism to Harness Anxiety and Perform at Your Peak (Basic Books)
• David Perkins, The Eureka Effect: The Art and Logic of Breakthrough Thinking (Norton)
• Richard Weiss, The American Myth of Success: From Horatio Alger to Norman
  Vincent Peale (University of Illinois Press)
• Robert Zubrin, The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why
  We Must (Simon & Shuster)

Music:

• Bobby Mc Ferrin. Don't Worry Be Happy. Simple Pleasures. EMI.
• Monty Python. Life of Brian Original Film Soundtrack. Bright Side of Life. Virgin.
• Benny Goodman. I Want to Be Happy. Airplay. Signature.
• Carmen Cavallaro and his Orchestra. I Want to Be Happy. Radio Series. Hindsight.
• O Brother Where Art Thou? Soundtrack. Keep on the Sunny Side. The Whites. Lost Highway.
• O Brother Where Art Thou? Soundtrack. I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow. Norman Blake. Lost Highway.
• Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra Sings Cahn and van Heusen. High Hopes. Capital.

Distribution dates:

• week of 05/12/2002 - hour 2