TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE PROMO - "Cultural Commons" *Is there such a thing as true, original creativity? Or "Are we just seeing further by standing on the shoulders of giants?", to paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll explore the question of where good ideas come from. Steven Johnson will tell us about the natural history of innovation. And Lewis Hyde offers a way to look beyond today's narrow debates over cultural ownership. PROGRAM RUNDOWN: "Cultural Commons" 0:00 - 29:38 SEGMENT 1: (29:39) Lewis Hyde, MacArthur Fellow, Creative Writing Professor and author of "Common as Air: Revolution, Art and Ownership" tells Steve Paulson that he is skeptical of the entertainment industry's insistence that intellectual property is just like physical property. He invokes the cultural commons that vast store of art and ideas from the past that enrich everybody's present. Also, Adam Sinnreich teaches journalism and media studies at Rutgers. He's also the author of "Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about what he means by configurable culture. Segment One Outcue: "...PRI - Public Radio International." 29:39 - 30:08 LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29) 30:09 - 42:59 SEGMENT 2: (12:52) Steven Johnson is the author of several books including "Mind Wide Open" and "The Invention of Air." His new one is "Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation." Johnson tells Jim Fleming how he uses the coral reef as a metaphor for a creative environment throughout the book. Segment Two Outcue: "...PRI - Public Radio International." 42:00 - 42:29 LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29) 42:30 - 53:00 SEGMENT 3: (09:29) Ricardo Pitts-Wiley is the co-founder of the Mixed Magic Theatre Company. He also contributed to an essay called "Multiculturalism, Appropriation, and the New Media Literacies: Remixing Moby Dick." The essay appears in a book by Henry Jenkins called "Mashup Cultures" and focuses on the contemporary re-staging of Melville's classic novel. Ricardo Pitts-Wiley tells Anne Strainchamps about his project and how it emerged from work he did with incarcerated youth at the Rhode Island Training Facility. And we hear a bit of the production. Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number 10-24-A. copyright 2010 WHA Radio and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.