Friday, February 15, 2019, 5:15pm
Is there a science of creativity, one that can answer that vexing question? That moment of creation, when something new happens — a new character, or a third act surprise — what sparks it?
Thursday, February 14, 2019, 6:00am
Alma Mahler inspired symphonies, poems and paintings. She was lover and muse to some of the most celebrated artists of the early 20th century. Novelist Mary Sharratt thinks Alma Mahler would have been a great artist in her own right — if she hadn’t been born a woman.
Friday, February 1, 2019, 12:15pm
The chef, author, and Netflix star developed her own philosophy of cooking, based on a few universal principles: Salt, fat, acid and heat. She says it allows us to cook by following our taste buds, rather than a recipe book.
Friday, January 25, 2019, 6:00pm
A wide range of writers — now celebrated with commercial and critical success — work to celebrate an evolving literary canon without limiting it.
Friday, January 11, 2019, 6:00pm
Frances Jensen is both a neuroscientist and a mother of two former teenagers. She talked with "To the Best of Our Knowledge" Executive Producer Steve Paulson about the positive plasticity of teenage brains as well as teens’ propensity for risk taking.
Thursday, December 27, 2018, 6:05am
Anthropologist Ilana Gershon studies workplace relationships in the quitting economy. She said the loyalty that used to exist between employer and employee is largely gone, financially and culturally — and that's changing how employees and employers think about one another.
Saturday, December 22, 2018, 10:55am
A pioneering computer scientist thinks we should delete our accounts, while an internet ethicist argues we should fix the system rather than abandon it entirely.
Saturday, December 22, 2018, 10:30am
Trolls need masses to like, retweet, share, subscribe and spread their hateful content. In that, we might be complicit in the wider trolling ecosystem.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018, 12:00pm
Elena Passarello’s book, "Animals Strike Curious Poses," is a journey through stories of the wild ones: the mammoths, spiders, birds and primates that have left their marks on our society.
Friday, December 14, 2018, 9:10am
Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn discusses how to spend money on ourselves and others in a way that maximizes its potential to make us feel happier.
Thursday, December 13, 2018, 12:55pm
A small percentage of the ultra-rich are using philanthropy to not just change the world, but to game the system and — in some cases — buy a better personal reputation, says Anand Giridharadas, former New York Times columnist and author of "Winners Take All: the Elite Charade of Changing the World."
Friday, December 7, 2018, 6:00am
Other than getting angry, is there a better way to respond to people who’ve treated you badly? A smarter way to deal with injustice? Neuroscientist Richard Davidson thinks so. He said what we need is to learn how to love.
Friday, November 30, 2018, 2:55pm
Two new books argue getting angry is actually productive and leads to societal change.
Thursday, November 29, 2018, 11:40am
Elizabeth Krohn says she left her body, went somewhere else, met and talked to God. And then came back to dream the future. What does her experience tell us about where religion comes from?
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 10:40am
Complain all you want about overzealous government regulators, but without them, we’d still be drinking dirt in our coffee and finding formaldehyde in our baby formula. Deborah Blum shares all the gory details with "To The Best of Our Knowledge" host Steve Paulson.
Thursday, September 6, 2018, 6:00am
The anthropologist David Graeber says there is an epidemic of meaningless jobs, especially in middle management.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018, 11:15am
Alissa Quart spent the last few years traveling around the United States talking with all kinds of people about work. What she found is a lot of people with jobs that look good on paper but who feel — in a word — squeezed.
Friday, August 10, 2018, 2:05pm
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA. Christian Picciolini knows that world intimately. He joined America’s first neo-Nazi skinhead group when he was 14 years old. He rose through the ranks of what would become the Hammerskin Nation, one of the most violent white-power groups in the world. Then he had a baby and a change of heart.
Friday, August 10, 2018, 1:50pm
Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant is the first socialist to win an election in Seattle in almost a century. Her platform included fighting for — and winning — a $15 minimum wage, and a tax on the wealthy.
Thursday, August 2, 2018, 3:05pm
Heather Swan, who teaches environmental literature and writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has combined her love of bees, writing and art in the book, "Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories From the Field."
