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."
Friday, July 6, 2018, 1:25am
Michael Twitty can trace his family’s food history back to the slave cabins and Antebellum kitchens of the South. Honoring his diasporicheritage — he’s both black and Jewish — lead Twitty to the practice of identity cooking. He calls it Kosher/Soul.
Friday, July 6, 2018, 1:15am
For years, David Roberts climbed some of Alaska’s biggest mountains, and made a number of first ascents. His new book is an examination of why some climbers feel compelled to push the edge of what’s possible.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 10:10am
Feeling regret about committing a crime matters in criminal sentencing. But if emotion isn't supposed to have a place in the law, should it matter? Speaking to Steve Paulson for "To The Best of Our Knowledge," Susan Bandes tells us how judges and juries evaluate remorse, and why.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 10:00am
Young people seem to be feeling the pressure to be perfect more than anyone else. Social psychologist Tom Curran tells us how neoliberalism and the digital age created a generation that feels guilty about falling short of flawlessness.
Monday, June 25, 2018, 2:40pm
Circe, the all-powerful goddess from Homer’s "The Odyssey," is known for turning men into swine, and for her mastery of potions. The artwork "Circe," imagined by Romare Bearden, is a black woman surrounded by mystical animals and a skull, wearing West African garb with a calm but defiant look on her face.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018, 2:15pm
Writer, classicist, and stand-up comic Natalie Haynes makes a strong case for reading ancient Greek and Roman literature in the modern age.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 11:00am
A hip hop super-producer and pioneering beat-maker, J Dilla died at just 32 years old. He worked right up until the end, and his mother was there for every bit of it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 3:20pm
Dan Pink has written several books about motivation, work and behavior. His most recent, called “When,” is all about timing. He says people facing an ending seems to push people in new directions.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018, 12:30pm
TPakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid sets his newest novel, "Exit West," in a world of permanent mass migration, in a city ripped apart by civil war. He told Steve Paulson he modeled it on his own city — Lahore, Pakistan.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 11:55am
You wouldn’t think a novel about trees would become a major literary event. But Richard Powers' "The Overstory" is overturning a lot of conventional thinking. It’s been called "visionary" and "monumental." And though human characters shape the plot of this 500-page epic, the real heroes are trees.
