Friday, April 19, 2019, 5:15pm
Hope can seem saccharine. Bland. Trite. But talking about hope with Andre Willis, a philosopher of religion, might make you realize you're not thinking big enough when you think about what hope means.
Friday, April 19, 2019, 12:00pm
How neuroscientist Tali Sharot accidentally stumbled on what’s known as "the optimism bias" — our hard-wired belief that our future will be better than our past or present.
Friday, April 19, 2019, 9:45am
When it comes to hope and optimism, Americans could learn a lot from Nigeria, which has consistently been ranked among the most optimistic nations in the world. Award-winning novelist Chigozie Obioma explains what makes it different there.
Friday, April 5, 2019, 2:05pm
Bernie Sanders may be the public face of American socialism, but if you really want to understand its exploding popularity, you need to understand its pull among millennials, explains Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder and editor of Jacobin magazine.
Thursday, April 4, 2019, 5:55am
Author Jacqueline Woodson writes the kind of "black girl narrative" that didn’t exist when she was younger — and she’s always wished she had to read.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 6:55pm
Journalist Claire Evans argues, if you want to tell the internet's origin story, you have to talk about women: Elizabeth Feinler and the women of the Network Information Center, network protocol engineer Radia Perlman, and early social media creator Stacy Horn, among many others.
Monday, March 25, 2019, 3:35pm
Avery Trufelman is the host of "Articles of Interest," a six-part podcast from "99 Percent Invisible" about the history and meaning of some iconic items of clothing — from blue jeans to Hawaiian shirts to pockets. It's the kind of podcast that challenges you to think more deeply about why your clothing is the way that it is.
Thursday, March 21, 2019, 6:05am
Sara Wachter-Boettcher studies, writes and talks about technology design. She warns that failing to account for the unintended ways technology shapes our lives can cause us pain that might be avoided if we think about how we design digital platforms and apps differently.
Friday, March 15, 2019, 6:00pm
Could you trade the convenience of instant-purchase online clothing stores for a wardrobe you made yourself? Carolyn Smith has been doing it since she was a kid, but in 2016 she went for an even bigger challenge: only wearing clothing she made by hand for a full year.
Friday, March 15, 2019, 5:45am
Historian Jo Paoletti speaks with "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" about gender's ever-changing relationship with fashion.
Friday, March 8, 2019, 12:00pm
In 2012, Princeton University professor Christy Wampole wrote a New York Times column that every hipster everywhere instantly hated it — but it struck a chord with people who had grown tired of pop culture dominated by self-awareness and snark.
Friday, March 1, 2019, 12:05pm
Open borders might seem like a recipe for economic disaster, but an economist, a global strategist and an artist all make different cases for how and why we might embrace them.
Friday, March 1, 2019, 5:50am
Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Munchau on the political realities of mass migration in Europe, and what it might mean for the future of the European Union.
Monday, February 25, 2019, 6:00am
Missy Makinia donated her kidney to whoever might need it — the kind of selfless gift that can kickstart a whole chain of kidney donations, called a "non-directed kidney donor chain."
Friday, February 22, 2019, 5:45am
Gavin Francis is a physician in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the author of several acclaimed books about the wonders of the body. He’s fascinated by the complexity and beauty of the human body, which is so finely engineered that it can seem almost miraculous.
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.
