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TTBOOK team, mushrooms, women and human mind

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

To The Best Of Our Knowledge is a nationally-syndicated, Peabody award-winning radio show where long-form interviews lead us to dive headlong into the deeper end of ideas. We have conversations with novelists and poets, scientists and software engineers, journalists and historians, filmmakers and philosophers, artists and activists—anyone with a big idea and a passion to have a creative and engaging conversation about it.

We consider ideas big and small, conventional and dangerous, and marshal them into shows centered around a theme. A show's theme sometimes centers on a big question, other times it will zero in on the small things that give us pause. A good theme is a conversation starter: is the Internet making us stupid? Can a computer truly be creative? Are humans innately good? What’s the best road trip you ever took?

Once we pick the theme, we dig in with interviews that explore the culture, the debate, the stories, the science and the actual sound of it all. And hopefully, when we’re done, we’ve animated the questions along with the answers, opening both our own minds and yours.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Up All Night

Saturday, September 17, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Every night, millions of us turn out the lights hoping and praying for a good night’s sleep. And every night, millions of us lie awake in the dark.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Losing Yourself in Fantasy

Saturday, September 17, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

When the real world becomes too much, fantasy might be your ticket out. But at what point does fantasy go too far?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Telling A Life

Sunday, September 11, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Psychologists say telling a good life story can make you happier. But do we also create an inauthentic version of ourselves if we turn everything into a narrative?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

The Power of Pleasure and Joy

Saturday, September 10, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

What if the most unselfish thing you could do was to pursue pleasure and joy? We make the case for the transformative power of joy, pleasure and delight.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

What's Wrong With Work?

Sunday, September 4, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It's not easy in America today to find work that matters, that’s meaningful, and that pays enough to live on. Which is the one thing we don’t talk about. What’s wrong with work — and how do we fix it?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Year of Return

Saturday, September 3, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

2019 marked the "year of return" to Ghana. Now, scores of African-Americans are moving to Ghana permanently – giving up on the country of their birth.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Pick Your Poison

Sunday, August 28, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Covert spies painting nerve agents on doorknobs? It's not the only way to poison someone. We hear stories of radioactive paint, formaldehyde-spiked baby formula, and a beautiful garden full of plants that could kill you.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

The Secret Language of Trees

Saturday, August 27, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Trees talk to each other, and even form alliances with other trees or other species. Some are incredibly old — the root mass of aspens might live 100,000 years. In this hour, we explore the science and history of trees.

Ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan on embracing the 'wisdom of the desert'

Saturday, August 27, 2022, 6:05am

desert

Ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan has been called the "father of the local food movement." For decades, he’s campaigned for seed diversity and sustainable food production. Some of his insights come from the farming practices of Indigenous people living near the U.S.-Mexico border, who’ve grown food in arid habitats for centuries.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

A Parenting Revolution

Sunday, August 21, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

The pandemic has made clear that parents are walking a tightrope with no safety net. Is it time for a parenting revolution?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Eye-To-Eye Animal Encounters

Saturday, August 20, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Exchanging glances with the natural world happens more often than you’d think. It can be so profound, there’s a name for it: eye-to-eye epiphany.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

In The Company Of Wolves

Sunday, August 14, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

While their domesticated cousins sleep on our beds, Congress debates wild wolves’ survival. This hour, we’ll explore our complicated relationship with our canine cousins, and the feelings they evoke – fear, hatred, and also love.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Saving Democracy from Demagogues

Saturday, August 13, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Around the world, authoritarian leaders are on the rise – from Russia and Hungary to the U.S. We examine the return of the Strongman — and how to save democracy.

Killing democracy? There's a playbook for that.

Saturday, August 13, 2022, 5:30am

an abstract photo of a leader at a desk

Daniel Ziblatt has watched authoritarian leaders elected in country after country — Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, Orban in Hungary, Bolsinaro in Brazil. He says there’s a playbook for how demagogues destroy their countries' democracies.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

The Resilient Brain

Sunday, August 7, 2022, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

New experiences rewire the brain. So after all we’ve been through, are we different? We consider the "COVID brain" in both neuroscience and the arts.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Journeys Through Gender

Saturday, August 6, 2022, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Sharing of personal pronouns is just one sign of an increasingly widespread shift in how we think about gender. So what’s next? Maybe gender should be messy? Maybe trans should be joy?

Inside the lab that's creating enough psilocybin for everyone on Earth

Saturday, August 6, 2022, 6:15am

an illustration of a scientist synthesizing mushrooms in a lab.

The psychedelic revolution in mental health treatment is on the way, with FDA approval likely in just a few years. In Madison, a non-profit drug manufacturer is gearing up to synthesize enough medical-grade hallucinogenic molecules to supply the world.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There are old folktales and legends of people who can become animals. Animals who can become people. And there’s a lesson for our own time in those shapeshifting stories — a recognition that the membrane between what's human and more-than-human is razor thin.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Sunday, November 21, 2021, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Even with all the music available today, most of us still listen primarily to just a few comfy genres. But there’s so much more out there — and so much of it defies neat, algorithm-friendly categorization.

Horror author Stephen Graham Jones on what our monsters say about us

Sunday, November 21, 2021, 6:15am

Wolf eyes the horizon

Horror writer Stephen Graham Jones loves werewolves. He redefined the genre with his 2016 novel "Mongrels," about a family of werewolves on the run in a hostile American landscape — a story drawn from his own background.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

There are old folktales and legends of people who can become animals. Animals who can become people. And there’s a lesson for our own time in those shapeshifting stories — a recognition that the membrane between what's human and more-than-human is razor thin.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Sunday, November 14, 2021, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As monocropping and agribusiness continue to dominate modern farming, we speak to farmers, botanists and indigenous people about how they are reclaiming our seeds.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Sunday, November 14, 2021, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

As monocropping and agribusiness continue to dominate modern farming, we speak to farmers, botanists and indigenous people about how they are reclaiming our seeds.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Saturday, November 6, 2021, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

In countries all over the world, rates of loneliness are skyrocketing. How did it become a condition of modern life?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Saturday, November 6, 2021, 3:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Colonization in Africa was much more than a land grab. It was a project to replace — and even erase — local cultures. How can that be undone?

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Sunday, November 7, 2021, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Cities can be cacophonous and loud, a chaos of sonic discord. If, that is, you don't really focus your listening. People who’ve trained their ears to hear urban soundscapes in new ways hear something different.

To the Best of Our Knowledge

Show page on TTBOOK.org

Sunday, November 7, 2021, 1:00pm

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Cities can be cacophonous and loud, a chaos of sonic discord. If, that is, you don't really focus your listening. People who’ve trained their ears to hear urban soundscapes in new ways hear something different.