To The Best Of Our Knowledge
Wisconsin Public Radio
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”To the Best of Our Knowledge” is a Peabody award-winning national public radio show that explores big ideas and beautiful questions. Deep interviews with philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, historians, and others help listeners find new sources of meaning, purpose, and wonder in daily life. Whether it’s about bees, poetry, skin, or psychedelics, every episode is an intimate, sound-rich journey into open-minded, open-hearted conversations. Warm and engaging, TTBOOK helps listeners feel less alone and more connected – to our common humanity and to the world we share.
For more from the TTBOOK team, visit us at ttbook.org.
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Top 10 To The Best Of Our Knowledge Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best To The Best Of Our Knowledge episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to To The Best Of Our Knowledge for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite To The Best Of Our Knowledge episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
The Weird, Wild World of Mushrooms
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
05/08/21 • 51 min
We owe our past and future existence on Earth to fungi. Some can heal you, some can kill you, and some can change you forever. And the people who love them are convinced that mushrooms explain the world.
Original Air Date: June 08, 2019
Guests:
Lawrence Millman — Paul Stamets — Eugenia Bone — Michael Pollan — Dennis McKenna — Robin Carhart-Harris
Interviews In This Hour:
Humanity? It All Started With The Raven and Fungus Man — The Soil-Cleaning, Insect-Warding, Smallpox-Curing Power of Mushrooms — From Candy Caps To Morels: Notes From A Mushroom Hunter's Cookbook — John Cage, Vaclav Halek and the Marvels of Mushroom Music — Did Magic Mushrooms Shape Human Consciousness? — 'Fantastic Fungi' And How To Film Them
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Going for Broke: Making Up Our Minds
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
09/02/23 • 51 min
How we live is indelibly intertwined with the care and empathy we give to each other. What if we put care into helping Americans find homes and build dwellings, into keeping their bodies and minds sound, and finding meaningful and well-paid work? In this three part series, "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project bring you real life stories about economic struggle in our time, as well as ideas for solutions.
Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health challenges can push people into poverty. Meanwhile, the experience of financial desperation can also create even more trauma, even more suffering. How do you break the cycle? How do we truly care for people mentally and financially?
If you or someone you know are having mental health struggles, we wanted to make sure you are aware of some resources. The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by calling 9-8-8. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reminds us that one in five people in the US has a mental health concern every year. You can find support and education at their web site, nami.org.
Original Air Date: November 12, 2022
Interviews In This Hour:
Trauma and poverty: The perfect storm experienced by U.S. veterans — Learning to cope when mental health care feels out of reach — More than one way to treat a mind — How harm reduction disrupts painful cycles of addiction
Guests:
Alex Miller, Katie Prout, Daniel Bergner, Maia Szalavitz
Listen to the full series at ttbook.org/goingforbroke
Whose Land Is It?
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
07/16/22 • 51 min
Ever want to quit your job, leave the rat race behind, and head back to the land? Buy an old farmhouse or build a solar-powered home and live self-sufficiently on a few acres of your very own? Generations before you have shared that dream. The reality is more complicated. Even owning your own land is an ethical minefield.
Original Air Date: December 18, 2021
Guests:
Makenna Goodman — Simon Winchester — Hayden King
Interviews In This Hour:
Can you live off the land and still live ethically? — What does 'owning' land actually mean? — How the Land Back movement is reclaiming land stolen from Indigenous people
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Reading While Young
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
05/01/21 • 51 min
Remember when reading still felt magical? When a book could sweep you off your feet into another world? It might be that the best way to find your way back the magic is through a kid’s book. We talk to authors about Wonderland, magic wands, unicorns and other children's stories that inspire.
Original Air Date: May 01, 2021
Guests:
Katherine Rundell — Quan Barry — Enrique Salmon — Ebony Thomas — LL McKinney — Lulu Miller
Interviews In This Hour:
Why A Pandemic Is The Perfect Time To Read Children's Literature — Quan Barry on 'White Fang' — Enrique Salmon on 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' — Is Hermione Black? The Answer Depends On How Old You Are — Alice The Doomslayer Rises In L.L. McKinney's Reimagining of 'Alice In Wonderland' — Lulu Miller on 'The Search for Delicious'
Further Reading:
Time Beyond The Clock
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
01/01/22 • 51 min
Clocks and calendars chop time into increments – minutes, hours, days, years. It’s efficient, and it helps us get to meetings on time. But when we invented artificial time, we gave up natural time, and a deep sense of connection to the larger universe. What does time feel like when you stop counting it?
Original Air Date: January 04, 2020
Guests:
Alexander Rose — Douglas Rushkoff — Wade Davis — Brian Swimme — Laura Williams — Rachel Sussman
Interviews In This Hour:
Alexander Rose on The Clock of the Long Now — Reclaiming Time — The Eternal Moment — Brian Swimme on Organic Time — Laura Williams on a Tidal-Powered Moon Clock — What It Looks Like To Live For 600K Years
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Decolonizing the Mind
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
03/20/21 • 51 min
Colonization in Africa was much more than a land grab. It was a project to replace — and even erase — local cultures. To label them inferior. Music, arts, literature and of course language. In other words, it permeated everything. So how do you undo that? How do you unlearn what you’ve been forced to learn?
Original Air Date: March 20, 2021
Guests:
Adom Getachew — Simon Gikandi — Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Interviews In This Hour:
Reckon with the Past To Decolonize the Future — Reclaiming the Hidden History of Blackness — Never Write In The Language of the Colonizer
Does AI dream?
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
03/30/24 • 50 min
AI can do amazing things – write your term papers, sequence your genes, maybe replace your therapist. But even super-intelligence has limits. So, does AI really have a mind - or a soul? We'll explore the frontiers of artificial intelligence - from robots painting masterpieces to software engineers trying to create god-like machines.
Original Air Date: March 30, 2024
Interviews In This Hour:
Stop worrying about deepfakes — Does AI have a soul? — Can robots paint a masterpiece?
Guests:
Walter Scheirer, Meghan O’Gieblyn, Sougwen 愫君 Chung
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Reading While Young
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
07/23/22 • 51 min
Remember when reading still felt magical? When a book could sweep you off your feet into another world? It might be that the best way to find your way back the magic is through a kid’s book. We talk to authors about Wonderland, magic wands, unicorns and other children's stories that inspire.
Original Air Date: May 01, 2021
Guests:
Katherine Rundell — Quan Barry — Enrique Salmon — Ebony Thomas — LL McKinney — Lulu Miller
Interviews In This Hour:
Why A Pandemic Is The Perfect Time To Read Children's Literature — Quan Barry on 'White Fang' — Enrique Salmon on 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' — Is Hermione Black? The Answer Depends On How Old You Are — Alice The Doomslayer Rises In L.L. McKinney's Reimagining of 'Alice In Wonderland' — Lulu Miller on 'The Search for Delicious'
Further Reading:
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Reframing the Portrait
To The Best Of Our Knowledge
09/23/23 • 51 min
Before family photos, or school pictures or Instagram, there were hand-drawn and painted portraits. Throughout the ages, portrait artists have captured expressions and personalities on canvas or paper, and those who view the picture interpret this “likeness” in their own way. We talk with a philosopher, a musician and a novelist about the role of portraits through history, and how we see ourselves —and others — through these deeply personal images.
Original Air Date: September 23, 2023
Interviews In This Hour:
Re-envisioning history: A journey through Black portraiture — The painting tells a story: 'The Marriage Portrait' author on love, loss and layers of meaning in the Italian Renaissance — Portraits of perfection: Discovering Frans Hals' legacy in Haarlem
Guests:
Peter Brathwaite, Maggie O'Farrell, Steven Nadler, Thijs Gerbrandy, Norbert Middelkoop
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FAQ
How many episodes does To The Best Of Our Knowledge have?
To The Best Of Our Knowledge currently has 232 episodes available.
What topics does To The Best Of Our Knowledge cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, Podcasts and Philosophy.
What is the most popular episode on To The Best Of Our Knowledge?
The episode title 'Writing Truth and Lies' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on To The Best Of Our Knowledge?
The average episode length on To The Best Of Our Knowledge is 52 minutes.
How often are episodes of To The Best Of Our Knowledge released?
Episodes of To The Best Of Our Knowledge are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of To The Best Of Our Knowledge?
The first episode of To The Best Of Our Knowledge was released on Feb 29, 2020.
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