To The Best Of Our Knowledge

It creeps into everything: guilt that we're not good enough, fit enough, smart enough. As we peruse Instagram, all we see is the perfection of others reflecting our own failures back at us. Why do we spend so much time feeling guilty? Should we? Guests: Devorah Baum Lucas Mann Thomas Curran Stephen Greenblatt Susan Bandes

When did we retreat to our Red and Blue Facebook pages? It’s not just that America is politically polarized. We live, work and play in Red and Blue tribal bubbles, filling our social media feeds with news sources that affirm our place in that order, rather than challenging it. That isolation is breeding an ugly, seething hatred of the other side that feels poisonous and dispiriting. So what can we do? In this hour, we hear how conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes lost his faith in the GOP and why a former CEO of NPR left his liberal bubble. Also, how Black Twitter has created its own safe space. Guests: Charlie Sykes Ken Stern Meredith Clark Nancy MacLean Jeanne Safer Richard Brookhiser Segments: How The Right Lost Its Mind And Charlie Sykes Lost His Faith In The GOP A Former NPR Executive Leaves His Liberal Bubble Behind The Blend Of Jokes and Social Justice That Is Black Twitter What Does An Obscure Economist Have To Do With The Koch Brothers? You Don't Have To Vote Like Me To Love Me

Where do you go to find models of powerful women? The ancient world was full of them, real and mythic, but today we barely know their names. Why? This week we rediscover the women of ancient myths and legends. Guests Kara Cooney Madeline Miller Natalie Haynes Emily Wilson Serenity Young Romare Bearden Interviews The Hidden Queens of Egypt The Mother of All Witches Romare Bearden’s “Circe,” Black and Powerful What A Feminist Writer Learned From An Ancient, Racist, Sexist Satirist A Female Perspective on The Oldest Tale in Human History When Women Could Fly

Amidst economic devastation, producer Charles Monroe-Kane asks what it takes to survive in the Rust Belt. Guests: Min Jin Lee,Jacqueline Woodson Interviews: Center of the World, Ohio,What It Means To Be A Permanent Outsider,Four Girls Growing Up In 'Another Brooklyn'

Why do we have schools? To build a workforce? To create democratic citizens?  Guests: Caryn McKechnie,Tim Storm,Jose Gonzalez,Curtis Acosta,Mark Slouka,Daniel Mendelsohn Interviews: Why America's Teachers Are Burning Out,Is Teaching Mexican-American Studies Un-American?,What Happens When Math And Science Rule The School?,The Crankiest Student In Your Class? That's Your Dad.

If life is a play, what happens during the last act? What’s it like to live knowing you have a limited amount of time left? Guests: Sabrina Frey Daniel Pink Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey Martin Amis Segments: Prepared To Go, But Still Busy Living When Time Is The Best Motivator Preserving J. Dilla's Legacy With A Beat When Should An Author Call It Quits?

All over the world, nation states are splintering. Separatism is on the rise. What causes nation states to erode? And what happens when they do? Should we fight to hold on to our nation states...or let them go in favor of something new?Guests:John FefferHaleema ShahShannon Henry KleiberMohsin HamidSegments:What Would a Free Catalonia Mean For Spain - and the World?If Nation States Rupture, What's Next?Shaping National Identity in PakistanLove In A Time of Mass Migration

Milwaukee is a city on water, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, split by the historic Milwaukee River. How did it shape the city's history, politics, culture, and people? We find out in this live broadcast from Turner Hall in Milwaukee.Guests: John GurdaDan EganJenny KehlChastity WashingtonBen BarberaRuss KlischDavid DupeeTarik MoodySiobhan MarksVenice WilliamsKim BlaeserMelanie AriensInterviews:The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Milwaukee RiverWho Owns the Great Lakes?Fire, Hops and Beer Wagons: The Beer History of MilwaukeeIf Macro Lagers Are Milwaukee's Beer Past, What Does The Beer Future Look Like?How To Build Flow For A Water ShowTracing the Enormity of the Great Lakes. By Foot.The Garden as Parish, With Water as PrayerBenediction: "A Song for Giving Back"Building Bridges With Water-Themed Art

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. Guests: Mark Hirsch Richard Powers Suzanne Simard Amos Clifford Daegan Miller Interviews: A Year In The Life Of A Tree Listening to the Mother Trees Writing the Inner Life of Trees Bathing in the Beauty of the Trees General Sherman, Karl Marx, and Other Aliases of Earth's Largest Tree

More than 38 million Americans knit or crochet. Not because they crave mittens and afghans, but because they like the way knitting feels. Handwork turns out be a powerful antidote for digital overload.  Guests: Betsan Corkhill, Colin McGinn, Lynda Barry, Richard Polt, Tyler Knott Gregson Interviews: Can Knitting Improve Your Health?, How Hands Have Shaped Humanity, Lynda Barry's Radio Drawing Lessons, The Magical Mechanical Typewriter, The Typewriter Poet

Hip hop created a sound that changed music, art, fashion, and politics. What's next? Diplomacy? Journalism? Education? Philosophy? Guests: Chris Emdin, Xuman,Toni Blackman, Jeff Chang, Colson Whitehead Segments: For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, Hip Hop as Diplomacy. Hip Hop as Journalism, Cultural Critic Jeff Chang On Art As A Political Possibility Space, Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad"

Can we ever get inside the mind of an animal? Can we really know how an octopus or a parrot thinks? Also, the fascinating story of Charles Foster's attempt to act like a badger, when he lived in a hole in the ground and ate worms. Guests: Helen MacDonald,Charles Foster,Peter Godfrey-Smith,Elena Passarello, Interviews: Living Like a Beast,B is for Birdle (the Parrot),The Tentacled Alien From Under The Sea,Why Do We Love to Watch Animals?

As terrible as it sounds, most of us will go through something traumatic at some point in our lives. The experience can be deeply isolating and crushing, but it doesn't have to be.  Guests: David Morris,Mac McClelland,Jim Rendon,Bessel van der Kolk,Juan Thompson Interviews: A Brief History of PTSD,Secondary Violence and PTSD,The Positive Side Of Pain,Feeling Through Trauma,Life With Hunter S. Thompson

Modern anti-depressants have saved a lot of minds. And lives. But what have they done to our bodies? And how do we navigate that trade-off between body and mind? Guests: Lauren Slater, Charles Raison, Anna Fels, Jaime Lowe Interviews: Your Body or Your Mind, A Pill That Saves Your Life But Destroys Your Body, Treating the Body To Treat The Mind, A Little Lithium for All Of Us?, The High Price of Breaking the Manic Cycle, The International Bipolar Foundation Recommends Stacks of Mental Health Reading

A chorus of hope is coming from an unexpected group — teenagers. They have superpowers — innocence, idealism, and Instagram — and they aren't waiting for permission to use them to shape the world. Guests: Angie Jiang, Kevin Coval, Luis Carranza, Kee Stein, Frances Jensen, Angie Thomas, Tyler Ruzich Interviews: Angie Goes To Washington, Bullying, Buses, Environmentalism, and Donald Trump: The Poetic Thinking of Teens, I'm 17 And I'm Running for Governor, Learning Machines: The Wired Teenage Brain, Author Angie Thomas: Burn It All Down Or Use Those Emotions In My Art, What Teens Need From Adults To Change The World