To The Best Of Our Knowledge

DNA tests are uncovering mixed bloodlines. For African Americans, this can be emotionally-charged. What do you do when you find out one of your direct ancestors was a slave owner? Does it open the door to new conversations about racial justice? Guests: Alex Gee Erin Hoag Annette Gordon-Reed Anita Foeman Interviews: How Do You Know Ruben Gee? Searching for America's Racial History in a Graveyard Uncovering America's Buried History: The Story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Changing Our Conversation About Race Using Genetic Testing

We grow up scribbling with crayons and covering sidewalks with chalk, and then around middle school most of us stop. Maybe we think it's childish or just too hard. So what can we learn from the people who never stopped making art? We'll talk with activist artist Molly Crabapple and legendary painter/printmaker Frank Stella. And jazz pianist Craig Taborn reflects on a lifetime of improvisation.

For the first time since World War II, far-right and neo-fascist groups are winning converts and votes — all over Europe and also here at home. Why is it happening, and can it be stopped? Guests: Edgar Feuchtwanger Iliaria Maria Sala Rob Riemen Arno Michaelis Pardeep Singh Kaleka Daniel Kalder Interviews: The Nazi Next Door Facing History and Hate Through Museums The Return — And Spread — Of Fascism Understanding The Man Who Hated You Terrible Books Written By Atrocious People

"Magical thinking" gets a bad rap these days. It suggests losing your grip on reality or being so gullible that you'll believe anything - from ghosts to miracles. But what if magic isn't pure fantasy? Maybe it's the gateway to wonder.   Guests: Nate Staniforth Michael Muhammad Knight Haleema Shah Chloe Benjamin Interviews: From Stage Tricks to Real Magic: A Magician's Search for Wonder Islam's Hidden History of Magic Why Online Quizzes, Personality Tests and Horoscopes Help You Feel Special Drawing Inspiration For The Fantastical From The Everyday

“The climate crisis is a crisis of culture and thus of imagination,” says writer Amitav Ghosh. So what changes in our conversation about global warming when we tap into the imaginative worlds of novelists and artists? How Bad Can Climate Change Really Get?; Where’s the Great “Climate Change Novel”?; Let’s Get Serious About the Anthropocene; Zulu Time; Lidia Yuknavitch’s Dream World.

The right-wing politics and hard-drinking bro culture of The Proud Boys is attracting young, white men from across the country. They share fratty hazing rituals and self-proclaimed “Western chauvinism.” And with slogans like “feminism is cancer,” and “venerate the housewife,” they’re fighting to make America great for men again. The Proud Boys’ founder Gavin McInnes believes “95% of American women” would be happier at home, making babies. Where does his vision of “being a man” fit in America in 2018? Reporter Alexandra Hall meets up with a Wisconsin Proud Boys chapter and has a revealing conversation with McInnes himself. Guests: Gavin McInnes Alexandra Hall Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre Warren Farrell Ashanti Branch Interviews: The Proud Boys: Drinking Club or Misogynist Movement? "Proud Boys" Founder Gavin McInnes: You’d Be Happier As A Housewife Boys In Crisis, Shouting For Attention Angry on the Outside, Sad on the Inside 10 Responses to the Phrase "Man Up"

This hour, we'll explore our complicated relationships with our canine cousins -- wolves, coyotes, and dogs -- and the feelings they evoke -- fear, hatred and also love. What If Your Best Friend Is A Wolf?; How Coyotes Won The War We've Waged On Them; A Lesson in Resilience From Markoe's Best Friend; Revealing the Aristocratic Lifestyles of "Monster Dogs".

How can someone be a monster — a brutal dictator, a mass murderer, a serial killer — and up close seem like a decent, caring person? What happens when you find yourself liking someone who’s done terrible things? The American Guards Who Kept Saddam Hussein Safe Until His Execution; Paul Beatty on "The Nazi and the Barber"; What Can Americans Learn from a Norwegian Massacre?; Your Archenemy Turned Out To Be a Hero. Now What?; Can Literature Make You More Empathetic? ; Michael Tisserand on “My Friend Dahmer”.

Ever had the nagging suspicion that you’re being watched? You are. We all are. Surrounded by security cameras — in malls, restaurants, airports, workplaces, even in church, spied on by our very own phones and computers. Yes, surveillance can keep us safe, but we’re in danger of losing the last shreds of our privacy. In this hour, we explore not only the pros and cons of living while being watched, but what it's like to be doing the watching.

Ah, January.  Season of diets and fasts and cleanses, of "Drynuary" and "Veganuary."  Why does being virtuous always seem to mean giving up pleasure?  This hour, we explore the concept of renunciation and our complicated feelings about it. The Man Who Invented "Dry-nuary"; The Story of a Contemporary Hermit; The Religious Roots of Renunciation; Renunciation as a Creative Force; David Foster Wallace on Alcoholics Anonymous; How Prohibition Shaped America.

We don’t handle endings well, in general. So this hour, let’s learn about how to make a good ending — whether leaving a lover, quitting a job, or getting ready for the end of life itself.

Who really runs the world? Presidents and prime ministers, or CEOs and bankers? And who’s responsible when everything falls apart?

To the Best of Our Knowledge cracks open the world and the ideas that fuel it through interviews with the world's luminaries, from experts to cultural icons. Each show revolves around a theme where we explore these ideas and the people who consider them.

Do you ever crave silence? Maybe some can’t stand to hear themselves thinking, but others go to great lengths to find respite from a blaringly loud world.

Sexism has no boundaries, as we're quickly discovering. But what impact does it have on scientific discovery if sexist behavior drives women out of science entirely? Guests: Jane Willenbring,Erika Marin-Spiotta,Jane Goodall,Birute Galdikas,Emily Temple-Wood,Lauren Gunderson Interviews: Alone in Antarctica, Trapped With Your Harasser,Sexual Harassment, the Open Secret of the Scientific Community,The Women Who Revolutionized Primatology,Turning Wikipedia Into a Weapon Against Misogyny,America's Most Produced Playwright Is Rewriting the History of Female Scientists