To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wikileaks' controversial founder Julian Assange. The first Tea Party activist. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley. What do they all have in common? They're Demanding Democracy.

We live in "the information age," but what does this mean? We'll give you a short history of information – from talking drums onward. But do we now have too much information? We'll hear how information overload is actually re-wiring our brains.

Every four years something amazing happens. We get the chance to watch women in sports. Sure there's the WBA but the biathlon? Or javelin? Or even fencing? Are you as excited about the Olympics as we are? We put together our favorite interviews with women athletes for you.

Apocalyptic thinking is everywhere, from predictions about Christian "end times" to the 2012 Mayan prophecy about the end of the world. So what's going on?

"The medium is the message." "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan is one of the most influential media thinkers of all time, yet he's also one of the most misunderstood.

Without bees, we could find ourselves facing food shortages and a collapse of the green and flowered world. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a peek inside the world of bees, from the once-in-a-lifetime mating flight of the queen bee to the California almond agri-business, where most of the bees in North America go to work.

Is Jennifer Egan's book, "A Visit from the Goon Squad," a novel or is it a series of entangled stories? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, Egan talks about her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, as we explore novel novels.

The vocoder started out as a security device designed to scramble voices during phone conversations so the enemy couldn't overhear. But it evolved into the robot voice of popular music.

Thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree is having a difficult time. Her mother has just died and business is down at her family's gator-wrestling theme park, Swamplandia! So begins Karen Russell's critically-acclaimed debut novel, "Swamplandia!" We'll meet Russell, as we explore theme parks. Also, getting high at Disney World.

What goes on inside the mind of a painter, or a musician, or a poet? What sparks creativity? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, new neuroscience takes us inside the creative mind.

If you think the influence of Shakespeare is confined to the page and the stage, think again.

Socrates famously said "the unexamined life is not worth living." But does rigorous self examination actually lead to a happy or fulfilled life?

Tribute albums, reunion tours and mash-ups.  If pop culture’s all about the new, why is there so much wallowing in our immediate past?  Simon Reynolds joins us to talk about his book, “Retromania.”   Is this retromania a death knell for our own originality?

Nature writing conjures up images of remote mountains, exotic birds, and the solitary hiker in pristine wilderness.  But maybe it’s time to rethink our notions of what it means to write about nature.

China Mieville’s new novel, “Embassytown,” features sentient beings famous for their unique language and a woman who’s a living simile. We’ll meet China Mieville, as we explore the language of science fiction.