To The Best Of Our Knowledge show

To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Summary: To The Best Of Our Knowledge is a nationally-syndicated, Peabody award-winning public radio show that dives 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 — people with big ideas and a passion to share them. For more from the TTBOOK team, visit us at ttbook.org.

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  • Artist: Wisconsin Public Radio
  • Copyright: Copyright 2021 by Wisconsin Public Radio

Podcasts:

 Our Virtual Reality | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:46

Not everyone has a nice, big yard to stretch out in while sheltering in place from COVID-19. But maybe you don't need one. People are using virtual spaces to live out the real experiences they miss — like coffee shops, road trips, even building your own house on a deserted island, or Walden Pond. In a world where we're mostly confined to our homes and Zoom screens, does the line between virtual and real-life space mean much anymore? Original Air Date: * *May 16, 2020 *Guests: * Mark Riechers — Tracy Fullerton — Simon Parkin — Jane McGonigal — Donald D. Hoffman — Suzanne O’Sullivan *Interviews In This Hour: * There's No Pandemic In Animal Crossing — I Went To The Woods To Level Up Deliberately — The Most Boring Video Game Ever Made — Want to be Happier? Turn Everyday Tasks Into a Game — How We Fool Ourselves With The Concept of 'Reality' Further Reading: NYAS: Reality Is Not As It Seems

 Solace of Nature | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:44

Rustling of leaves, sploshing of water, birds calling, bees buzzing. Wherever you live — city or country, East coast, West coast, or in between — we share common, contemplative experiences on our walks outside. In this hour, we assemble a sonic guide to finding solace in nature. Original Air Date: * *May 09, 2020 *Guests: * William Helmreich — David Rothenberg — Laura Dassow Walls — Robert Moor — Nate Staniforth — Andreas Weber *Interviews In This Hour: * The Great Urban Nature Explorer — Why The Walden Pond Experiment In Self-Reliance Is More Relevant Than Ever — The Wisdom of Trails — Lose Yourself In The Sky — Finding Love In The Ecosystem

 The Weird, Wild World of Mushrooms | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:26

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

 Deep Tracks: Live In Studio | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:52

In times of crisis, we need music. We look at how far people will go — even under quarantine, during a pandemic — to find ways to make music together. Original Air Date: * *April 25, 2020 *Guests: * Lisa Bielawa — Varttina — Bobby McFerrin — Moken — Vijay Iyer — Brandy Clark — Nicole Paris — Edward Cage *Interviews In This Hour: * Putting The Mood Of COVID-19 To Music — The Haunting Finnish Acapella of Värttinä — The 50 Voices of Bobby McFerrin — A Bold and Beautiful Voice from Cameroon — Vijay Iyer on Jazz, Improvisation and the Origins of Music — Country Singer Brandy Clark on a Big Day in a Small Town — Beatboxing With My Dad

 Living In Skin | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 53:09

We all miss touching things — groceries, door knobs, hands, faces. And most of all, skin. The living tissue that simultaneously protects us from the world, and lets us feel it. In this episode, the politics, biology, and inner life of your skin. Original Air Date: April 18, 2020 **Guests: ** Angelo Bautista — Tiffany Field — Alissa Waters — Nina Jablonski **Interviews In This Hour: ** My Problem With Skincare — Even During Quarantine, You Need A 'Daily Dose Of Touch' — Reclaiming Scars As Works Of Art — The Science Of Skin Color

 Writing Truth and Lies | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 52:06

We all tell stories about our lives: funny stories, happy stories, sad stories. But are they true stories? In an age of “alternative facts” and “fake news,” we’re all thinking harder about why truth matters – not just in politics, but in our personal lives. A biographer, a poet, a memoirist and a filmmaker describe the moral struggle and personal cost involved in telling not just the truth, but the whole truth. Original Air Date: November 10, 2018 *Guests: * Caroline Fraser — Terese Marie Mailhot — Karl Ove Knausgård — Errol Morris *Interviews In This Hour: * Little Lie in the Big Woods — When It's Real, The Stakes Are Higher — 'This Novel Has Hurt Everyone Around Me': A Frank Conversation with Karl Ove Knausgaard — Errol Morris: Thomas Kuhn Threw an Ashtray at Me

  Poetry in a Troubled Time | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:55

Why do people turn to poetry during troubled times? We saw it after 9/11 and we're seeing it now as the coronavirus travels around the world. When the world seems broken, poetry is often the one kind of language that helps. Original Air Date: * *April 04, 2020 *Guests: * Kitty O'Meara — Jericho Brown — Edward Hirsch — Alice Walker — Ken Nordine — Li-Young Lee — Jimmy Santiago Baca *Interviews In This Hour: * A Viral Poem For A Virus Time — Can A Poem Be A Prayer? — Poetry In A Time Of Grief And Loss — Hope Rises. It Always Does. — Li-Young Lee's Love Poetry — Ken Nordine's 'Yellow' — Words Can Change Your Life

 Doctors Give Us Hope | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 52:07

This week, To the Best of Our Knowledge comes to you from our kitchens and homes. We’re safe, but we’ve all been thinking about the people on the front lines of the pandemic — doctors, nurses and hospital staffs. We’ve been seeing them on social media — the nurses in NYC wearing garbage bags because there aren’t enough sterile gowns.  Doctors figuring out those weird new face masks. Those incredibly brave doctors and nurses in Italy, Spain, France, the U.S. This hour we tell some remarkable stories of doctors and scientists who are saving lives. *Original Air Date: * March 28, 2020 **Guests: ** Larry Brilliant — Josh Mezrich — Missy Makinia — Manu Prakash **Interviews In This Hour: ** The Hippie Doctor Who Helped Eradicate Smallpox — Would You Give Your Kidney to a Stranger? — Could a 50 Cent Microscope Change the World?

 Music Beyond Genre | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:34

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. Original Air Date: * *June 01, 2019 *Guests: * Kevin Gift — Wendel Patrick — Philip Glass — Robert Glasper — Toni Blackman — Clarice Jensen — Evelyn Glennie — Nikka Costa *Interviews In This Hour: * How One Man Became Two Musicians — Philip Glass Asks 'Where Does Music Come From?' — Jazz That Smells Like Teen Spirit — Hip Hop as Diplomacy — A Former Child Pop Star Performs America’s Songbook — An Acclaimed Cellist Goes Rogue — Touching The Sound Of Everyday Objects

 Traveling By Book | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:43

Before the time of commercial flights and road trips, we traveled to far off places without taking a single step. All you had to do was open a book. From Africa to England, to a kamikaze cockpit, and to realms of fantasy. Books aren’t just books. They’re passports to anywhere. This hour, we’re traveling by book. Original Air Date: * *March 14, 2020 *Guests: * Philip Pullman — Ruth Ozeki — Robert Macfarlane — Petina Gappah *Interviews In This Hour: * Philip Pullman on 'The Pocket Atlas of the World' — 'His Dark Materials' Author Philip Pullman On The Consciousness Of All Things — A Diary Becomes A Time Capsule — Ruth Ozeki on 'Kamikaze Diaries — Petina Gappah on 'Persuasion' — The Empire Writes Back: Author Discusses Explorer David Livingstone's Complicated Legacy — Robert Macfarlane on 'The Living Mountain'

 Up All Night | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:37

How well do you sleep? 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. We explore what keeps us up, and what happens when we embrace the times when we just can't seem to rest. Original Air Date: March 07, 2020 Guests: Steve Paulson — Guy Leschziner — Daniel Pink — Marina Benjamin — Ada Calhoun Interviews In This Hour: A Shadow Self Emerges from the Darkness — Tales From The Wee Hours — Kicking Your Nap Up A Notch...With Coffee — The Best Time Of Night For Big Ideas — The Things That Keep Gen X Women Up At Night

 Why Do We Meet? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:32

We're always online but still have an innate need to meet in person. How can we make gatherings, from dinner parties to work meetings, more meaningful? *Original Air Date: * June 22, 2019 **Guests: ** Priya Parker — Mamie Kanfer Stewart — Angelo Bautista — James Ogude **Interviews In This Hour: ** When We Gather, We Need Rituals — That Completely Pointless Meeting Is Entirely Preventable — Watching RuPaul's Drag Race In The Best Way Possible — In A Gay Bar — 'I Am Because We Are': The African Philosophy of Ubuntu

 Taking Comfort in the Sound of Silence | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 52:07

Restaurants, bars, coffee shops — is there any public place left that doesn’t play background music? Loudly? In this show, we’re making the case for more silence. Because perhaps some need the drone of TVs, traffic and Muzak, to drown out the pesky sound of thinking, but others go to great lengths to find respite from a blaringly loud world. Original Air Date: December 09, 2017 Guests: Erling Kagge — Gordon Hempton — George Michelsen Foy — Kyle Gann — Shawn Wen — Jennifer Egan Interviews In This Hour: The Contemplative Silence Of A Cold, Lonely Journey — A Nature Preserve For The Quiet Of Nature — The Volume Of Absolute Silence — The Tale of a Mute Piano Performance — A Silent Soliloquy From The World's Greatest Mime — The Pauses Between Chords of Iconic Rock and Roll Further Reading: One Square Inch of Silence, from the documentary "Soundtracker"

 Out Of The Mental Illness Box | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:28

Are there new ways to treat depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder? We explore some unconventional treatments for mental illness, including exercise, psychedelics and even horror films. Need to talk? Contact the National Alliance for Mental Illness at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264). If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Original Air Date: February 15, 2020 **Guests: ** Eliza Smith — Claudia Reardon — Shira Erlichman — Rosalind Watts — Charles Raison — Roland Griffiths — Robin Carhart-Harris **Interviews In This Hour: ** Treating Anxiety With Horror Films — Do 10 Burpees And Call Me In The Morning — How Psychedelic Experiences Might Treat Depression — The Power in Naming an Illness

 Eye-To-Eye Animal Encounters | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:53

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. Original Air Date: February 08, 2020 *Guests: * Gavin Van Horn — Jenny Kendler — Ivan Schwab — Jane Goodall — Alan Lightman *Interviews In This Hour: * In The Eye Of The Osprey: A Physicist's Wild Epiphany — 100 Bird Eyes Are Watching You — The Look That Changed Primatology — Watching the Fierce Green Fire Die: Animal Gazes That Shaped Conservation Movements — The 600 Million Year History Of The Eye — 'We Are The Feast' — A Feminist Philosopher's Life-Changing Encounter With A Crocodile — How Do You Practice Kinship? A Brief Meditation

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