To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Wisconsin Public Radio

”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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Our Editor's Take

To The Best Of Our Knowledge is a podcast by Wisconsin Public Radio. The show's host, Anne Strainchamps, is a reporter, columnist, producer, and news director. She brings professionalism and creativity to the popular program's narration. The show has real-life conversations with people who have unique and valuable experiences. The program's documentary style paints pictures with descriptions, sound effects, and music. This immerses the listeners in the experiences and stories.

This National Public Radio show covers many fascinating topics. To The Best Of Our Knowledge has one-off stories, like “Generation Witch.” This episode talks about the resurgence of the online witch communities of today. Another episode asks, “Can An Evil Man Be A Decent Person?” That story featured an interview with an American soldier who guarded Saddam Hussein. He found the Iraqi dictator likable and felt guilt over witnessing his execution.

The weekly show also has some sub-series. The “Going for Broke” episodes focus on economic hardship in America. It also suggests innovative solutions for solving poverty. Ideas From Africa episodes discuss colonialism, development, language, and jazz. Strainchamps and her crew discuss other intriguing topics on the weekly podcast. Subjects range from death, climate change, fantasy, and dogs to the secrets of trees and much more.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Start Here

We get the message before we’re out of training pants – when the going gets tough, look on the bright side, make lemonade out of lemons and just do it. We’re gonna consider the exact opposite – the wisdom of giving up and letting go. Because sometimes, the strongest and most courageous thing you can do is walk away. Original Air Date: April 27, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: The power and boundary-breaking of fasting — How do we know when to call it quits? — Escaping the tyranny of certainty Guests: John Oakes, Adam Phillips, Maggie Jackson Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Episodes

We get the message before we’re out of training pants – when the going gets tough, look on the bright side, make lemonade out of lemons and just do it. We’re gonna consider the exact opposite – the wisdom of giving up and letting go. Because sometimes, the strongest and most courageous thing you can do is walk away. Original Air Date: April 27, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: The power and boundary-breaking of fasting — How do we know when to call it quits? — Escaping the tyranny of certainty Guests: John Oakes, Adam Phillips, Maggie Jackson Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Deep Time: How Earth Keeps Time

Deep Time: How Earth Keeps Time

Are you ready to think in centuries instead of seconds? Eons instead of hours? It’s time to make thousand-year plans and appreciate how Earth keeps time. Original Air Date: August 19, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: Shifting your mind to 'geologic' time — Discovering the wonders of ancient cave art — Making art inspired by the ancestors Guests: Marcia Bjornerud, Stephen Alvarez, Dustin Illetewahke Mater Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Luminous: Your Brain on Shrooms

Luminous: Your Brain on Shrooms

Can neuroscience explain what happens to the brain on psychedelics? And even if we map the brain while it’s tripping, does that tell us why these experiences can be so transformative? We’ll talk with some of the pioneers in psychedelic research — from Amanda Feilding’s boundary-busting work to Robin Carhart-Harris’ theory of the "entropic brain." Also, renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch goes down the rabbit hole on 5-MeO-DMT, also known as toad venom. Original Air Date: July 15, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: Exploring consciousness on toad venom — The godmother of the European psychedelic revival — How therapeutic psilocybin could help heal long-buried trauma — Magic mushrooms and the 'entropic brain' Guests: Christof Koch, Amanda Feilding, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Total Eclipse and Other Wonders

Total Eclipse and Other Wonders

From our narrow vantage point on Earth, how can we see what's out there, beyond our skies? We look to how scientists and scholars have studied eclipses, dark matter, deep-space transmissions from intelligent life and more, all in the hopes of painting a clearer picture of a vast and invisible universe. Original Air Date: August 19, 2017 Interviews In This Hour: How Eclipse Chasing Inspires Generations of Scientists — How Do We Investigate The Invisible Parts of the Universe? — Search For Life In All The Wrong Places — What Can You Hear In Space? — The Universe Is Under No Obligation To Make Sense To Us Guests: David Baron, Priya Natarajan, Seth Shostak, Don Gurnett, Neil deGrasse Tyson Further Reading: NASA: 2024 Eclipse Explorer Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

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 Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Let's Celebrate Crying

Let's Celebrate Crying

We all feel better after a good cry. In fact, humans are the only animals who cry emotional tears. But what about people who don't cry? And have you ever wondered why a sad song or movie makes you cry? Original Air Date: August 05, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: Hip-hop artist Dxtr Spits on teaching men to cry — The evolution and neuroscience of tears — What happens when an actor cries Guests: Dxtr Spits, Michael Trimble, Jen Plants Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Taking Pop Seriously

Taking Pop Seriously

Pop music is a gazillion-dollar industry that churns out hits and creates celebrities. It seems like the definition of ephemeral – today’s chart topper is gone tomorrow. But pop music is a powerful vehicle for bringing people together, and fans - from K-pop to the #FreeBritney movement — have something to teach us about community and hope. Original Air Date: March 26, 2022 Interviews In This Hour: When we're disconnected, can we reconnect through K-pop? — From pop to punk: Shaping our musical identities — How a fan movement freed a pop star from her gilded cage Guests: Regina Kim, Kyla Nicole, Kelefa Sanneh, Samantha Stark Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

One Nation Under God?

One Nation Under God?

In 2020, Donald Trump won 84 percent of the white evangelical vote.). Lately, he’s been leaning even more deeply into the rhetoric of Christian nationalists. Who are they, and what’s their role in the evangelical church? We talk with some Southern Baptists today, whose views may surprise you. Original Air Date: March 09, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: The 'simmering violence' of Donald Trump and Christian nationalism — Examining the Role of Southern Baptist Women — Why One Black Pastor Left the Southern Baptists Guests: Jeff Sharlet, Beth Allison Barr, John Onwuchekwa Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Decolonizing the Mind

Decolonizing the Mind

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? In this hour, produced in partnership with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and Africa is a Country — we learn what it means to decolonize the mind. Original Air Date: March 20, 2021 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 Guests: Adom Getachew, Simon Gikandi, Ngugi wa Thiong’o Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

What’s the last dream you remember having? Some of us dream every night. But we’re in too much of a hurry to remember our dreams or think about them the next day. Others of us are dream-deprived. What if we embrace our dreams — and our night selves — as a way to understand ourselves better, to connect to each other, even to lead a better life? Original Air Date: February 24, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: Why dream life matters — The lives we live inside our dreams — A dreaming mind, illustrated — Embracing your night self Guests: Rubin Naiman, Kelly Bulkeley, Roz Chast, Annabel Abbs-Streets Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Luminous: What Can Psychedelics Teach Us About Dying?

Luminous: What Can Psychedelics Teach Us About Dying?

In the first episode of "Luminous," our series about the philosophy and the future of psychedelics, how can psilocybin ease our fears about dying? And how can psychedelics change the way we approach the end of life? Original Air Date: April 08, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: How a pioneering psychedelic researcher 'leaned in' to his terminal cancer diagnosis — Dying without fear: How psychedelics can ease the anxiety of terminal illness — The terror and the ecstasy of psychedelics Guests: Roland Griffiths, Lou Lukas, Anthony Bossis Editorial note: Roland Griffiths passed away on Oct. 16, 2023. The conversation with him in this episode took place in January 2023. Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

To All The Dogs We've Loved

To All The Dogs We've Loved

The bond we share with dogs runs deep. The satisfaction of gentle head scratches or a round of playing fetch is simple and pure, but in other ways, the connection we have is truly unknowable. How do dogs make our lives better? How do they think? And how do we give them the lives they deserve? Original Air Date: February 05, 2022 Interviews In This Hour: Adventure, goofiness and trail snacks: Stories from the dog musher's journal — Getting inside the mind of a dog — Nothing makes losing a dog easy. But a bridge dog can help. — Joy and peace, high up on Dog Mountain Guests: Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain, Donna Haraway, Sarah Miller Further Reading: Pet Loss Resource Center: Resources for animal loss and grief Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Listen to this: The What, Why and How of Intellectual Humility

Listen to this: The What, Why and How of Intellectual Humility

Today we're bringing you a conversation from "Kelly Corrigan Wonders." As a podcaster, Kelly is a kindred spirit – curious, genuine, caring — and this conversation is from a series about one of TTBOOK’s own core values – intellectual humility. It’s about the magic that happens when we stop trying to be right all the time. In this episode, Kelly talks with researcher and academic Daryl Van Tongeren about how we come to conclusions and what, if anything, can interrupt the creation of overconfident, under-researched, ironclad, and divisive by nature convictions. Daryl teaches at Hope College in Michigan and researches the social motivation for meaning and its relation to virtues and morals.

Cult of the Self

Cult of the Self

In the world of internet influencers and YouTube stars, it’s not enough to be ordinary anymore. You need to be special. But where did this craze for personal branding come from? Why are we so obsessed with ourselves? To understand this cult of the self, we need to go back to 19th century spiritual movements and the rise of the huckster — and also the myth of rugged individualism. But if we’re always shouting “Me me me,” what are we losing? What has it cost us? Original Air Date: February 03, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: If nobody sees you online, do you exist? — How personal branding became an American religion — Why rugged individualism is a dangerous myth — The philosophers who invented the modern self Guests: Angelo Bautista, Tara Isabella Burton, Alissa Quart, Andrea Wulf Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Losing Yourself in Fantasy

Losing Yourself in Fantasy

We all need a good fantasy world to retreat to sometimes – whether it's Hogwarts or Middle Earth, Westeros or Wakanda. But magical thinking can be dangerous too. And escapism isn't always innocent. So where do you draw the line between fantasy and reality? Original Air Date: September 17, 2022 Interviews In This Hour: Why not escape into fantasy? A tale of Disney adults — The magical thinkers, the dreamers, and the hucksters of America's fantasyland — Neil Gaiman on where dreams — and nightmares — come from Guests: Sarah Rachul, Marianne Eloise, Kurt Andersen, Neil Gaiman Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

2019 was an important year throughout the African diaspora — the 400th year since enslaved Africans first arrived in the United States. In Ghana — once the center of the European slave trade — 2019 was declared "the year of return" and the start of a campaign to encourage descendants of enslaved Africans to re-connect with the land of their ancestors. Thousands of African-Americans made the trip to Ghana — and many have decided to stay. They're fed up with police brutality and systemic racism in the US, ready to build new lives in Africa — and their number is growing. Original Air Date: September 03, 2022 Interviews In This Hour: ‘This is where I should be’: 1,500 Black Americans make Ghana their new home — The land of your ancestors — Should Africans move to America? — A Black friendship Guests: Robert Hanserd, Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman, Prince Marfo, Ato Quayson, Emmanuel Kofi Apraku Bempong Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Rooted in reality, written with a keen observer’s eye, and shaped with a sense of song, documentary poetry tells the truth in an artist’s voice. For generations, through wars, crisis, and political upheaval, documentary poets have helped make sense of some of our most difficult moments – by expressing what might otherwise be impossible to say. So what are they writing about today? This episode was produced in partnership with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Original Air Date: January 13, 2024 Interviews In This Hour: The gospel of Suncere Ali Shakur — This is how I drew you — The poetry that bears witness to the everyday Guests: Philip Metres, Suncere Ali Shakur, Kaia Sand, Camille Dungy Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Deep Time: The Tyranny of Time

Deep Time: The Tyranny of Time

When you’re on the clock, you’re always running out of time – because in our culture, time is money. The relentless countdown is making us and the planet sick. But clock time isn’t the only kind. There are older, deeper rhythms of time that sustain life. What would it be like to live more in tune with nature’s clocks? **Deep Time is a series all about the natural ecologies of time from To The Best Of Our Knowledge and the Center for Humans and Nature. We'll explore life beyond the clock, develop habits of "timefulness" and learn how to live with greater awareness of the many types of time in our lives. Original Air Date: June 03, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: How time came to rule our lives — and how we might free ourselves — The past and future of keeping time Guests: Jenny Odell, David Rooney Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter. Categories:

Out of the Anxiety Box

Out of the Anxiety Box

You're not even out of bed and you're already worrying. So let's talk about it: How anxious we are, how we got that way, and what to do about it. Original Air Date: March 25, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: Patricia Pearson on A History of Anxiety — To Waste Time Is To Deepen Life — Treating Anxiety With Horror Films — Natalie Merchant on 'Leave Your Sleep' — Robert Rand on Healing Through Zydeco Guests: Patricia Pearson, Richard Polt, Eliza Smith, Natalie Merchant, Robert Rand Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Cultivating Wonder

Cultivating Wonder

Do you ever feel like there’s something missing in your life? You don’t know exactly what it is. And there’s never enough time to really think about it. You might get a glimpse of it if you slow down, or look deeply at something (or someone), or remember some childhood joy. What if that thing you’re missing is a sense of wonder? Original Air Date: March 18, 2023 Interviews In This Hour: A sense of wonder through the eyes — and ears — of a child — What goosebumps, tears and grief can teach us about being awestruck — Finding sacred meaning through poetry Guests: Lulu Miller, Dacher Keltner, Jennifer Michael Hecht Never want to miss an episode? Subscribe to the podcast. Want to hear more from us, including extended interviews and favorites from the archive? Subscribe to our newsletter.