To The Best Of Our Knowledge

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.

How we live is indelibly intertwined with the care and empathy we give to each other. What if we put care into helping Americans find homes and build dwellings, into keeping their bodies and minds sound, and finding meaningful and well-paid work? In this three part series, "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project bring you real life stories about economic struggle in our time, as well as ideas for solutions. In this final part of our series, we’re talking about work — about the right to meaningful work, the search for jobs that pay enough to live, and what happens to people who look for work while also having a disability that’s invisible to most. Original Air Date: November 19, 2022 Guests: Andrea Dobynes Wagner — Angela Garbes — Rodrigo Toscano — Barbara Ehrenreich Interviews In This Hour: Do they need to know that I'm blind? — The work of care is vital. Why don't we pay like it is? — A sonnet for a lineworker — Barbara Ehrenreich on writing the American labor story 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.

How we live is indelibly intertwined with the care and empathy we give to each other. What if we put care into helping Americans find homes and build dwellings, into keeping their bodies and minds sound, and finding meaningful and well-paid work? In this three part series, "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project bring you real life stories about economic struggle in our time, as well as ideas for solutions. Post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health challenges can push people into poverty. Meanwhile, the experience of financial desperation can also create even more trauma, even more suffering. How do you break the cycle? How do we truly care for people mentally and financially? If you or someone you know are having mental health struggles, we wanted to make sure you are aware of some resources. The National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by calling 9-8-8. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reminds us that one in five people in the US has a mental health concern every year. You can find support and education at their web site, nami.org. Original Air Date: November 12, 2022 Guests: Alex Miller — Katie Prout — Daniel Bergner — Maia Szalavitz Interviews In This Hour: Trauma and poverty: The perfect storm experienced by U.S. veterans — Learning to cope when mental health care feels out of reach — More than one way to treat a mind — How harm reduction disrupts painful cycles of addiction 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.

How we live is indelibly intertwined with the care and empathy we give to each other. What if we put care into helping Americans find homes and build dwellings, into keeping their bodies and minds sound, and finding meaningful and well-paid work? In this three part series, "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project bring you real life stories about economic struggle in our time, as well as ideas for solutions. In the first of three episodes of "Going For Broke" all about the care economy, we're thinking about housing. Many of us would consider it a basic human right. But in America, it can be hard to come by. Original Air Date: November 05, 2022 Guests: Bobbi Dempsey — David Harvey — Annabelle Gurwitch — Justin Garrett Moore Interviews In This Hour: When the walk home from school keeps changing — Creating a compassionate geography — More supportive housing can start with sharing space. And upending assumptions. — The infrastructure of care 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.

As a culture we’ve long been fascinated by witchcraft, with witches through the ages practicing magic and making spells. Even through the spread of misinformation, and when they’ve been hunted and silenced. We take you from the 17th century to the online witch communities of today. Original Air Date: October 30, 2021 Guests: Honey Rose — Rivka Galchen — Chris Gosden — Quan Barry Interviews In This Hour: WitchTok, the super-connected coven — Are you now, or have you ever been, a witch? The witch hunt of Kepler's mother — From alchemy to internet witchcraft — the thousand-year history of magic — Spellcraft, field hockey and Emilio Estevez — the girl power of novelist Quan Barry's teen witches 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.

Is there a better way to talk about death? And to grieve? So many people have died during the pandemic — 4.8 million and counting — that we're living through a period of global mourning. And some people — and certain cultures — seem to be better prepared to handle it than others. Original Air Date: June 19, 2021 Guests: Heather Swan — Gillian O'Brien — Charles Monroe-Kane — Gabe Joyner — Rafael Campo Interviews In This Hour: The Barred Owl Who Came To Visit — How The Irish Talk About Death — How To Remember A Beloved Brother? A Memorial Tattoo — A Physician-Poet Bears Witness to the Pandemic's Lost Voices 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.

Ghosts from the past stalk Europe again today in the wake of Russian tanks and missiles. To find a path forward, we might need to look back. Original Air Date: March 05, 2022 Guests:  Catherine Grace Katz — Margaret MacMillan — Rebecca Solnit Interviews In This Hour:  The legacy of Yalta through the eyes of the women who were there — Why humanity wages war — Tending a war-time garden: What Orwell’s fascination with roses tells us about the human need for beauty in the darkest hours 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.

How can someone be a monster — a brutal dictator, a mass murderer, a serial killer — and up close seem like a decent, caring person? In this hour, we tackle a complicated question: what happens when our moral categories fail and we find ourselves feeling empathy for monsters? Is that wrong? And what does it say about us? Original Air Date: January 20, 2018 Guests:  Will Bardenwepper — Adam Rogerson — Paul Beatty — Åsne Seierstad — Chuck Klosterman — Joshua Landy — Michael Tisserand Interviews In This Hour:  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' Further Reading: "Making Peace With Monsters" podcast extra about the making of the film version of "My Friend Dahmer"  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.

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 Guests:  Blair Braverman — Quince Mountain — Donna Haraway — Sarah Miller 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 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.

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 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.