To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Bees are endangered, but all over the world, people are stepping up to save them — in backyards, science labs, and the abandoned lots of urban Detroit. Guests: Heather Swan Nicole Lindsey Timothy Paule Thor Hanson Christof Koch Tania Munz Stephanie Elkins Peter Sobol Anne Strainchamps Interviews in this hour: Falling In Love With Bees 'Medicine' Why We Ought to Live a 'Pro-Bee Lifestyle'  Rebuilding Detroit, Hive by Hive 'Honeybee' How Do We Wrap Our Minds Around Bee Consciousness? Waggle Dancing with Karl von Frisch 'To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee'

Jeff Kripal is a highly original, even maverick, historian of religion. In this conversation — part of a collaboration with the LA Review of Books — Kripal takes Steve to where all the weird stuff we can’t explain lives ... or hides. Guests: Jeff Kripal

When suicide bombers blow up crowded marketplaces, or a lone shooter attacks a nightclub, one question we’re always left with is why. This hour, a look at the underlying psychology of political violence. Guests: Mubin Shaikh Clark McCauley Åsne Seierstad Tanya Luhrmann Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche Interviews in this hour: The Reformed Radical The Psychology of Terrorism What Can Americans Learn from a Norwegian Massacre? Let’s Change the Way We Think About Thinking The Buddhist Master Who Went on a Four Year Wandering Retreat

Do chimpanzees have spiritual experiences? A remarkable discovery in West Africa suggests they might. Guests: Jane Goodall Laura Kehoe Frans de Waal Barbara King Ara Norenzayan Jeff Schloss Andrew Newberg Interviews in this hour: Do Chimpanzees Have Spiritual Experiences? How “Big Gods” Transformed Human History An Evolutionary Biologist Searches for God What Bliss Looks Like In Your Brain

We take road trips and endless highways for granted, but there are other countries where people can pay a heavy price just for getting behind a wheel. Guests: Finn Murphy Manal al-Sharif Rebecca Solnit Lawrence Ross David Roberts Simon Parkin Interviews in this hour: Put It In Boogie Gear On the Backslide Driving While Female What If We Forget How to Get Lost? A Guidebook to the 'Blackest Road Trip Ever' The Most Boring Video Game Ever Made

What if the guiding principle we used in cooking, eating and growing food was love? From an Iranian-American kitchen to the chocolate forests of Ecuador, we explore new ways to express deep flavors and personal identity through food and cooking. Guests: Simran Sethi Samin Nosrat Michael Twitty Josh Noel Interviews in this hour: The Frightening Sameness Beneath Hundreds of Flavors Kosher/Soul — Cooking the African-Jewish Diaspora Anyone Can Cook—With the Right Elements  Does "Selling Out" Make a Difference You Can Taste?

It creeps into everything: guilt that we're not good enough, fit enough, smart enough. As we peruse Instagram, all we see is the perfection of others reflecting our own failures back at us. Why do we spend so much time feeling guilty? Should we? Guests: Devorah Baum Lucas Mann Thomas Curran Stephen Greenblatt Susan Bandes

When did we retreat to our Red and Blue Facebook pages? It’s not just that America is politically polarized. We live, work and play in Red and Blue tribal bubbles, filling our social media feeds with news sources that affirm our place in that order, rather than challenging it. That isolation is breeding an ugly, seething hatred of the other side that feels poisonous and dispiriting. So what can we do? In this hour, we hear how conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes lost his faith in the GOP and why a former CEO of NPR left his liberal bubble. Also, how Black Twitter has created its own safe space. Guests: Charlie Sykes Ken Stern Meredith Clark Nancy MacLean Jeanne Safer Richard Brookhiser Segments: How The Right Lost Its Mind And Charlie Sykes Lost His Faith In The GOP A Former NPR Executive Leaves His Liberal Bubble Behind The Blend Of Jokes and Social Justice That Is Black Twitter What Does An Obscure Economist Have To Do With The Koch Brothers? You Don't Have To Vote Like Me To Love Me

Where do you go to find models of powerful women? The ancient world was full of them, real and mythic, but today we barely know their names. Why? This week we rediscover the women of ancient myths and legends. Guests Kara Cooney Madeline Miller Natalie Haynes Emily Wilson Serenity Young Romare Bearden Interviews The Hidden Queens of Egypt The Mother of All Witches Romare Bearden’s “Circe,” Black and Powerful What A Feminist Writer Learned From An Ancient, Racist, Sexist Satirist A Female Perspective on The Oldest Tale in Human History When Women Could Fly

Amidst economic devastation, producer Charles Monroe-Kane asks what it takes to survive in the Rust Belt. Guests: Min Jin Lee,Jacqueline Woodson Interviews: Center of the World, Ohio,What It Means To Be A Permanent Outsider,Four Girls Growing Up In 'Another Brooklyn'