PRI: To the Best of Our Knowledge Podcast

If you think of your life as a series of births, what changes? The first birth is when you arrive here, as a wet, wiggling newborn. But there may be other transitions in your life that feel just as difficult and profound. Some people actually call those passages re-birth. But why does the birth metaphor matter?

This hour, we examine midwives, trans men, and born again Christians. Birth. Rebirth. And Born Again.

Interviews in this hour:

The Power of Choice When You're Giving Birth

Where Are the Midwives?

Midwives in the Golden Age of Television

Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity

"Happy In My Own Skin": The Transition from Bess To Benn

What Does it Really Mean to Be a Born Again Christian?

On the tenth anniversary of his suicide, David Foster Wallace faces renewed criticism over his treatment of women, in his life and work. Fans and critics are re-reading his work, struggling to reconcile genius with misogyny.

Guests:

Clare Hayes-Brady

Colleen Leahy

Makini Allwood

David Foster Wallace

Amy Wallace-Havens

Interviews in this hour:

The Genius and The Misogynist

David Foster Wallace On "Infinite Jest"

A Podcast For Readers Struggling with The 'Virtuosic Masterpiece' of the 'Great American Hype Machine'

Our Final Conversation with David Foster Wallace

"I Can Still Hear His Voice": Amy Wallace-Havens Remembers Her Brother

Life and Work In The Mind of a Literary Giant

It's not easy in America today to find work that matters, that’s meaningful, and that pays enough to live on. Which is the one thing we don’t talk about. What’s wrong with work — and how do we fix it?

Guests:

Alissa Quart

David Graeber

James Livingston

Niki Okuk

Studs Terkel

Interviews in this hour:

Even With Jobs, The Middle Class Is Feeling the Squeeze

We Joke About Some Jobs Being BS. But Is There An Epidemic Of Pointless Work?

F*** Work

Fixing the Workplace By Handing It To The Workers

Studs Terkel on the Meaning of Work

Guests:

Ayelet Waldman

Stephen Ross

Katherine MacLean

Daniel Kasza

William Richards

Interviews in this hour:

Ayelet Waldman Talks about Depression, LSD, and Her Marriage With Michael Chabon

How Psychedelic Drugs Will Revolutionize Psychiatry

Lessons from a Psychedelic Guide

On A Mountain Top, With Ayahuasca And Frog Poison

Psychedelics and God

Psychedelics: The Next Revolution in Psychiatry?

From our narrow vantage point on Earth, how can we see what's out there, beyond our skies?

Guests:

Francis Halzen

Priya Natarajan

Seth Shostak

Don Gurnett

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Interviews in this hour:

How To Catch A Neutrino

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

Why is the world so damn cynical? Rather than surrendering to corrosive, hopeless snark, we look to some unexpected sources to make the case for sincerity.

Guests:

Jason Rohrer

Christy Wampole

Christian Picciolini

Ingrid LaFleur

Interviews in this hour:

"You Are Our Miracle": A Game To Make You Love Your Fellow Player

The Toll of Living Awash in Irony

Can You Change The Mind Of A White Supremacist?

Envisioning a Better Today Through The Tomorrows of Afrofuturism

It was a dirty word 25 years ago. But now, more and more people are identifying as Socialists…in America and on the ballot.

Guests:

Kshama Sawant

Sean Wilentz

Cheryl Blue

Andrew Haug

Erik Olin Wright

Brother Ali

Interviews in this hour:

How Socialism Won in Seattle

In Defense of Liberals

Milwaukee's Socialist Experiment

Rethinking Socialism for Today

Brother Ali on Islam, the Left, and Hip Hop

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'

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?

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

Why do we have schools? To build a workforce? To create democratic citizens?

Guests:

Caryn McKechnie ,Tim Storm ,Jose Gonzalez ,Curtis Acosta ,Mark Slouka ,Daniel Mendelsohn

Interviews:

Why America's Teachers Are Burning Out ,Is Teaching Mexican-American Studies Un-American? ,What Happens When Math And Science Rule The School? ,The Crankiest Student In Your Class? That's Your Dad.

If life is a play, what happens during the last act? What’s it like to live knowing you have a limited amount of time left?

Guests:

Sabrina Frey

Daniel Pink

Maureen "Ma Dukes" Yancey

Martin Amis

Segments:

Prepared To Go, But Still Busy Living

When Time Is The Best Motivator

Preserving J. Dilla's Legacy With A Beat

When Should An Author Call It Quits?

All over the world, nation states are splintering. Separatism is on the rise. What causes nation states to erode? And what happens when they do? Should we fight to hold on to our nation states...or let them go in favor of something new?

Guests:

John Feffer

Haleema Shah

Shannon Henry Kleiber

Mohsin Hamid

Segments:

What Would a Free Catalonia Mean For Spain - and the World?

If Nation States Rupture, What's Next?

Shaping National Identity in Pakistan

Love In A Time of Mass Migration

Milwaukee is a city on water, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, split by the historic Milwaukee River. How did it shape the city's history, politics, culture, and people? We find out in this live broadcast from Turner Hall in Milwaukee.

Guests:

John Gurda

Dan Egan

Jenny Kehl

Chastity Washington

Ben Barbera

Russ Klisch

David Dupee

Tarik Moody

Siobhan Marks

Venice Williams

Kim Blaeser

Melanie Ariens

Interviews:

The Life, Death and Rebirth of the Milwaukee River

Who Owns the Great Lakes?

Fire, Hops and Beer Wagons: The Beer History of Milwaukee

If Macro Lagers Are Milwaukee's Beer Past, What Does The Beer Future Look Like?

How To Build Flow For A Water Show

Tracing the Enormity of the Great Lakes. By Foot.

The Garden as Parish, With Water as Prayer

Benediction: "A Song for Giving Back"

Building Bridges With Water-Themed Art

Trees talk to each other, and even form alliances with other trees or other species. Some are incredibly old — the root mass of aspens might live 100,000 years. In this hour, we explore the science and history of trees.

Guests:

Mark Hirsch

Richard Powers

Suzanne Simard

Amos Clifford

Daegan Miller

Interviews:

A Year In The Life Of A Tree

Listening to the Mother Trees

Writing the Inner Life of Trees

Bathing in the Beauty of the Trees

General Sherman, Karl Marx, and Other Aliases of Earth's Largest Tree

More than 38 million Americans knit or crochet. Not because they crave mittens and afghans, but because they like the way knitting feels. Handwork turns out be a powerful antidote for digital overload.

Guests:

Betsan Corkhill , Colin McGinn , Lynda Barry , Richard Polt , Tyler Knott Gregson

Interviews:

Can Knitting Improve Your Health? , How Hands Have Shaped Humanity , Lynda Barry's Radio Drawing Lessons , The Magical Mechanical Typewriter , The Typewriter Poet

Hip hop created a sound that changed music, art, fashion, and politics. What's next? Diplomacy? Journalism? Education? Philosophy?

Guests:

Chris Emdin , Xuman ,Toni Blackman , Jeff Chang , Colson Whitehead

Segments:

For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood , Hip Hop as Diplomacy. Hip Hop as Journalism , Cultural Critic Jeff Chang On Art As A Political Possibility Space , Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad"

Can we ever get inside the mind of an animal? Can we really know how an octopus or a parrot thinks? Also, the fascinating story of Charles Foster's attempt to act like a badger, when he lived in a hole in the ground and ate worms.

Guests:

Helen MacDonald ,Charles Foster ,Peter Godfrey-Smith ,Elena Passarello,

Interviews:

Living Like a Beast ,B is for Birdle (the Parrot) ,The Tentacled Alien From Under The Sea ,Why Do We Love to Watch Animals?

As terrible as it sounds, most of us will go through something traumatic at some point in our lives. The experience can be deeply isolating and crushing, but it doesn't have to be.

Guests:

David Morris ,Mac McClelland ,Jim Rendon ,Bessel van der Kolk ,Juan Thompson

Interviews:

A Brief History of PTSD ,Secondary Violence and PTSD ,The Positive Side Of Pain ,Feeling Through Trauma ,Life With Hunter S. Thompson

Modern anti-depressants have saved a lot of minds. And lives. But what have

they done to our bodies? And how do we navigate that trade-off between

body and mind?

Guests:

Lauren Slater , Charles Raison , Anna Fels , Jaime Lowe

Interviews:

Your Body or Your Mind , A Pill That Saves Your Life But Destroys Your Body , Treating the Body To Treat The Mind , A Little Lithium for All Of Us? , The High Price of Breaking the Manic Cycle , The International Bipolar Foundation Recommends Stacks of Mental Health Reading

A chorus of hope is coming from an unexpected group — teenagers. They

have superpowers — innocence, idealism, and Instagram — and they aren't

waiting for permission to use them to shape the world.

Guests:

Angie Jiang , Kevin Coval , Luis Carranza , Kee Stein , Frances Jensen , Angie Thomas , Tyler Ruzich

Interviews:

Angie Goes To Washington , Bullying, Buses, Environmentalism, and Donald Trump: The Poetic Thinking of Teens , I'm 17 And I'm Running for Governor , Learning Machines: The Wired Teenage Brain , Author Angie Thomas: Burn It All Down Or Use Those Emotions In My Art , What Teens Need From Adults To Change The World