WPR: To the Best of our Knowledge - History

Life with LBJ

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Robert Caro's been studying Lyndon Johnson for decades. The fourth volume of his "Years of Lyndon Johnson" is out, and when Caro stopped by the studio recently, Jim asked just what makes LBJ so interesting... Listen in on the NEW and UNCUT interview here!

David Weinberger on "Too Big to Know"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 2 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Information, information everywhere... where's knowledge? David Weinberger from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society says knowledge lies in the links between data and info.

Elizabeth Mahon on Women Scoundrels

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Where are the female scalawags? The lady rogue? Well, Anne Strainchamps set out to find out. She called up Elizabeth Mahon, author of the blog and the book of the same name: “Scandalous Women.”

James Hessler on "Sickles at Gettysburg"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

We might not have the perfect definition of the word “scoundrel” but we can certainly agree on one thing – Civil War General and US Congressman Daniel Sickles was the epitome of a scoundrel.

Ricardo Lagos on Chile

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 2 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Ricardo Lagos, economist and former President of Chile, wants the world to know that democracy thrived in his country for more than a hundred years before Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government. In this NEW and UNCUT interview with Jim Fleming, he says it's also thriving now that Pinochet is gone.

Ralph Nader on Selling Out

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 8 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Love him or hate him, presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has stuck to his principles.

Looking Back at Futurecasting

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 5 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

So just how good are we at predicting the future? Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson look back at some forecasts from the turn of the millenium.

Looking Back at the Future

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

For our future show on... well... the future, Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson sat down to take a look at past forecasts.Take a listen to the UNCUT discussion here:

Sacred Pain with Ariel Glucklich

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

In many cultures, people use pain as a means of coming closer to God.Ariel Glucklich talks with Jim Fleming about the history and psychology behind the practices.

Pain Wars

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Americans spend billions of dollars a year on over-the-counter pain relievers. In fact, all over the world, easing pain is big business. And Aspirin’s one of the top sellers. Why? Charles Mann, author of “The Aspirin Wars”, tells Steve Paulson what happened when a German company called Bayer came to America:

Michael Lewis on the Global Recession

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

If you think the American middle class has it bad, consider life in debt-ridden Italy or Greece. Best-selling financial writer Michael Lewis portrays the downfall of several European countries with his usual verve, in Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World.

Anna Rabinowitz on "Darkling"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Poet Anna Rabinowitz found a shoe box full of old letters and photos of family and friends killed in the Holocaust. She wrote the poem "Darkling" to feature their voices. We also hear excerpts from the opera "Darkling."

Steven Pinker on "The Better Angels of Our Nature"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 4 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

The common wisdom is that we’re getting more violent all the time. Witness the genocides and world wars of the last century. But cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says we have it all wrong. And in his 800 page book “The Better Angels of Ourselves” he makes the case for how violence has declined.

Karl Marlantes on "What it is Like to Go to War"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 4 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Back in 1969, Marlantes was dropped in the middle of a jungle in Vietnam - at the age of 23, put in charge of the lives of 40 other young men. He was not psychologically or spiritually prepared for that or for what came after the war.

Penny Von Eschen on the Jazz Ambassadors

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

The State Department used jazz musicians as a weapon in the cold war to win hearts and minds in the Third World. Louis Armstrong, Dizy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubek were among the so-called "jazz ambassadors."

David Graeber on the "Free Gift"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

"Gifts make slaves like whips make dogs" is an anthropologist's tale of inter-cultural difference in gift exchanges.David Graeber takes us on a tour of gift giving, and gift economies. He also takes a swing at the question of whether it's possible to give a truly selfless gift.

Tom Hayden on democracy

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Tom Hayden, one of the founders of Students for a Democratic Society and later a State Assemblyman and Senator in California, talks with Steve Paulson.

The Late Vaclav Havel on Art and Politics

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

The late Vaclav Havel on the role of writers and artists in a democracy.

What It Is Like To Go To War

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Karl Marlantes served in the Marines in Vietnam, so he knows first hand what it means to go to war. He talks with Jim Fleming about what we get right in training our soldiers, and what we get wrong when they come home. This is an uncut version of the interview.

Thomas Friedman on How the US Fell Behind

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Thomas Friedman says the US is falling behind on the global stage.