WPR: To the Best of our Knowledge - History

Craft, Reconsidered - Glenn Adamson

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Where's the line between craft, art and design? The head of research at London's Victoria and Albert Museum says, at heart, craft is about "showing your commitment to an idea."

Making Punk - Richard Hell

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0500

In this final segment, we take a left turn to punk. Richard Hell co-founded the band Television in the mid-70s. He also created a look and sound that would eventually be called “punk.”

Stephen Greenblatt on "The Swerve"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Stephen Greenblatt tells the remarkable story of how the discovery of an ancient poem helped launch the Scientific Revolution. Also, an excerpt from Lucretius' poem "On the Nature of Things."

Margalit Fox on "The Riddle of the Labyrinth"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

The clay tablets found at the Greek palace of Knossos had one of the strangest languages ever discovered. Margalit Fox tells the story of Linear B - and the obsessed, tragic lives of the two people who devoted their lives to cracking the code.

Thomas Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" was the rare book that changed how we think. On its 50th anniversary, historian of science Tom Broman talks about Kuhn's legacy and we hear excerpts from Kuhn's book.

Adam Phillips on Freud

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Did we get Freud all wrong? Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips says, "Yes." In this NEW and UNCUT interview, he tells Steve Paulson that we should read Freud as a great literary writer – on par with Kafka and Dostoevsky - not as a scientist of the mind. Phillips says we’ve barely begun to appreciate Freud’s radical insights.

Lincoln interviews

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

What made Lincoln a great president? Was he a closet racist? We hear short interviews with Lincoln historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, Orville Vernon Burton and John Stauffer.

Robert Caro on LBJ

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Biographer Robert Caro tells the remarkable story of how Lyndon Johnson became president after being humiliated as vice-president by John and Robert Kennedy.

Rebecca Traister - A Female President?

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

How close are we to electing a woman as president? Journalist Rebecca Traister says "next election close."

David Maraniss on Barack Obama

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Who's the real Barack Obama? Biographer David Maraniss traveled around the world searching for answers. He says Obama's life is surrounded in mythology.

Winifred Gallagher on "New"

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0600

Have you got a nose for the new? Do you make fast decisions, based on incomplete information? Do you lose your temper quickly? Are you bored a lot? Do you thrive in chaotic situations? You might be a born seeker… what Winifred Gallagher calls a neophiliac. Take the quiz. Are you a neophiliac?http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/the-well-quiz-how-adventurous-are-you/

Cabinets of Wonder - Heather McDougal

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0600

In the days of tall ships and explorers, people collected exotic wonders in cabinets of curiosities, wunderkameren. Writer and teacher Heather McDougal has long loved those early days of science. Her blog's called "Cabinet of Wonders."

Alison Winter on History of Memory

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Sun, 4 Nov 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Do you think your memory is like a video camera, storing every experience you've ever had? Historian Alison Winter says we tend to use technology metaphors to think about memory.

Guide to the Urban Age

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0500

In his book, City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age, P.D. Smith writes that city living has shaped humanity's past and laid the foundation for our future.

Deborah Harkness on Alchemy

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Historian Deborah Harkness has transmuted her expertise in early alchemy and Elizabethan magic into a pair of best-selling novels, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night. We talk with her about the connections between magic and science.To hear an EXTENDED interview with Deborah Harkness, LISTEN HERE.

Deborah Harkness on Magical Writing UNCUT

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0500

In this UNCUT interview, novelist Deborah Harkness talks about studying the history of magic, and then transforming history into fiction.

J-Pop! Music East and West

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

America has a thing for Japanese culture. And since the U.S. and its allies occupied Japan after WWII, some Japanese have had a thing for American culture, music in particular.Michael Bourdaghs talks with Jim Fleming about trading tunes across the Pacific. Hear more music here!

Codebreaker: Patrick Sammon on Alan Turing

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Codebreaker, a new film by Patrick Sammon, tells the story of the brilliant life and tragic death of Alan Turing. He died at age 41, having revolutionized our world by inventing the first computer programs -- and then computers themselves.

George Dyson on Turing's Cathedral

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

George Dyson grew up in the backyard of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where some of the most brilliant engineers and mathematicians in the world (including his parents) were building one of the first computers. His new book, "Turing's Cathedral", is the story of their quest to build a working computer.

Alan Garner on Alan Turing

webmaster@wpr.org (Wisconsin Public Radio) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Alan Turing wasn't just a brain. He was also an accomplished athlete -- a runner, who nearly made it to the Olympics. British writer Alan Garner knew Alan Turing as his friend and running partner.