To The Best Of Our Knowledge TTBOOK

Before the pandemic upended all world travel, we aired a show about what it means to be an ethical traveler. Between masks and vaccinations, COVID-19 has added even more to the ethical baggage we carry with us when we travel. But part of recovering from the pandemic involves getting back out there and seeing the world.

So before you take your next trip abroad, we thought we would revisit some thoughts and advice in that episode. Safe journeys.

This show was produced in partnership with AFAR Magazine, whose May/June 2019 issue on ethical traveling inspired this episode.

Original Air Date: May 25, 2019

Interviews In This Hour: 

Trying Not To Ruin The World When You Visit — A Personal Code of Travel Ethics — How to Lessen Your Environmental Impact When You Travel — Traveling Abroad Without Falling Into Guilt Trips — To Travel Well, Be Willing To Listen, Play, Leave The Notebook Behind

Guests: 

Elizabeth Becker, Dave Eggers, Kathryn Kellogg, Anu Taranath, Barry Lopez

Further Reading:

Afar Magazine: Making the World Better, One Traveler at a Time—Afar Magazine: 4 Ways to Explore Venice Responsibly—Afar Magazine: Are We Loving Venice to Death?—Afar Magazine: How to Photograph People When You Travel (Without Being Disrespectful)

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, kathryn kellog, anu taranath, barry lopez

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, producer Charles Monroe-Kane made 300 yard signs that read "You're not ok. That's ok." He put them on his porch. Soon they were gone.

Original Air Date: June 18, 2022

Interviews In This Hour:

The story of a pandemic yard sign — Author Susan Cain on how bittersweetness adds flavor to daily life — 'Artists anticipate things because they work in the realm of the imagination': Creating in a pandemic time loop — What would you put in your bomb shelter?

Guests:

Charles Monroe-Kane, Susan Cain, Alissa Wilkinson, Mary Laura Philpott

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Jim Thorpe was one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known — a legend in the NFL, MLB, NCAA, and in the Olympics. Today he is being celebrated by a new generation of Native Americans. 


Rapper Tall Paul’s album is called, “The Story of Jim Thorpe." Tall Paul is an Anishinaabe and Oneida Hip-Hop artist enrolled on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota. 
Biographer David Maraniss is the author of "Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe."
Activist Suzan Shown Harjo is the recipient of a 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom. She is Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee.
Patty Loew is the director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at Northwestern University. She is a member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.


Original Air Date: January 14, 2023

Interviews In This Hour: 

Was Jim Thorpe the greatest athlete who ever lived? — The white man's trophy — A hero who looks like me

Guests: 

Tall Paul, Suzan Shown Harjo, Patty Loew, David Maraniss

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The human brain is naturally mathematical. But there’s one particular kind of math people have surprisingly strong feelings about — geometry. It's the secret sauce of mathematics — different from everything else, and applicable to everything from gerrymandering to human evolution to romance novels.

Original Air Date: May 28, 2022

Interviews In This Hour: 

The 14th dimension, AI that writes romance novels, and other things explained by geometry — Did shapes make us human?

Guests: 

Jordan Ellenberg, Stanislas Dehaene

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Clocks and calendars chop time into increments – minutes, hours, days, years. It’s efficient, and it helps us get to meetings on time. But when we invented artificial time, we gave up natural time, and a deep sense of connection to the larger universe. What does time feel like when you stop counting it?

Original Air Date: January 04, 2020

Interviews In This Hour:

Alexander Rose on The Clock of the Long Now — Reclaiming Time — The Eternal Moment — Brian Swimme on Organic Time — Laura Williams on a Tidal-Powered Moon Clock — What It Looks Like To Live For 600K Years

Guests:

Alexander Rose, Douglas Rushkoff, Wade Davis, Brian Swimme, Laura Williams, Rachel Sussman

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If you look at a mountain, you might see a skiing destination, a climbing challenge, or even a source of timber to be logged or ore to be mined. But there was a time when mountains were sacred. In some places, they still are. What changes when you think of a mountain not as a giant accumulation of natural resources, but as a living being?

Human identity cannot be separated from our nonhuman kin. From forest ecology to the human microbiome, emerging research suggests that being human is a complicated journey made possible only by the good graces of our many companions. In partnership with the Center for Humans and Nature and with support from the Kalliopeia Foundation, To The Best Of Our Knowledge is exploring this theme of "kinship" in a special radio series.

To learn more about the Kinship series, head to ttbook.org/kinship.

Original Air Date: July 24, 2021

Interviews In This Hour: 

What Do You Owe The Mountains Around You? — 'These Are Live, Active Places': A Ute Activist Fights To Save The Bears Ears National Monument — A Poet Finds Life Lessons on Hunger Mountain — 'I Was Born To Volcanoes'

Guests: 

John Hausdoerffer, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, David Hinton, Lisa Maria Madera

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