To The Best Of Our Knowledge TTBOOK

Around the world, authoritarian leaders are on the rise – from Russia and Hungary to the U.S. They're working from a common playbook: They use violent rhetoric. They attack the media. They see their political rivals as existential enemies to the nation. We examine the return of the Strongman — and how to save democracy.

The conversation with Daniel Ziblatt in this episode was recorded at the La Follette Forum on American Power, Prosperity and Democracy, held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by the La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Original Air Date: August 13, 2022

Guests: 

Edgar Feuchtwanger — Iliaria Maria Sala — Daniel Ziblatt — Arno Michaelis — Pardeep Singh Kaleka

Interviews In This Hour: 

The Nazi Next Door — Facing History and Hate Through Museums — Killing democracy? There's a playbook for that. — Understanding The Man Who Hated You

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Sharing of personal pronouns has become standard practice on resumes, business cards, email signatures and more. And that’s just one sign of an increasingly widespread shift in how we think about gender. So what’s next? And what would it take to actually celebrate gender freedom? To have trans joy?

Original Air Date: January 15, 2022

Guests: 

Jules Gill-Peterson — Big Freedia — Torrey Peters — Akwaeke Emezi

Interviews In This Hour: 

Historian Jules Gill Peterson shares stories of trans experiences from the 1920s and 1930s — A Diva's Oasis? Bounce Music — 'Detransition, Baby' author Torrey Peters on life, love, gender and parenthood — Many Identities, One Spirit

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We all know we should walk more. The evidence just keeps accumulating – walking makes us healthier, happier, smarter, more relaxed, more resilient – not to mention longer-lived. But even with the best of intentions, sometimes we all need a little push to get out the door.

Original Air Date: July 30, 2022

Guests: 

Annabel Abbs — Jeremy DeSilva — John Francis

Interviews In This Hour: 

Walking the footsteps of trailblazing women — Human feet are terrible, evolutionarily speaking — Walk the earth

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Remember when reading still felt magical? When a book could sweep you off your feet into another world? It might be that the best way to find your way back the magic is through a kid’s book. We talk to authors about Wonderland, magic wands, unicorns and other children's stories that inspire.

Original Air Date: May 01, 2021

Guests: 

Katherine Rundell — Quan Barry — Enrique Salmon — Ebony Thomas — LL McKinney — Lulu Miller

Interviews In This Hour: 

Why A Pandemic Is The Perfect Time To Read Children's Literature — Quan Barry on 'White Fang' — Enrique Salmon on 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' — Is Hermione Black? The Answer Depends On How Old You Are — Alice The Doomslayer Rises In L.L. McKinney's Reimagining of 'Alice In Wonderland' — Lulu Miller on 'The Search for Delicious'

Further Reading:

Bookmarks Hub 

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Ever want to quit your job, leave the rat race behind, and head back to the land? Buy an old farmhouse or build a solar-powered home and live self-sufficiently on a few acres of your very own? Generations before you have shared that dream. The reality is more complicated. Even owning your own land is an ethical minefield. 

Original Air Date: December 18, 2021

Guests: 

Makenna Goodman — Simon Winchester — Hayden King

Interviews In This Hour: 

Can you live off the land and still live ethically? — What does 'owning' land actually mean? — How the Land Back movement is reclaiming land stolen from Indigenous people

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Colonization in Africa was much more than a land grab. It was a project to replace — and even erase — local cultures. To label them inferior. Music, arts, literature and of course language. In other words, it permeated everything. So how do you undo that? How do you unlearn what you’ve been forced to learn?

In this hour, produced in partnership with the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI) and Africa is a Country — we learn what it means to decolonize the mind.

Original Air Date: March 20, 2021

Guests: 

Adom Getachew — Simon Gikandi — Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Interviews In This Hour: 

Reckon with the Past To Decolonize the Future — Reclaiming the Hidden History of Blackness — Never Write In The Language of the Colonizer

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