The Best of Our Knowledge

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.The commencement address has become a way for colleges and universities to make headlines – and maybe a viral moment – but, in the information age, some speakers carry a risk.And a recent study on remoras – the suckerfish that attached to large sea animals – has scientists rethinking the fish’s relationship with manta rays.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.A new scientific breakthrough is changing the way research think about our sense of smell.And we’ll learn about a particular species of ant that spends its days cleaning ants of a separate species.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll the explore the phenomenon of musical daydreams.Our guest is Elizabeth Margulis, Director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University. She writes about the ability of music to bring the listener to another time and place in her book, ‘TRANSPORTED: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams.’

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll learn how an unusual fossil offered scientists a new glimpse into the evolutionary history of some of Earth’s earliest animals.And we’ll learn how pirate gold helped dispel a centuries-old rumor among seafaring European traders.

On the latest 51%, we speak with sociologist Gretchen Sisson about her book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Sisson studies the relationship between abortion and adoption in the U.S., and is part of a team of researchers for "The Turnaway Study" at the University of California, San Francisco. In Relinquished, Sisson compiles a decade's worth of interviews with women who gave their newborns up for adoption through a private adoption agency. In unpacking how some agencies pressure (and rely on) struggling moms to relinquish their children, Sisson pushes back on the idea that adoption is an ethical alternative to abortion, and questions whether it's really a choice at all.Encore Episode.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.According to a recent analysis, hundreds of private colleges and universities across the United States are at risk of closing in the next 10 years.On this episode, we speak with Jon Marcus, a journalist with the Hechinger Report, who recently reported on the impending closure of Sterling College, a tiny school in rural Vermont.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research.On this episode, we’ll learn about scientists testing a new theory of how to look for life on other planets.And a newly-discovered species of spider in the Amazon mimics an infamous zombie fungus.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education, and research. On this episode, we’ll learn what’s keeping more student nurses from graduating in New York.A newly identified species of tarantula is setting a record among large, furry spiders.And humans are not the only ones with an affinity for beautiful crystals.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, science, and research.A species of beetle found living in ant colonies has developed a cloaking system to go undetected – but it could represent an evolutionary dead end.And scientists believe the fossilized skeleton of a two-pound dinosaur found in Argentina may offer new clues into dinosaur evolution.

Few people may have seen St. Elmo’s Fire, the mythical glow that appears on structures and ships at sea during thunderstorms.But a team of researchers has discovered the fabled phenomenon is quite common. You just need the right equipment to see it.And we’ll discuss two recent landmark court decisions against social media companies that are part of the national discussion over the negative impacts of tech on young people.