If you wrote a list of all the things you own in your house, how long would it be? We surround ourselves with possessions, but at what point do they start to possess us?

Original Air Date: September 05, 2020

Guests:

Angelo Bautista — Eula Biss — Adam Minter — Giles Slade — Clare Dolan

Interviews In This Hour:

The Magnum Opus Of Pointless Stuff — 'A $400K Container For A Washing Machine': An Author Grapples With The Inherent Ickiness Of Homeownership — The Global Garage Sale — Why Stuff Doesn't Last Anymore — A Museum Of The Mundane

Why Do We Have So Much Stuff?

”To the Best of Our Knowledge” is a Peabody award-winning national public radio show that explores big ideas and beautiful questions. Deep interviews with philosophers, writers, artists, scientists, historians, and others help listeners find new sources of meaning, purpose, and wonder in daily life. Whether it’s about bees, poetry, skin, or psychedelics, every episode is an intimate, sound-rich journey into open-minded, open-hearted conversations. Warm and engaging, TTBOOK helps listeners feel less alone and more connected – to our common humanity and to the world we share.

For more from the TTBOOK team, visit us at ttbook.org.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Before family photos, or school pictures or Instagram, there were hand-drawn and painted portraits. Throughout the ages, portrait artists have captured expressions and personalities on canvas or paper, and those who view the picture interpret this “likeness” in their own way. We talk with a philosopher, a musician and a novelist about the role of portraits through history, and how we see ourselves —and others — through these deeply personal images.

Original Air Date: September 23, 2023

Guests: 

Peter Brathwaite, Maggie O'Farrell, Steven Nadler, Thijs Gerbrandy, Norbert Middelkoop

Reframing the Portrait

We get the message before we’re out of training pants – when the going gets tough, look on the bright side, make lemonade out of lemons and just do it. We’re gonna consider the exact opposite – the wisdom of giving up and letting go. Because sometimes, the strongest and most courageous thing you can do is walk away.

Original Air Date: April 27, 2024

Interviews In This Hour:

The power and boundary-breaking of fasting — How do we know when to call it quits? — Escaping the tyranny of certainty

Guests:

John Oakes, Adam Phillips, Maggie Jackson

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Giving Up

Are you ready to think in centuries instead of seconds? Eons instead of hours? It’s time to make thousand-year plans and appreciate how Earth keeps time. 

Original Air Date: August 19, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

Shifting your mind to 'geologic' time — Discovering the wonders of ancient cave art — Making art inspired by the ancestors

Guests:

Marcia Bjornerud, Stephen Alvarez, Dustin Illetewahke Mater

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Deep Time: How Earth Keeps Time

Can neuroscience explain what happens to the brain on psychedelics? And even if we map the brain while it’s tripping, does that tell us why these experiences can be so transformative? 

We’ll talk with some of the pioneers in psychedelic research — from Amanda Feilding’s boundary-busting work to Robin Carhart-Harris’ theory of the "entropic brain." Also, renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch goes down the rabbit hole on 5-MeO-DMT, also known as toad venom.  

Original Air Date: July 15, 2023

Interviews In This Hour:

Exploring consciousness on toad venom — The godmother of the European psychedelic revival — How therapeutic psilocybin could help heal long-buried trauma — Magic mushrooms and the 'entropic brain'

Guests:

Christof Koch, Amanda Feilding, David Nutt, Robin Carhart-Harris

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Luminous: Your Brain on Shrooms

From our narrow vantage point on Earth, how can we see what's out there, beyond our skies? We look to how scientists and scholars have studied eclipses, dark matter, deep-space transmissions from intelligent life and more, all in the hopes of painting a clearer picture of a vast and invisible universe.

Original Air Date: August 19, 2017

Interviews In This Hour:

How Eclipse Chasing Inspires Generations of Scientists — How Do We Investigate The Invisible Parts of the Universe? — Search For Life In All The Wrong Places — What Can You Hear In Space? — The Universe Is Under No Obligation To Make Sense To Us

Guests:

David Baron, Priya Natarajan, Seth Shostak, Don Gurnett, Neil deGrasse Tyson

Further Reading:

NASA: 2024 Eclipse Explorer

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Why Do We Have So Much Stuff?

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