Politics and History

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America invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. Ten years on, questions linger. What was our mission?  Were we prepared? Did we succeed? What’s the state of post-war Iraq?  We answers these questions from the perspective of American “boots on the ground.”

president ghost

A ghost story for the election season from listener Eric Van Vleet.

Alan Turing at 16

The driving force behind modern computers, Alan Turing was born a hundred years ago.  He launched the digital age, founded the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence,   and helped the British win WWII by cracking the Nazi "Enigma" codes.  He was persecuted by...

The 1968 Olympic games changed everything for John Carlos. He and fellow runner Tommie Smith raised their fists in the Black Power salute on the podium in a moment that became known as the most defiant and controversial in Olympics history.

dollar bill

"Before there was money, there was debt" says David Graeber in his book “Debt: The First 5,000 Years."

friends

Everyone knows you can choose your friends, but not your family.  Well, maybe that used to be true, but today’s families are a lot more flexible about defining themselves.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we’ll hear NPR’s Scott Simon rhapsodize about his two adopted...

Clock of the Long Now

Alexander Rose tells Anne Strainchamps about the Clock of the Long Now — an all mechanical clock being constructed in the high desert of Western Texas designed to run for ten thousand years.

A man with anxiety

Patricia Pearson, author of of "A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine," discusses why she thinks Americans are so anxious.

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