After listening to this podcast for a long time, I finally had to unsubscribe as the content quality is going down and speakers are biased and focused on just one side of the story.

This is truly one of the highest quality, consistently good programs and podcasts available. Love it each week. This is my go to radio show and podcast and I’ve been listening to it since they started. I’ll plan my week around, listening to this podcast. Best out there.

To be honest, a number of To the Best of Our Knowledge podcasts aren’t in my interest range, but the ones that are have been among the best I’ve heard anywhere, like the most recent one, on death and dying (I’ve already listened twice). Ann and Steve have an ear for depth. They’re steadily curious, respectful of their guests and listeners, well-paced, and wonderful. I often wish those key episodes were twice as long. I’m so grateful to them for the preparations they must go through. There just isn’t anything better. So thank you both, and your support team!

I’m a long time listener. Like, since before podcasts. I hate leaving this review. In fact, I held off for about two years thinking the pendulum would swing back towards a TTBOOK package with lighter production levels, but it hasn’t. It seems to be getting worse, if anything. The Radiolab influence, when it crept into TTBOOK, was tolerable. “Everyone’s doing it”. But today, 2024, TTBOOK’s use of music and sound effects are layered in so heavily it’s like eating a cake comprised of mostly icing; one bite’s more than enough. TTBOOK’s content is terrific. Let it stand on its own again and leave today’s heavy production levels to Radiolab.

This podcast doesn’t overlook the small, incredibly important stories that we might have otherwise missed. Delicate movements are what the major events are made of. This team brings the beauty (joy, sadness, thoughtfulness) to the air waves in stories that will stay with us.

For years, TTBOOK has been one of the most insightful, forward thinking, inspiring podcasts that exists. It’s a high level, deep dive course about a fascinating idea told from the voices not typically found in the mainstream. It amplifies marginalized voices that expand thinking and vision for a changing world. Extraordinarily well researched and produced.

Amazing topics viewed from unusual angles. Beautifully spoken- calm, insightful - I rarely miss an episode. Been a fan since I first heard them on NPR!

I tried to like this podcast. I really did. However, the first story right out of the gate was about race and how bad society is. I’m getting tired of this Woke stuff. NPR has infected everything.

TTBOOK has proven to be the most interesting and well thought out podcast of all of the podcasts I listen to. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn.

Eula Biss confessing to the original sin of white guilt. Lifelong liberal here who used to enjoy this podcast. I found this nauseating. The phrase “white privilege” is absolutely absurd and outdated. But wow, it makes the npr dems comfortable to go to confession. They are then absolved from questioning the real problems the US faces, yes, even from their angelic democrats who protect the corporations and fail to protect the working people, while funneling billions into the military industrial complex. What we should be questioning is the ridiculous cost of housing due to corporate greed.

Thank you! I enjoy this podcast so much always give some food for thought! In this particular one I wandered to my childhood in a small city by the Andes where I grow up, I was about 9 yeas old, by the bed where grandma rested I knew that it was the last moments together. Mom and anti are having dinner and spiking softly. Then grandma took a dip berth I know it was the last one and yes it was an amazing energy in the room and the house no words just looking at my mother deep look into my eyes. This memory never left me. Grateful for your choices on the show! MA From California

I’m so impressed with how fascinating and enchanting these ideas are., expanding our thinking. I was pleased to hear Plants as People 4/22/22 and have often thought that , in time, plants will get the respect and honor as living beings that they deserve as our awareness grows. Thank you

Great show but need new episodes. Keep repeating old ones.

I’ve been a loyal listener to TTBOOK for decades, way before it came to podcasting, but it’s very hard to listen for the past several years. So much of the content always funnels back to the topics of racism, pandemic, or climate change. I know that those topics have dominated our culture’s conversations lately, but can you just give it a rest? Not everything has to relate back to the pandemic or racism. I loved TTBOOK back in the day because it was a deep escape from the news and information that we drown in every day. Please consider bringing back some of that vibe.

I don’t watch much television but I do listened to podcasts . This is the best I have found in quite some time. I appreciate the breadth of subjects addressed and deeper and sometimes surprising “dive” given the topics. in a podcast world of loud voices, sensationalism, and jangling music I especially appreciate the pace and gentle way this podcast is created. I find these pieces to be a catalyst for my curiosity and my book list of “want to read” is growing from this podcast and the companion books and authors effort. Rather than focus on office sensationalism and stressors in the world this podcast points to our gifts. Thank you thank you, I am a big fan and recommend it to all of my friends and family.

I used to be so excited for every episode of this show to drop. Then it went woe and anti-science and lost its way. As a lifelong feminist, I find this show hostile to women’s rights. As a mom of a trans-identified child, I ‘m horrified that they are encouraging sex-change and medicalization of children. I’m deeply saddened that this show I once loved has become yet another warrior in the erasure of women’s rights and advocate for the removal of healthy organs. Women are not a subset of our own sex-class. Saying being a woman is merely a feeling is deeply misogynist and hateful. Calling us cis is a slur. Humans cannot change sex. To say they can is unkind. Such a shame.

Avant-garde thought. Nourishing to my hungry soul. Fills me with gratitude. Encourages me to keep on living.

As a life long NPR listener I have loved hearing TTBOOK every week. I had to be around a radio every Sunday morning so as not to miss it. Now I have it in my podcast que, but I still listen to it on Sundays. It is always entertaining and informative. Really, for me, is the best weekly listen. This week the theme was Loneliness I was not particularly interested but I remembered that TTBOOK is always surprisingly good. Thanks Ann, Steve, Charles and Jim, et al. Thank You

Anne, the host of the podcast, highlights all aspects of passion, big ideas and more in this can’t miss podcast! The host and expert guests offer insightful advice and information that is helpful to anyone that listens!

TTBOOK has made some of the most memorable audio stories I've heard. Their series on death some years ago was absolutely incredible. But lately they've been getting more and more new age-y, mystical, "spiritual," and such. The "Generation Witch" episode was dreadful. So little social history, so little sociology, so much "we should take magic more seriously." Steve Paulson has been pushing that agenda for a while, but it seems to be dominating more and more lately. Meh.

I love love love this show. It is my favorite amongst the dozen or so podcasts I devote myself to weekly. Touching, imaginative, prescient. The topics vary but always reflect something relevant to consider in these confusing, challenging times we are living through. Thanks, Ann!

and heart opening. You guys have been a guide for me, and i wish that all humanity listened and opened their eyes and hearts through your words.

I love the interesting show themes and stories! I listen every week, so wish there weren’t so many replays, but appreciate every new show when it comes out!

TTBOOK features fascinating topics, and brilliant execution. Anne, Steve, and the entire crew of podcasters are first rate. Simply the finest podcast that NPR has to offer. Pulitzer please!

This was a wonderful show for dealing with our grief. Do more! Love this podcast and Ann’s voice. Keep doing what you all do! Sara

A bonafide podcast junkie, I can say without hesitation that TTBOOK is hands down my favorite podcast out of the 60+ podcasts that I subscribe to. Each week I eagerly look forward to an hour of tuning into fascinating interviews that explore myriad topics ranging from the practical to the mystical. My only complaint is that it’s only produced once a week. Thanks to Ann and the team who clearly put a lot of thought into this stellar program.

especially now, when all things are pandemic/political, this production provides fascinating explorations in so many directions.. at the same time relating it all to where we are now. i’m so glad WPR survived scott walker!

🌬✨🧑🏾‍🦯

I love this podcast but the one thing I wish it had was a show on love and flirting.

I hunched over a buffet and worked on a jigsaw puzzle about loons listening to five or six hours of this podcast. Bees, space, life and death, memory, music... Lots of dreams, various entrevistadores, it feels a little bit like therapy... the wolves podcast with the wolf guy in Yellowstone was really good... oh, and the episode remembering DFW, well...

Every week 2 hours of fascinating long form journalism. Wish it was 2 hours of new material everyday.

Enlightening conversations that fits the mood of a Sunday evening. But you can listen it any time :)

Such well researched conversations. Want some goosebumps of the right kind? Tune in! Just listened to Freeman Dyson.

Always enlightening and well researched with the sources and perspectives that enlighten inspire and make me think. Great work

I listen to a lot of podcasts. The people putting this together are so much more experienced than your average podcast creators. The depth and care they give to each of their topics makes this a top priority in my listening. Thank you for your fine work!

This podcast is great. Such a variety of topics with wonderful in depth discussions about life! My favorite podcast ever!

We’ve Loved TTBOOK since Jim Fleming. Your podcast about trees made us weep!

Although I don’t live in Wisconsin, I contribute to WPR each year to show support for To the Best of Our Knowledge. The interviews are informative and engaging. This is my go to podcast for literate entertainment.

Very very intriguing conversations & ideas. Every episode so far has had me tuned in.

this program used to be one of my favourites but appears to be suffering from severe insularity.

I highly recommend this show for anyone, whoever your are. They'll take an issue you think you know about, or perhaps one that you're tired of hearing about and give the listener an expanded view you hadn't been exposed to. And not just 1 one atlernative view, but often conflicting alternative perspectives. I often come away feeling my understanding has been enhanced. I feel saner & calmer. I find myself wondering what if more news outlets adopted their commitment to exploring the fine points, nuances, shades, uncovered angles more broadly in this country. Thank you TTBOOK for showing us the world has more texture, & complexity and caring than typically covered in the normal sound bites.

Absolutely outstanding. Informative, thought provoking, and entertaining. What more could you ask for?

When TTBOOK is at its best it's right at the edge of reasonable analysis... which seems to annoy some other reviewers here, but that's what pushes me to consider perspectives I wouldn't ordinarily. That said, it would probably benefit from a bit more skepticism and a bit less Radiolab-style gee-whiz science fandom (and Radiolab-style sound effects, ugh). Not *a lot* more. Just a bit.

Always terrific and unique.

I've been listening to this broadcast for years, so I don't listen to it much as a podcast. On my local station, KQED, a two-hour version is broadcast on Sunday morning, each hour with its own theme. The format is very straight forward: a series of interviews of book authors in which a single theme of their work is emphasized. No bells and whistles, just intelligent talk with folks who have thought long and hard about a diverse array of themes. There's a spiritual quality to the conversations, but nothing of religion (as some reviewers claim). This spiritual quality is humanism, that is to say, there's an underlying motivation to build human connection, between the interviewer and interviewed and between them and the listener. The effect is an enlightening intimacy, perfect for radio and podcast alike.

Sorry that I have to say I've been sad to watch what used to be my absolute favorite radio program hit what feels to me like a period of degeneration over the last couple of years (budget problems ?). This is most exemplified by the constant recycling of triple refried segments in topical shows that are essentially stews of leftover/previous segments. This is particularly annoying given that it's never made clear which were recently recorded and which are refried segments. Sometimes I don't recall until part way in to a segment that I've already heard it. This tendency recently hit an all time low in a couple of shows purporting to examine the effects of technology by running some many year old segments in areas that change by the day. And all this combined with an apparent decision to try to go with a more topical less philosophical approach than previously, has reduced the show for me to just another of the endless NPR intelligent talking heads gabfests. Just another evolution I need to adapt to I guess, sigh..

Smart, stimulating, relevant. Thank you!

Wish I could work there. ;)

I love ttbooks. It's on top of my favorite podcasts.

I have followed TTBOOK for many years. They have some of the best author interviews I have ever heard. Recent episodes I especially liked: Repeat When Necessary; Center of the World, Ohio; and Could Psychedelic Drugs Save Your Life? From 2015: Remembering DFW. From 2013 Philip K. Dick. From 2012: Alan Turing. From 2011: Anxiety. From 2010: Reality (a true classic).