6. To the Best of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK)

Sadly, we were unable to add another subject to our online catalogue of enthusiasms last week. But we have good reasons/excuses: we started two (!) new jobs and we went away for three days and two nights to attend a book launch. (It wasn’t our book, but one of its co-authors is our best friend.) Now that that’s out of the way, let the entry begin.

Over the past few years, we’ve downloaded dozens of different podcasts. Typically, we only listen to a few episodes before our interest begins to flag. One of our favourite podcasts at the moment is To the Best of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK), which is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International (PRI). We were already familiar with a few great PRI-distributed podcasts (e.g., This American Life, The Sound of Young America), but we were pleasantly surprised to learn that (besides cheese and beer) Wisconsin produces an earthy and effervescent podcast. (We're also happy that the program isn't called Cheesehead Radio!)

How we discovered TTBOOK:

We found the podcast while browsing in iTunes. We downloaded an intriguing-sounding episode (“Elementary Holmes”) and really liked the interview-driven style of the show. By the end of the episode, we’d learned quite a bit about Sherlock Holmes, and we’d added a book to our to-read list (The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes [2005]). The week after hearing “Elementary Holmes,” we listened to an episode about lists (“Lust For Life Lists”). We like lists. And we liked these two episodes. The diversity of these two topics hooked us into TTBOOK immediately.

Why TTBOOK is worth a listen:

TTBOOK has three likeable, knowledgeable interviewers (Steve Paulson and Anne Strainchamp, as well as host Jim Fleming), and these interviewers pose great questions to a wide range of engaging interviewees (e.g., Thomas Friedman, Jane Goodall, and DJ Spooky are all interviewed in a single episode; the topic was "Our Earth" and the episode aired in April 2009). And the shows are created quite quickly: There are two new hour-long, theme-based episodes each week. By the end of each episode, we know something we didn't know an hour ago.

We’ve learned about nerd culture, karaoke, and radical gardening. We’ve been inspired to bake Marlborough Pie, an apple pie that includes grated apples, eggs, and lemon juice and zest. (If you're interested, here is the recipe we used. The filling is very custard-like and lemony. It's unlike other apple pies we've tried.) We’ve also been interested enough to read books by some of the guests, including a lighthearted, entertaining book about tribute bands called Like a Rolling Stone (2008). The book's author, Steven Kurutz, appeared on an episode called "So You Wanna Be a Rockstar." His description of the Rolling Stones tribute band Sticky Fingers piqued our interest.

Recent topics on TTBOOK include autism, memory, libraries, remix culture, and David Foster Wallace. To tell you the truth, we were not looking forward to the episode on DFW. (We recently read lengthy articles in the New Yorker and Rolling Stone on him and were suffering from slight DFW overload.) But this was a really good episode. The discussions were generally illuminating, and Anne Strainchamp even managed to talk to his sister, Amy.

The TTBOOK website includes archives of the streamable episodes dating back to 2003.

For a change, we don't have any recommendations for other viewing/reading this week. Likely this is because we're ridiculously busy right now and suspect you may be as well.