Book: Eternity (Absolutely)

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has recently launched the "To the Best of Our Knowledge" (TTBOOK) Special Collection, making all 35 years of the popular radio programme available for free, forever.

The collection, which includes over 1,150 shows, features interviews with numerous notable figures such as Jane Goodall, Salman Rushdie, Alice Walker, Oliver Sacks, Jimmy Carter, David Foster Wallace, Toni Morrison, Stephen Sondheim, Margaret Atwood, E.O. Wilson, and Yo-Yo Ma.

The TTBOOK team, comprising Jim Fleming, Steve Paulson, and Anne Strainchamps, began this journey 35 years ago, and their spirit of deep connection and shared curiosity remains in the TTBOOK DNA. This sense of wonder, surprise, joyfulness, and curiosity, no matter the subject, is evident in every episode.

The collection was initially funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which has since been defunded and is winding down. However, the financial support for the AAPB Special Collection has been continued by the Mellon Foundation.

The TTBOOK team has been working diligently to archive the programme, and although information about who else financed or supported this endeavour is not available, they have formed a strong connection with the AAPB archivists who share a passion for history, preservation, and public media.

The team located physical reel-to-reel tapes from the first 11 years of the show in their UW-Madison office building, and the last 14 years were collected on two small hard drives. The collection is still being added to as the tapes continue to be digitized.

Shannon, a member of the TTBOOK team, feels that working on the archive has helped move beyond the sadness about the show's ending. She believes that the work at TTBOOK is not only theirs, but belongs to everyone and will continue into the future. The TTBOOK Collection launch has been a delight for Shannon, as she gets to know the AAPB archivists.

The TTBOOK team is incredibly grateful for the prioritization of the TTBOOK Collection launch by the AAPB archivists. The collection is now available on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, alongside other special collections such as Bill Moyers and Sesame Street.

As the team works on the final episode, to air Sept. 27, they reflect on the journey and look forward to the collection's future impact. The TTBOOK Collection is a testament to the power of public media and the importance of preserving our shared history for future generations.