mystery

Most high stakes crimes require skill, bravado and planning…but few stir the public imagination or require the meticulous efforts of fine art frauds. Word of Mouth goes behind the scenes of the museum world, starting with a story about the extreme lengths art forgers will travel to dupe their marks. Then we take a look at the many dangers art can face….inside the museum. And, museums use digital and forensic technology to solve complicated art mysteries. Sometimes, it’s just old fashioned detective work…we’ll talk to a costume historian and dress detective about her work here in New Hampshire. Join us for a day at the museum.

“Birthday suit”, “in the buff”, “wearing nothing but a smile”. On today’s show we’ll explore the progressive-era origins and continuing tensions over what it means to take it all off.

Plus, discovering the secret to happiness has inspired a robust self-help industry and pre-occupied philosophers since the days of Aristotle and Epicurus. Contemporary philosopher Frederic Lenoir shares some practical advice from the world’s great minds.

You can see and hear Caitlin Schneider's full list of unexplained sounds over at Mental Floss. 

Sometimes unexplained sounds have a perfectly logical scientific explanation, other times, no matter how logical the explanation may be, you still don't believe it. The following sounds are unexplained, but there are theories about their origin. We invite you to speculate wildly.

“Birthday suit”, “in the buff”, “wearing nothing but a smile.” Call it what you will, on today’s show we’ll strip bare the American nudism movement and we’ll explore the progressive-era origins and continuing tensions over what it means to take it all off.

Then, we’ll hear about two young men who embarked on a bold crime spree, stealing thousands in gold and weapons. The hitch? It all went down in a video game. 

This month on All Things Considered we’re looking at authors who write in or around New Hampshire.

Between 1978 and 1988, the murders of seven women in New Hampshire and Vermont were attributed to the “Connecticut River Valley Killer”. Investigations of several suspects, and one deathbed confession went cold, and the killer was never found. Novelist Joseph Olshan’s “Cloudland,” is a fictionalized crime thriller based on the case. We spoke to Joe Olshan last spring when the book was released, now, it’s out in paperback. He lived in the upper valley when the sixth and final victim was found, and he explained what, as an outsider, he saw happen to local residents.

In 2005, the International Center of Photography opened an exhibit called “Young America”. The exhibit largely featured a collection of ghostly daguerreotypes - antique images made through the pioneer process that paved the way for modern photography. The exhibit opened to rave reviews - but within weeks many of the historic images began disappearing before the curators very eyes, aging decades in a matter of days.

Recently the website BoingBoing recommended a novel called The Last Policeman. It's a murder mystery with a unique twist: it's set six months before a massive asteroid is set to collide with Earth and essentially cause the end of the world.