Music critic says "pop music is the music that critics aren't very good at talking about." In his book, "Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres," Sanneh takes on that challenge, exploring the lineage of morphing and meshing rock, R&B, country, punk, hip-hop, dance and pop. The New Yorker staff writer spoke with Steve Paulson for "To The Best Of Our Knowledge" about what we can learn about ourselves through the music we choose. This interview transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/pop-punk-shaping-our-musical-identities

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Parents have been juggling work, child care, education and health issues pretty much forever. But when the pandemic hit, it laid bare just how precarious parenting arrangements were — especially for single parents, parents who can't work from home, and the unemployed. Working mothers in particular lost jobs or were forced to quit to take care of children at home. Journalist , author of several books including " Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America ," thinks this is one of those moments where parents need to refuse to go back to how bad it was before.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/parenting-movement-emerges-pandemic

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The time a person spends carrying their child during a pregnancy is only a brief time compared to the time they'll spend being a mother, but it's a time that can be long and aching, confusing and tiring, exciting and terrifying. For some, it ends in lasting joy; for others, abrupt grief. As Amanda Henry shares in her story, both experiences of motherhood shape who you are and what impact you have on the world around you.  The day I started high school in a new town, I was wearing an unusual accessory: a big red Rudolph-esque cold sore on my upper lip.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/amanda-henry-road-motherhood

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Steve Paulson (00:15): Last summer, I got obsessed with the many mushrooms I'd see on my hikes in a nearby forest. I downloaded an app on my phone to help identify them and it was like I'd stumbled into Alice's Wonderland. Just the names alone were great: American slippery jack, crested coral, stinking riddle gill, golden chanterelle, scurfy twiglet, scarlet waxcap. I was hooked, partly because I had just read Merlin Sheldrake's book, Entangled Life, which is a deep dive into the weird and wonderful world of mushrooms and other fungi.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/they-eat-rocks-theyre-some-strangest-living-beings-planet-they-are-fungi

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Dogsledders and have built an outdoor adventure life in the Northwoods, where they train teams of dogs to race. But for the husband-and-wife team, the pack is also part of their family. It's about the mushing, but also the profound dog-human connection. The two have developed a shared language with their dogs. Braverman and Mountain have each raced in the Iditarod in Alaska, and individually  appeared on the survival show , "Naked and Afraid." The pair create community wherever they go, from their ardent   Twitter followers to fellow mushers who, with their dogs, feel the call of the wilderness.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/adventure-goofiness-and-trail-snacks-stories-dog-mushers-journal

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Why have people throughout time felt connected with owls, above all birds? Is it their sense of all-knowing wisdom? Or maybe that they are the only birds with two front-facing eyes.  writes in her new book "What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds" about how owls are cryptic, hard to find and difficult to understand. Speaking with "To the Best Of Our Knowledge," she said that's part of the attraction. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length Shannon Henry Kleiber: Jennifer, there are so many people interested in birds, and you have written about all kinds of birds.

https://www.ttbook.org/interview/utterly-unlike-other-birds-inscrutable-brilliance-owls

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