To The Best of Our Knowledge

from Wisconsin Public Radio

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Imagine living your whole life in excruciating pain, 24/7, and actually choosing to go without any pain medication. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, one man's permanent pain. And is a teenager slashing her arms with a razor a cry for help or an ancient ritual of sacred pain? Also, are placebos a myth? Danish medical researchers think so.

Dr. Ted Kaptchuk is an expert on placebos who teaches at the Harvard Medical School. He tells Steve Paulson about the work of some Danish researchers who have concluded that "the Placebo effect" is a myth. Patients given placebos have no better results than those given nothing. Also, Alan Dale, author of "Comedy Is A Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies," tells Anne Strainchamps how he came to love physical comedy and reflects on some of his favorite on-screen bits.

Ariel Glucklich, author of "Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul," tells Jim Fleming about ritual self-punishment in various religions and how the experience of self-inflicted pain can seem liberating. Also, Charles Mann, author of "The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine and 100 Years of Rampant Competition," tells Steve Paulson how there got to be two Bayer companies making aspirin; how it was marketed in South America, and what makes Anacin different from aspirin. You can't believe the ads!

Jimmy Palmieri talks with Anne Strainchamps about living with intractable pain. He has Behçet's Syndrome, a hyper-immune disorder causing chronic headaches, fevers, nausea, joint pain, skin lesions and ulcerations. Palmieri describes his life, explains how he became a chef in spite of his illness, and claims that his native New York spitefulness is what keeps him alive. That and his faith.

Books:

• Alan Dale, Comedy is a Man in Trouble (Minnesota)
• Ariel Glucklich, Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul (Oxford)
• Charles C. Mann, Mark L. Plummer, The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition (Harvard Business School Press)

Music:

• 1. Pearl Jam. "Aye Davanita" off of the Vitalogy Album on Epic Redords.
• 2. UNKLE. "Bellbottoms - Old Rascal Mix" off of the Blues Explosion! Experimental Remixes Album on Matador Records.
• 3. DJ Krush. "Anticipation" off of the Holonic Album on No Wax Records.
• 4. Stereolab. "Les Yper-Sound" off of the Emperor Tomato Ketchup Album on Electra Records.
• 5. Liz Phair. "Flower" off of the Exile in Guyville Album on Matator
  Records.
• 6. Slapstick music used from films:
  a. One Too Many - 1916 - Oliver Hardy and Billy Bletcher
  b. Theme Music to Laurel and Hardy
  c. The Navigator - 1924 - Buster Keaton
  d. Cops - 1922 - Charlie Chaplin
  

Distribution dates:

• week of 03/31/2002 - hour 1