Radio Curious: Recent Episodes
Radio Curious
Click here to begin listening. The shooting and deaths at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington, on October 24, 2014, brought sadness, fear, unity and a special form of healing to the Tulalip and other Native people of the area. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Jerome Edge, a Native American of […]
Click here to begin listening. In this edition of Radio Curious we honor and pay tribute to folk singer Ronnie Gilbert, who died on June 6, 2015 at the age of 88. She is well known for her powerful contralto voice as a member of the Weavers, the extraordinarily popular folk music quartet that in […]
Click here to begin listening. Buzzy Martin began teaching music to at risk kids in Juvenille Hall. He then taught guitar in San Quentin Prison for three and a half years, where he gained a unique “insiders” perspective about prison life, prisoners, and the guards. His book, “Don’t Shoot! I’m the Guitar Man,” chronicles his […]
Click here to begin listening. Praise At Midnight Life, culture and racism are the topics of this edition of Radio Curious, in conversation with attorney/novelist Martha McCabe, author of, “Praise at Midnight.” Martha McCabe worked as a civil rights and criminal trial lawyer in deep east Texas from 1974 to 1985. Her goal was to […]
Click here to begin listening to part one. Click here to begin listening to part two. The understanding of how we humans experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives is this topic of two interviews with Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain on Music, The Science of […]
Click here to begin listening. The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of “Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.” Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a […]
Click here to begin listening. The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of “Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.” Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a […]
Click here to begin listening. As a lawyer and a student of political science, I have come to appreciate the anomalies and humor of politics. One story that fits both of those categories well is the relationship between Nestle J. Frobish, the Chair-Creature of World-Wide Fair Play for Frogs Committee and the late Jerome R. […]
Click here to begin listening. Frogs play an important role in the worlds ecology and are their occasional demise is sometimes noted as an impending ecological disaster. In 1961, a newly elected member of the California State Assembly, Jerome R. Waldie, introduced a bill that read in full: Frogs may be taken using slingshot. Little […]
Click here to begin listening. The creative imagination of playwright Don Samson is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. In May 2015, I had the good fortune of seeing a ten minute play entitled “Blind Date,” written by my long time friend, who lives in nearby Willits, California. For many years prior to […]
Click here to begin listening. The puckishly whimsical life and times of poet and film maker James Broughton is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious in a visit with Stephen Silha, the producer and director of “Big Joy,” a biographical film of the life and times of James Broughton. Broughton believed that in […]
Click here to begin listening. Our guest in this program was Dr. William Fry, a psychiatrist who has done extensive research in the field of humor. We discussed the psychology and genetics of humor. Much of Dr. Fry’s research has concentrated on Cocoa, the gorilla, and we discussed that as well. This program was originally […]
Click here to begin listening. Understanding Comics, A Rather Colorful Display: The Invisible Art Comics have come to hold quite an important place in contemporary society. Satire, particularly political commentary, is perhaps closest to its essence when expressed in the visual comic. However, it also can be argued that comics have played a far greater […]
Click here to begin listening. PT Barnum, sometimes known as the Prince of Humbug, was born in Connecticut in 1810. In many ways, he personified the American character that Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville described in his book, “Democracy in America.” Barnum delighted in making money and telling the truth, as he saw it. Some truths […]
Click here to begin listening. Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends Tim Sanders, the author of a “Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends,” is the Chief Solutions Officer at yahoo.com. Knowledge, network and compassion are the themes of his book and the basis […]
Click here to begin listening. Ed Reinhart alias Earl Dixon, has been “boogying” his way around Mendocino County for over three decades. He has been calling himself “Rico Suave” since his last trip to Ecuador. Reinhart is best know as the king of boogie-woogie and blues. With his release in the mid 90′s of “Got […]
Click here to begin listening. The ways different creatures, especially us humans, use our senses to guide ourselves through life has long attracted my curiosity. I’ve often wondered how blind people seem able to orient themselves, and also wondered about their dreams. From time to time, over the years, I would see an attentive woman […]
Click here to begin listening. What is it about the words we speak that convey concepts, nuances, ideas and sometimes even start wars? Where do they come from, what is their history and how do they shape our minds and ability to communicate? These are just some of the questions we asked Professor John McWhorter, […]
Click here to begin listening. Alex De Grassi is a guitarist extraordinaire whose interpretation of the Radio Curious theme, entitled “The Last Cowboy”, you may hear if you listen carefully. In this edition of Radio Curious he asks us ‘What does a cumulous cloud sound like when played on guitar?’ Alex De Grassi will share […]
Click here to begin listening. Spanish songs sung and played on guitar is something I have enjoyed beginning when I lived in Peru in the mid 1960′s. I often have the pleasure of listening to and talking with Marcos Pereda, a person who can do just that. Marcos was born in Cuba and made his […]
Click here to begin listening. How many of us are lonely? What is loneliness and how does it affect us? Approximately 25 years ago, when asked the number of friends in whom we could confide, most people in the United States said “three.” When that question was asked recently most people said “none.” Inquires reveal […]
Click here to begin listening. In the story of Don Quixote, the author Miguel Cervantes tells, among other things, what Don Quixote ate for dinner every day of the week. This, in part became the inspiration for a book entitled, “Cooking from the Heart of Spain: Food of La Mancha,” written by Janet Mendel, an […]
Click here to begin listening. In this edition of Radio Curious, we cross the line, if there is one, between politics and religion and visit with Rabbi Phil Posner to consider, among other things, ethics and moral courage. Rabbi Posner is the author of a fictional encounter, “Food For Thought, Character and Soul,” where he […]
Click here to begin listening. In 2004, filmmaker Katy Chevigny followed eleven Americans from dawn until past midnight and put a face on the voting rights issues to reveal the disparity between wealthy and poor neighborhoods, and the disenfranchisement of former felons. This became the documentary film, “Election Day.” Katy Chevigny founded Arts Engine, a […]
Click here to begin listening. Non-lethal chemical warfare may be an oxymoron to some, but it was actually the goal of a U.S. Army research program in the 1960s and 70s at Edgewood Arsenal, an army arsenal in Maryland. The research goal was to find incapacitating non-lethal chemical weapons that would cause the enemy to […]
Click here to begin listening. Digital, analog, long playing records, cassettes… How do they bring sound to our ears? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with audio engineer and producer Gregg McVicar, one of the first independent radio producers to convert to digital audio technology. He produces a daily five hour eclectic music […]
Click here to begin listening. Behind the scenes in Per Se, a four star restaurant in New York City, a sister restaurant to The French Laundry in Napa, California, is one of the topics in this edition of Radio Curious. Phoebe Damrosch, author of, “Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter,” was the first female captain (head waiter) […]
Click here to begin listening. State guidelines for growing and possessing medical marijuana, were issued by the California Attorney General on August 25, 2008. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, who participated in the development of these guidelines, to discuss their implementation. This interview was recorded […]
Click here to begin listening. The Virtues of Aging – Considering the alternatives, growing older is really not all that bad. The frame of mind that we develop and carry with us as we age controls much of how we feel and behave. James Earl Carter Jr., more often known as Jimmy Carter, the 39th […]
Click here to begin listening. Polygamy used to be a central aspect in Mormon beliefs. However, it has not been for over 100 years now, due partly to considerable effort by Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s many wives. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with David Ebershoff, the author of “The 19th Wife”, […]
Click here to begin listening. On the bluffs of the Village of Mendocino, overlooking the Pacific Ocean about 155 miles north of San Francisco, California, the sounds of the Mendocino Music Festival are heard for two weeks beginning in early July every year. The music festival features Orchestra, Opera, Chamber, Jazz and World Pop music […]
Click here to begin listening. To Kill or Not To Kill: That is the question still presented to juries in capital cases in the United States, one of the few countries remaining in the world to employ the death penalty. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Pastor Carroll Pickett, who served as […]
Click here to begin listening. The issue of sexual orientation plagues people in many different ways — political upheaval that sometimes include religious or physical violence. But then politics, religion and violence are integral to human belief systems. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Irwin Keller, also known as “Winnie,” a founder […]
Click here to begin listening. Dr. Dan Gottlieb is a practicing psychologist living and working near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has experienced quadriplegia for approximately 30 years when he broke his back and severed his spinal cord as a result of an automobile accident. His 2008 book, “Learning From the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving and […]
Click here to begin listening. Ukiah, California, a small vibrant community, approximately 100 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge is the home to the Ukiah Players Theater. An annual May fundraiser for the theater offers a tour of old and new homes on the west side of town, offered by the residents willing to […]
Click here to begin listening. Sex, something that all creatures seek to achieve in one form or another, is often more than discreet among humans. In this discussion with science journalist, Mary Roach, author of, “Bonk, The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex,” we have a direct and frank conversation about human sexuality, including orgasms, […]
Click here to begin listening. Reinforcement of desired behavior is the key to animal training. As humans, we are subject to the same way of learning. Amy Sutherland, author of, “What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers,” shares many ideas about how to achieve more […]
Click here to begin listening. Few people in Mendocino County who are not elected officials have created as much enmity and as many disruptive relationships as has Richard W. Johnson, Jr., the owner, editor and publisher of four local newspapers under the banner of Mendocino Country, since 1984. Johnson, who characterizes himself as a community […]
Click here to begin listening. There is a lot of discussion about hope in this time of the pending election for president. Francis Moore Lappe, author of, “Diet for a Small Planet,” discusses the need to give up certain old assumptions in her new book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad.” […]
Click here to begin listening. Can rural, local government actually run smoothly and meet the changing needs of the community? It is slow to happen in Mendocino County, California. In this two part interview about the politics and development possibilities in Mendocino County, specifically in the North end of Ukiah, where a large shopping center […]
Click here to begin listening. Can rural, local government actually run smoothly and meet the changing needs of the community? It is slow to happen in Mendocino County, California. In this two part interview about the politics and development possibilities in Mendocino County, specifically in the North end of Ukiah, where a large shopping center […]
Click here to begin listening. Of two people, William Shakespeare and Edward De Vere, whose lives overlapped, De Vere had many of the experiences described in the literary works attributed to William Shakespeare. This conversation with Michael A’Dair and William Ray, two gentlemen intellectuals from Willits, California explores some of the reasons they believe De […]
Click here to begin listening. Years ago, before the myriad of things to buy were as available as they are now, retail businesses were most often locally-owned and operated, often for generations. This all began to change in the middle of the last century, as many of the items in the Sears Catalogue became available in […]
Click here to begin listening. North America, as we have known for millennia, has been populated by ethnic groups looking for a new place to live. Beginning in the early 17th Century and through the present time, Jewish people from around the world have seen North America as a favored place to live and in […]
Click here to begin listening. Efforts to change culture memes or ideas of what we think sometimes result in the promoter of those new ideas being labeled with a negative banner. David Wann, the author of “Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle,” our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, was a […]
Click here to begin listening. In this edition of Radio Curious, our guest is Dan Hamburg, a long time political activist, a former member of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and a former member of Congress who represented the North Coast of California. In our conversation, recorded in the studio of Radio Curious on […]
Click here to begin listening. In the continuing saga of marijuana politics in Mendocino County, we visit with Sheriff Tom Allman to talk about what has happened since our last visit in June 2007. We discuss the uncertainty of the existing marijuana laws in Mendocino County, the prospects for change based on the upcoming June […]
Click here to begin listening. Mike Thompson represents the First Congressional District of California, including the North Coast and Mendocino County, the home of Radio Curious, in the United States House of Representatives. In this interview recorded in his Washington, D.C. office on October 11, 2007, we discuss the war, its funding, medicare, marijuana and […]
Click here to begin listening. The chance to interview another interviewer is an opportunity I like to take. A chance came on September 4, 2007, when I was able to visit with Ira Flatow, the host of “Science Friday,” a part of Talk of the Nation, on NPR. We talked about some ideas and concepts he raises […]
Click here to begin listening. Should a shopping mall and a large residential development occur adjacent to the city of Ukiah, California? The city and many people fear this development will result in the loss of a unique, rural small town in northern California. Mendocino County Supervisor Jim Wattenburger discusses his position in support of […]
Click here to begin listening. The concept that all politics are local is shown in this interview with Mendocino County Supervisor John Pinches in our August 7, 2007 interview on growing, use and “legalization” of marijuana.
Click here to begin listening. In this edition we discuss the “No Match” rule established by the Bush administration on August 10th, 2007. If a person is employed and the employer sends in the employment payment records with a social security number that doesn’t match the name on the social security number according to the […]
Click here to begin listening. Contrary to the five to zero decision by the Ukiah City Council recommending a No Vote, Mendocino County Supervisor Jim Wattenburger, whoes district solely comprises the City of Ukiah, voted yes creating a board majority to further investigate the development of a major shopping center adjacent to Ukiah, a small, […]
Click here to begin listening. The Anderson Valley Advertiser is an iconoclastic newspaper originating weekly from Boonville, Mendocino County, California, edited and published by Bruce Anderson, whose name is merely coincidental with the name of the Anderson Valley. The masthead of the AVA, as it is sometimes called, says, “Newspapers should have no friends,” and […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally recorded on July 21, 2007. Since 2000, ambitious young evangelicals have made their way to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian school near Washington, D.C. Most of them are home schoolers whose idealism and discipline put the average American teenager to shame. At “God’s Harvard” they are groomed to […]
Click here to begin listening. “The Endless War,” a movie released in late July 2007, written, directed and produced by Charles Ferguson, depicts the blunders and ill-prepared manner in which the United States initiated and carried out the war against Iraq. This full-length feature film juxtaposes the statements and actions of the Washington leadership of […]
Click here to begin listening. Those of us who use the internet are subject to the words and wisdom, or lack thereof, provided by the people and or machines that upload ideas and content. The democratization of the internet, allowing anyone to post anything is, in the mind of Andrew Keen, our guest of this […]
Click here to begin listening. This program was originally broadcast on June 19, 2007. Marijuana, some say, is on the lips of many people here in Mendocino County, California, and likely many other places throughout the world, to some with pleasure and to others with distaste. Nonetheless it doesn’t seem that marijuana will go away. […]
Click here to begin listening. This program was originally broadcast May 7, 2007. The consequences of growing genetically modified alfalfa were deteremined by the United States District Court in San Francisco, California to be so uncertain and so potentially dangerous that they were outlawed nation-wide in litigation brought by the Center for Food Safety based […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: April 4, 2007 I Can Read You Like a Book Have you ever wondered what some body movements mean when people hear certain words or see certain images? Many of these body movements are involuntary reactions inherent to the individual or culturally based. “I Can Read You Like […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: March 15, 2007 Born Into Brothels “Born into Brothels” received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005. A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, “Born into Brothels” is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light […]
Originally Broadcast: March 21, 2007 Click here to begin listening. River of Renewal, Myth & History in the Klamath Basin Since the last Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago, human beings have traveled along the Klamath River and it tributaries in the northwest corner of California and the coast of southern Oregon. Many people […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: March 28, 2007 French Seduction: An American’s Encounter with France, Her Father, and the Holocaust. In a passionate blend of autobiography and cultural history, love, sex and art collide with hatred, withering French xenophobia and death, Eunice Lipton, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, describes her […]
Click here to begin listening. This program was originally broadcast on February 21, 2007. The Oregon Caves, located about 70 miles northeast of Crescent City, California in the Oregon Caves National Monument, are a place full of interest, mystery, and history. The caves were located in 1874 when Elijah Davidson chased his dog into the […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: January 13, 2007 Revolutionary Heart, The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights The life of Clarina Nichols and her work in the early women’s rights movement of the United States has been greatly overlooked. As one of the country’s first female newspaper editors and […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: December 6, 2006 A Graceful Farewell: Putting Your Affairs in Order Putting your affairs in order before you die is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Maggie Watson, a professional organizer who lives on the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. She is the […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: December 20, 2006 Primal Healing: Access the Incredible Power of Feelings to Improve you Health The alleviation of human angst and emotional pain or distress is the goal of psychotherapy. Dr. Arthur Janov, together with his wife Dr. France Janov, believe the traditional, century-old method of talk therapy is not […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: November 8, 2006 This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession The understanding of how we humans experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives is this topic of two interviews with Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of, “This Is Your […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: November 1, 2006 This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession The understanding of how we humans experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives is this topic of two interviews with Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of, “This Is Your […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: November 29, 2006 After District Attorney Norm Vroman died in September, 2006, and his name could not removed from the ballot, Keith Faulder, the interim DA appointed by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, sued the County seeking to void the November 8, 2006 general election for DA […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: October 10, 2006 The Wonder of Boys, 10th Anniversary Edition We explored the difficulties that boys have growing up in American society ten years ago, in a two-part interview with Michael Gurian, author of, “The Wonder of Boys: What Parents, Mentors and Educators can do to Shape Boys […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: September 6, 2006 Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair Since I was young, I have been intrigued by the work of Upton Sinclair. I remember as a boy hearing about Sinclair’s books and efforts to change the world. A close friend of my family was the writer for Sinclair’s campaign […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: September 20, 2006. How to ignite sexual passion from a woman’s perspective is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, as we talk with Holly Hollenbeck, a former attorney from Omaha, Nebraska, and author of, “Sex Lives of Wives, Reigniting the Passion, True Confessions and Provocative Advice […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: August 2, 2006 Praise At Midnight Life, culture and racism are the topics of this edition of Radio Curious, in conversation with attorney/novelist Martha McCabe, author of, “Praise at Midnight.” Martha McCabe worked as a civil rights and criminal trial lawyer in deep east Texas from 1974 to […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: August 9, 2006 Errors and Omissions Who owns the rights to a play, a song, or a work of art? How important and fragile is the authorship? These and other issues of intellectual property rights begin to be revealed in, “Errors and Omissions,” a novel by Stanford Law […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: August 30, 2006 Walking Tractor And Other Tales of Old Anderson Valley Stories of the days that no longer exist in rural areas tell us how things were, how people worked, lived and played, and bring to life conditions that most of us never knew existed. “Walking Tractor and […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: June 28, 2006 and July 5, 2006 The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do The collective unconscious may be defined as a cultural code, a set of imprinted concepts that control how members of different societies […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: June 28, 2006 and July 5, 2006 The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do The collective unconscious may be defined as a cultural code, a set of imprinted concepts that control how members of different societies […]
Click here to begin listening. This interview with Dr. Steven H. Miles was recorded in mid July 2006. The silence of doctors, nurses and medics in cases of torture and physical abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Steven Miles, the author […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: May 9, 2006 With the help of a camera, especially a digital camera, and the internet we may now see portions of what other people see and have sent our way or perhaps have made public. Sometime soon I hope to present some visual images I think are […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: April 12, 2006 Letters to Sam:A Grandfather’s Lessons on Love, Loss and the Gifts of Life For most people, the desire to be known exceeds the desire to be loved. Who we are as individuals, how we reckon with our personal abilities and disabilities the topic of this […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: April 17, 2006 Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives though the Power and Practice of Story Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond the borders […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: April 18, 2006 The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain Do people over a certain age necessarily loose mental acuity? According to Dr. Gene Cohen, the answer is “no.” Dr. Cohen, a psychiatrist and gerontologist has determined that certain genes are activated by experience as […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: December 5, 2005. Concepts of “reality” have many levels, some of which are gained by fasting, and/or the use of certain plants that allow a person to view the past, present or and future. This is especially true for cultures which cherish and practice the oral tradition and […]
Click here to begin listening. Originally Broadcast: December 13, 2005 The concerns that evangelical Christianity continues to be proselytized at the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, have not lessened since our August 9, 2005 interview with Air Force Academy graduate Attorney Mikey Weinstein. Mikey Weinstein, of Albuquerque, New Mexico is a […]
Click here to begin listening. The Darwin Conspiracy Who was Charles Darwin and what led him to describe what we now call “the theory of evolution?” These curious questions are ones that I have been following since I was about ten years old. In 1978 I had the good fortune of visiting the Galapagos Islands, […]
Click here to begin listening. Hold On to Your Kids, Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers The economic and cultural changes that have occurred in North American society in the past fifty or so years have resulted in today’s children looking to and associating with their peers instead of their parents, for direction, […]
Click here to begin listening. William Gibson’s new play “Golda’s Balcony” is the story of Golda Meir, her life, her love, her work and it’s a significant part of the story of Israel. This one-woman play is currently being performed by Tovah Feldshuh at the ACT Theatre in San Francisco, California until August 13. Tovah […]
Click here to begin listening. There are concerns that evangelical Christianity is close to being officially sanctioned at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as within other areas of the United States’ military forces. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit some of these issues with Mikey Weinstein, a […]
Click here to begin listening. This program with MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister who resigned from active duty as a chaplain at the United States Air Force Academy effective July 31, 2005, continues our series on evangelical proselytization within the United States Air Force and at the United States Air Force Academy in Coloradio Springs, […]
Click here to begin listening. The series on evangelical Christianity at the United States Air Force Academy, continues with Kristen Leslie, a professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Yale University Divinity School. Professor Leslie was invited to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado to meet with the Academy chaplains and provide […]
Click here to begin listening. Few moments in American history have held the tension of the early 1970s. The nation was fundamentally divided between the jaded counter-culture and Nixon’s ‘silent majority,’ a rupture particularly connected to the still-escalating Vietnam War. The release to the public of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971 focused […]
Click here to begin listening. Don’t Know Much About History, Everything you Need to Know About American History But Never Learned “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of […]
Click here to begin listening. Stargazer, the Life and Times of the Telescope The history of the telescope is a rich story of human ingenuity and perseverance involving some of the most colorful figures in the scientific world. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dr. Fred Watson, the Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian […]
Click here to begin listening. Genocide is the intent to exterminate in whole or in part a specific group of people often based on nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. For the past two years, in the Darfur region of the nation of Sudan, located in north central Africa and populated primarily by black Africans, the Sudanese […]
Click here to begin listening. Though some people dislike the idea, money has become an important and complex aspect of life. Many choose to invest in stocks and mutual funds, hoping for financial growth with and without guidance from a knowledgeable advisor. With five million people responsible for the financial interests of others, there is very little […]
Click here to begin listening. The Hidden Jury, and Other Tactics Lawyers Use to Win What happens when a guilty person is acquitted of crime? Or worse, when an innocent person is convicted of a crime? This injustice can sometimes be prevented with the help of jury consultants, people who assist lawyers in picking juries […]
Click here to begin listening. The war that the United States has invoked in what is often called the “War On Terror” is unusual in many ways. One of those ways is that this war is being fought against a network that is spread out in many unsuspecting and obscure places. It is not being […]
Click here to begin listening. My Hometown Concentration Camp Bernard Offen, age 72, survived five Nazi concentration camps in Poland during World War Two, when he was a young teenager. He now leads tours of these concentration camps and tells his story in this interview. Bernard Offen recommends “My Hometown Concentration Camp,” by himself. Originally […]
Click here to begin listening. When recruiters from the Armed Forces of the United States seek out volunteers, they often portray military life to be a great adventure. They talk of schooling, travel and excitement. Sometimes that is not the case. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit Sgt. Frank Pacino, who spent his early life in […]
Click here to begin listening. The American Folklife Preservation Act of 1976 directed the Library of Congress to gather stories and art of everyday people to reflect the identity of America, which is recognized as the core of family and community life. The thought is that by linking us to the past we are better […]
Click here to begin listening. On the eastern slope of the Continental Divide, about an hour’s drive east of San Jose, Costa Rica, is the Rain Forest Aerial Tram, a tramway that travels through, above and below the rain forest canopy. The rain forest canopy is home to more diverse forms of flora and fauna than […]
Click here to begin listening. The Last Pope It is no secret that the papal conclave met April 18, 2005 to elect the head of one of the world’s few remaining imperial monarchies.However, those participating in the conclave and those assisting the Cardinals who will elect the next pope are sworn to secrecy regarding all […]
Click here to begin listening. American Mania, When More is Not Enough Not so long ago before the common use of devices operated by electricity our lives were generally much more calm. And as humans we have a biological a heritage of being are curiosity driver, reward seeking and harm avoiding creatures. The conflict that […]
Click here to begin listening. This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace Women Waging Peace is a global policy-oriented initiative working to integrate women into the peace process. Swanee Hunt, a former United States Ambassador to the Austria, founded it. Swanee Hunt is also the author of “This Was Not Our War; […]
Click here to begin listening. When the polar ice caps melt, sea level will rise. That’s happened earlier in the history of the world, and it appears it will happen again. In this edition of Radio Curious, we bring you a two part series on global warming and sea level rise, with Peter D. Ward, […]
Click here to begin listening. Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life Every one of us, in every social role that we play, is a teacher and a mentor. Who has influenced us, and how we pass that influence along is a question that goes to the heart of both learning and […]
Click here to begin listening. Nixon at the Movies, A Book About Belief Richard Nixon, and the movies he watched while he was president… On his third night in office, January 22, 1969 Nixon saw The Shoes of the Fisherman in the White House movie theater. From then until August 1973, when he resigned the presidency Nixon […]
Click here to begin listening. Each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives in the United States Congress represents approximately 680,000 people, and is elected every two years. Mike Thompson is in his 4th term representing California’s 1st Congressional District that includes the northwest coast of California. Congressman Thompson visited the studios of Radio Curious […]
Click here to begin listening. Anamika Sharma, the lead character in the novel Babyji, by Abha Dewasar grows up in Delhi, India, studying quantum physics at school and sex out of school. The story follows the life of a girl who sets her own rules in a culture that historically demands the opposite. Our conversation […]
Click here to begin listening. How can we assure ourselves that the food we eat is safe, nutritious and energy-efficient? If we are what we eat, we ought to know what we will become. That may be the concept underlying what is coming to be known as the slow food movement. Glenn McGourty is the […]
Click here to begin listening. Are poets philosophers? Doesn’t the creative moment reveal a personal truth to share? Must a poem be recited the same way every time? The spontaneous spoken word is a form of poetry that sometimes leaves the listener wondering if what is said really is spontaneous. Steve Hellman is a poet who lives and speaks […]
Click here to being listening. Lori Berenson is a 35-year-old woman from New York who has been in prison in Peru since 1996 for allegedly conspiring with Peruvian revolutionaries, known as MRTA, (Movimiento Revoluncionario Tupac Amaru). Lori Berenson was twice convicted in Peru, first by judges who shrouded themselves in hoods, and then again in […]
Click here to begin listening. Alienable Rights: The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man’s Land, 1619 to 2000 “Alienable Rights: The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man’s Land, 1619 to 2000” is a book in part written by Francis Adams, an independent scholar living in Los Angeles, California. The book posits that the […]
Click here to begin listening. Born To Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture In the past 50 years, the advent of television as a medium for advertising has had significant effects on the buying habits of everyone, and especially on children. MRI scans on the brain, and the development of neuro-marketing are used […]
Click here to begin listening. A Hole In My Life Have you ever been incarcerated? Locked in a prison cell for a number of years? That is what happened to Jack Gantos for being a crew member on a boat that smuggled a ton of hashish from St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, to New […]
Click here to begin listening. The First Idea: How Symbols, Language and Intelligence Evolved From Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans “The First Idea: How Symbols, Language and Intelligence Evolved From Our Primate Ancestors to Modern Humans,” is a book by professors Stanley Greenspan and Stuart Shanker. Their hypotheses assert that our ability to use symbols […]
Click here to begin listening. Yael Berda is a young Israeli lawyer, born in New York and raised in Jerusalem. At the age of 14, she became involved in a struggle to free her parents from debtors’ prison and the experience changed her life. She has since become a leader of a non-violent movement for reconciliation and […]
Click here to begin listening. The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 The forces behind the disasters of September 11, 2001 are said to be unclear and undefined, notwithstanding the Official Report of the 9/11 Commission. David Ray Griffin, a Professor Emeritus from the Claremont School of Theology, and the author […]
Click here to begin listening. In this edition of Radio Curious, we take a look at the cello, the kind of musical instrument it is and the sounds it makes. My guest is Jed Barahal, a concert cellist extraordinaire, who lives in Porto, Portugal and performed with pianist Christina Margotto, his wife, and Amari Barash, an […]
Click here to begin listening. What is poetry and song? Perhaps we’ll find out in this program, with guests Ron Whitehead and Sarah Elizabeth from Campbellsville, Kentucky. They visited the studios of Radio Curious in May of 2004. You can learn more about Ron Whitehead and Sarah Elizabeth at their website, www.tappingmyownphone.com. Ron Whitehead & Sarah Elizabeth recommend […]
Click here to begin listening. Last Kabbalist of Lisbon In the early part of the 1500s in the Iberian Peninsula, which comprises Spain and Portugal, people who were not followers of the Roman Catholic faith were expelled, required to convert to Catholicism or killed. At that time, there was a sizeable Jewish population living in […]
Click here to begin listening. What is the importance that forgetting has played throughout human history? What will be the effects on society, relationships and humanity now that so many aspects of our lives are digitally preserved? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger author of “Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age,” and our guest in this […]
Click here to begin listening. Adam’s Curse, A Future Without Men The Y chromosome, compared to the body’s 45 other chromosomes, is very fragile. It has been worn down by millions years of attrition and over time has lost many of its genes. It is unable to exchange genetic material or repair itself because it does not […]
Click here to begin listening. The Last Pope “The Last Pope,” by David Osborn, takes us inside the world of the Vatican and the American branch of the Catholic Church. Fictional relationships between the conservative and reform branches of the Catholic Church are revealed in a novel that combines character from both groups. David Osborn recommends […]
Click here to begin listening. In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court, unanimously declared, ”segregation in public education is a denial of the equal protection of the law.” This is a two-part discussion about the aftermath of that decision. Our guest is Dr. Elizabeth Allen, a Professor of Nursing at the University of Michigan. […]
Click here to begin listening. In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court, unanimously declared, ”segregation in public education is a denial of the equal protection of the law.” This is a two-part discussion about the aftermath of that decision. Our guest is Dr. Elizabeth Allen, a Professor of Nursing at the University of Michigan. […]
Click here to begin listening. This edition’s guest was Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA). We spoke about the access that the Democrats as the minority party have to the microphone in Congress. We also discussed the 9/11 Commission and its investigation, the Patriot Act, the then upcoming Democratic and Republican National conventions, and the election of 2004. Rep. […]
Click here to begin listening. Director of, The Future of Food “The Future of Food,” a film written and produced by Deborah Koons Garcia, discusses our food’s conflicting relationship with both mass agri-business and local agriculture. Our discussion was conducted in the context of the passage of Mendocino County’s Measure H, banning growth of GMOs […]
Click here to begin listening. Ishi’s Brain: In Search of the Last ‘Wild’ Indian In 1911, Ishi, the last Stone Age Indian, walked into the community of Oroville, CA, opening an anthropologic window into the lives of native Californians. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Orin Starn, an anthropologist at Duke University in […]
Click here to begin listening. The Viagra Myth: The Surprising Impact on Love and Relationships Viagra, a drug with infinite name recognition and touted benefits, is, as we know, pervasively advertised on television and the Internet. But what is the truth and what is the fiction about this drug. These and other questions about increasing […]
Click here to begin listening. Genome & Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human Are we humans defined by nature or nurture? Matt Ridley, the author of “Genome,” published in 2000, has more recently written “Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human.” He argues that genes are enablers, rather than constrainers; […]
Click here to begin listening. The Journey of Man, A Genetic Odyssey Around 60,000 years ago, a man – identical to us in all important genetic respects – lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. This is known because the secrets of human evolution are hidden in our genetic code. In this edition of […]
Click here to begin listening. Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are “Passing: When People Can’t Be Who They Are,” was written by Brooke Kroeger, an Associate Professor of Journalism at New York University. Her book reveals why many ‘passers’ today are people of good heart and purpose whose decision to pass is an attempt […]
Click here to begin listening. The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness Hope is one of the most fundamental and powerful of human emotions, and also one of the least studied and understood. “The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness,” by Dr. Jerome Groopman, a Professor […]
Click here to begin listening. My Fellow Americans, The Most Important Speeches of America’s Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush Michael Waldman, an expert on the Presidency, wrote or edited nearly 2000 speeches, including several of President Clinton’s State of the Union speeches. He is also the editor of “My Fellow Americans, The […]
Click here to begin listening. The Vagina Monologues The Vagina Monologues, created and produced by Eve Ensler, tell the stories of women, their relationships, feelings, and, in some cases, abuse. In this edition of Radio Curious, we spoke with Eve Ensler about the origin of the the Vagina Monologues and the film, “Until the Violence […]
Click here to begin listening. Director of, The Human Stain Robert Benton is the director of “The Human Stain,” which is based on the third novel of Philip Roth’s trilogy describing the turmoil of post-WWII America. It exposes the life of Coleman Silk, a Professor of Classics at a small New England College, an eminent Jewish intellectual […]
Click here to begin listening. Triangle, the Fire That Changed America Until September 11, 2001, The Triangle Shirtwaste Fire on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster in the history of New York City. David Von Drehle, a political writer for the Washington Post, is the author of “Triangle, the Fire That Changed America,” […]
Click here to begin listening. Our guest in this program is Congressman Mike Thompson, who represents Mendocino County in the House of Representatives. He expressed his frustration with the way the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives controls the House, in the first fully Republican government in the US since 1953. Rep. Mike Thompson […]
Click here to begin listening. This episode was originally broadcasted on November 21, 2003. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820 to 2000 The development and the expansion of homes, where they are and why they came to be in the places they are, are issues of particular importance to Dolores Hayden, Professor of […]
Click here to begin listening. This episode was first broadcasted on November 25, 2003 The Lies of George W. Bush, Mastering the Politics of Deception According to David Corn, the author of “The Lies of George W. Bush, Mastering the Politics of Deception,” all American Presidents have lied, but George W. Bush has relentlessly abused […]
This episode was first broadcasted on October 7, 2003 Click here to begin listening. Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble Our earth is in big trouble. The environment and our economy are in crisis. Essentially, we have created a bubble economy in which we are over-consuming the earth’s natural […]
This episode was first broadcasted on September 2, 2003. Click here to begin listening. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood Our guest in this program lived in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zambia from 1972 to 1990. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and […]
This episode was first broadcasted on September 16, 2003. Click here to begin listening. The Fiske Guide to Colleges Edward B. Fiske, the education editor at the New York Times, is the author of “The Fiske Guide of Colleges.” His book attempts to demystify the college application process and provide strategies to choose where and how […]
This episode was first broadcasted on September 13, 2003. Click here to begin listening. The California law prohibiting unfair business practices is the basis for the 2003 lawsuit brought against the Pacific Lumber Company by the People of the State of California. This case was brought when the Humboldt County, California, District Attorney alleged that Pacific […]
This episode was first broadcasted on August 5, 2003. Click here to begin listening. She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders “She’s Not There:A Life in Two Genders,” by Jennifer Finney Boylan, is a book about a man who became a woman.For as long as he could remember, James Boylan felt he was in […]
This episode was first broadcasted on August 5, 2003. Click here to begin listening. Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level Approximately one child in five suffers from dyslexia, a condition that makes learning to read difficult and in some cases seemingly impossible. In this edition of Radio Curious, […]
This program was originally broadcasted on August 12, 2003. Click here to begin listening. Y, The Descent of Men, Revealing the Mysteries of Maleness Professor Steve Jones, author of the book, Y, The Descent of Men, Revealing the Mysteries of Maleness, discusses biological aspects of maleness created by the Y chromosome. Jones explores the effect […]
This program was originally broadcasted: July 1, 2003 & July 8, 2003 Click here to begin listening. Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist “Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist” is a book by Alston Chase, former Chair of the Philosophy Department at Macalester University in Minnesota. After […]
This program was originally broadcasted: July 1, 2003 & July 8, 2003 Click here to begin listening. Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist “Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist” is a book by Alston Chase, former Chair of the Philosophy Department at Macalester University in Minnesota. After […]
This program was originally broadcast on July 15, 2003. Click here to begin listening. Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection In an unknown and dilapidated laboratory on the University of Wisconsin campus in the 1950s and 1960s, a brilliant, alcoholic, work-obsessed psychologist conducted research on love, a pursuit that was […]
This program was originally recorded on February 19, 2016. Click here to begin listening. Who we are and where we come from is a crucial question that now we are more able to answer than ever before. The examination and analysis of our individual DNA, in addition to answering a myriad of medical and forensic […]
Originally Broadcast: February 13, 2012 Click here to begin listening. The exodus of approximately six million black people from the American South between 1915 and 1970 had a significant role in setting the stage of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s. Many of the children of those who left the south participated in […]
Originally Broadcast: July 29, 2003 Click here to begin listening. In this program we visit with David Ebershoff, author “Pasadena,” a book about storytelling. “Pasadena” is the story of Linda Stamp, a young girl born and raised on a rural coastal area near San Diego, California, beginning when she was born in 1903. Linda learned […]
Originally Broadcast: July 22, 2003 Click here to begin listening. From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank: The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel Biodiesel, an alternative to the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, is created from processed vegetable oil and is available anywhere vegetable oil is grown or used. Joshua […]
Click here to begin listening. Sweet Grass County: Historic Crossroad Montana, the Big Sky state, is a place of significant historical interest in the history of North America and the United States. Sweet Grass County, located in south central Montana, is an area that since pre-historic times has been a justify of trade and historic […]
Originally Broadcast: June 3, 2003 Click here to begin listening. Nothing to Fear, Lessons in Leadership from FDR Alan Axelrod is a writer who has studied the cultural and business dimensions of America. “Nothing to Fear, Lessons in Leadership from FDR,” by Axelrod, focuses on FDR’s unique leadership style and what an effective leader is able […]
Click here to begin listening. This interview’s guest was my old law school friend, Congressman Sam Farr, who represents Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. In this interview, we discussed the USA Patriot Act, the Freedom to Read Act of 2003, and the influence that the Democrats, the minority party, have in both houses of Congress. Originally […]
Click here to begin listening. American Taboo, A Murder in Peace Corps In this edition of Radio Curious, we take a look at murder and getting away with murder. In the small island kingdom of Tonga, an American Peace Corps Volunteer murdered another American Peace Corps volunteer in October 1976. “American Taboo, A Murder in Peace Corps,” […]
Click here to begin listening. Julius Margolin and George Mann, two men separated in age by almost 46 years, are what might be called traveling troubadours. They carry the message of working people in song and spirit, bringing a wealth of union history wherever they go. George Mann recommends “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee,” by […]
Click here to begin listening. “Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption,” is a book written by Randall Kennedy, a Harvard University Law School Professor. He takes an in-depth look at the issue of black and white relationships set against the ever-changing social mores and laws of this country. Fears of interracial relationships, influenced over […]
Click here to begin listening. The Case Against Lawyers The control and influence lawyers have in American society has grown enormously in the past 75 years. The influence was foreseen in the 1830s by Alexis de Tocqueville and described in his book, “Democracy in America.” Catherine Crier discusses and critiques this influence in her book, […]
Click here to begin listening. Pigs at the Trough, How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America Arianna Huffington, a political columnist and commentator with a conservative background, is the author of “Pigs at the Trough, How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America.” Her book discusses alliances between corporate executive officers, politicians, lobbyists […]
Click here to begin listening. A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear Is the concept of “mother blame” a method to control women? Is motherhood a really a fearsome job? Will a mother’s mistake or inattention damage a child? Is this different from the fear that fathers have about the safety of their […]
Click here to begin listening. Faster than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation Joao Magueijo, a Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Imperial College of London, disputes some of Einstein’s most accepted theories. In his book, “Faster than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation,” he argues that […]
Click here to begin listening. Socrates’ Way: Seven Masterkeys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost Socrates of Athens, who lived before the Common Era, is respected as one of the greatest independent thinkers of all time. Socrates himself refused to be recognized as a teacher. Instead, Plato, his well-known student and reporter of Socrates’ dialogues, tells […]
Click here to begin listening. The Art of Anonymous Activism: Serving the Public While Surviving Public Service “The Art of Anonymous Activism: Serving the Public While Surviving Public Service” is a short book published by three public interest organizations based in Washington DC: POGO, the Project on Government Oversight (www.pogo.org), GAP, the Government Accountability Project […]
Click here to begin listening. I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers: A Cultural History “I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers: A Cultural History” is the title of a new book by Thomas Hine. In this book he discusses why we want objects and how they change us. He looks at early […]
Click here to begin listening. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men’s Health Dr. Harvey B. Simon is the author of “The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men’s Health” and the founding editor of the Harvard Men’s Health Watch newsletter. His book discusses a multitude of health issues that are unique to men and some […]
Click here to begin listening. The Mourning of Angles The life of Lydia Schaefer is a composite fictional story of a 22 year-old woman who served in the Peace Corps in Peru from 1962 to 1964. Patricia Taylor Edmisten, a former Peace Corps Volunteer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tells Lydia’s story in her book, “The Mourning of […]
Click here to begin listening. The history of women has existed as long as humans have, but it was not until the last half of the 20th Century that women’s history received recognized academic attention. Our guest, Professor Gerda Lerner was a pioneer in the movement to study and record the history of women. Gerda Lerner […]
Click here to begin listening. In this program we visit concepts of evolution and intelligence, some of which were raised after our series on near term human extinction. What is intelligence? What kind of intelligence do non human creatures have? What are the different levels of intelligence that can be found in single cells, or invertebrates, […]
Click here to begin listening. Blood, an Epic History of Medicine and Commerce Human blood has been compared historically and sociologically to a river that defines human society over the millennia. That river has been charted in a recent book and television series entitled, “Blood, an Epic History of Medicine and Commerce,” by Douglas Starr. […]
Click here to begin listening. The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs “The Other End of the Leash—Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs”, is a recent book by Patricia McConnell, a certified applied animal behaviorist affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. In her book, she discusses […]
Click here to begin listening. Sons of Heaven In June of 1989, in Tienamin Square, in the justify of Beijing, China, one of the largest student protests ever to occur in that country took place. The “Sons of Heaven,” by Terrence Cheng, is a novel about three major players in this drama, Deng Xiao Ping, […]
Click here to begin listening. River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze Imagine arriving by boat in a rural town of 150,000 people where two rivers join in central China. Imagine being one of the first two Americans to live there in 50 years, and speaking very little Chinese. That is experience of Peter Hessler, the author […]
Click here to begin listening. Fast food is what many people eat in America, and increasingly in other countries. It is advertised to be fun, tasty, and easily available. Americans spend more money annually on fast food than is spent on higher education. Eric Schlosser is our guest in this archive edition. He’s the author of Fast […]
Click here to begin listening. In June, 2002 I overheard an American woman now living in Israel passionately describe her belief that teaching children to be suicide bombers is the worst form of child abuse imaginable. I invited Elana Radley Rozenman, an organizer of the Women’s Interfaith Encounter, a group of Muslim, Christian and Jewish […]
Click here to begin listening. The Territory of Men “The Territory of Men” is an intimate self-expose written by Joelle Fraser, a former Mendocino Community College English teacher. Written as a series of short episodes and adventures, Joelle shares the life of a woman who was raised in the hippie life of the 70s, and now […]
Click here to begin listening. Earl Dixon is a veteran traveler, a veteran piano player, and he’s actually a veteran, too. An interesting story. Earl Dixon, the man on this show, traveled around the world, and has a lot of familiar stories to tell to those of us here in Mendocino County. Originally Broadcast: June 11, 2002
Click here to begin listening. Zoya’s Story, An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom Zoya, a member of the RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, tells the story of her childhood, her parents and her parents’ disappearance. She describes the wrath that first the Russians, then the Taliban and then the Northern Alliance have brought […]
Click here to begin listening. Take me with you: Around the World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home Have you ever made friends with someone from a place where you visited as a traveler? Have you ever wondered what it would be like for that person to visit you in your home and your surroundings? Well, that […]
Click here to begin listening. No Turning Back—The History of Feminism and the Future of Women The place of women in the world and in the American society has changed in many aspects in the recent past. Many people say this is due to the politics of feminism, and some inquire where it will lead. […]
Click here to begin listening. Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends Tim Sanders, the author of a “Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends,” is the Chief Solutions Officer at yahoo.com. Knowledge, network and compassion are the themes of his book and the basis for […]
Click here to begin listening. Red Water On September 11, 1857, a group of 120 emigrants en route to California was attacked and slaughtered by Mormon settlers and their Indian allies. Twenty years later, John D. Lee, a Mormon and a participant in the massacre, was executed by a firing squad at the same spot […]
Click here to begin listening. Parents in Charge, Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, too often dressed as adults, and too often have their lives planned out for them to be as busy as adults. Treating children as people older than they […]
Click here to begin listening. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word Few words in the English language have caused so much pain, hurt and emotion as the N-word. It is arguably the most consequential social insult in American history. The long history of the pejorative use of the N-word has given it an […]
Click here to begin listening. African American Writers: Portraits and Visions The voice of a writer can be heard in words, and sometimes seen in the writer’s face. It is unusual to find both in a book in which the creator is both the author and the photographer. Lynda Koolish, our guest on this archive edition of […]
Click here to begin listening to part 1. Click here to begin listening to part 2. Dead Reckoning, the New Science of Catching Killers In the fascinating world of medical discovery, the interpretation of how and when a person died can often be explained by looking at the bugs that are found on the body. Dr. […]
Click here to begin listening. Down the Great Unknown, John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon John Wesley Powell, a one-armed civil war veteran and passionate geologist, is a mostly unknown early explorer of the Grand Canyon. In 1869, he led a group of nine men on a 99 day […]
Click here to begin listening.The Coming Collapse of China Approximately 20% of the world’s population lives in the People’s Republic of China. According to Chinese-American lawyer Gordon G. Chang, China appears from the outside to be politically stable and economically strong. Chang, however, argues that China is in social, cultural, economic and political turmoil. He […]
Click here to begin listening The End of the Twins, a Memoir of Losing a Brother Ever wondered what it would be like to have an identical twin—how alike would you be to that person? How much of an individual would you be? Saul Diskin and his identical twin brother Marty grew up together in New York […]
Click here to begin listening to part 1. Click here to begin listening to part 2. Have you ever wondered what it is like to work inside a prison? Well, Ted Conover, a non-fiction writer did, so he went to the New York Department of Corrections to ask if he could shadow a recruit at […]
Click here to begin listening. Endangered Minds & Failure to Connect It used to be that children would play with objects, be told or read stories, or perhaps listen to the radio during a significant portion of their early years. With the advent of television, videos and computers, that tactile and oral world is often left […]
Click here to begin listening. No Apparent Danger Volcanic eruptions are far more predictable than earthquakes. Scientific equipment is available to forecast an eruption with about as much accuracy as there is to predict a hurricane. These predictions can tell when it is time to evacuate areas surrounding an active volcano. Unfortunately, the information available […]
Click here to begin listening. Seeds of Racism in the Soul of America Racism, as a part of the American religious culture, can be traced to the religious concepts of some of the earliest European settlers in North America. Professor Paul R. Griffin explores these roots in his book, “Seeds of Racism in the Soul […]
Click here to begin listening. In England, in the 1830s, at the time of a major cholera epidemic, a young girl, the orphaned daughter of a prostitute, finds that working in a pottery factory does not earn her enough money for herself and her child. She must work at night like her mother, as a […]
Click here to begin listening. Few words in the English language have caused so much pain, hurt and emotion as the N-word. It is arguably the most consequential social insult in American history. The long history of the pejorative use of the N-word has given it an unusual power that extends to the judicial system, […]
Click here to begin listening. In part 2 of our conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” we continue our discussion of the migration of almost six million black American citizens from the south to northern and western cities between the […]
Click here to begin listening. In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” […]
Click here to begin listening. How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less Making people like you is a skill that anybody can learn. By reading body language and synchronizing behavior, it is possible to make meaningful connections with almost anybody in almost any circumstance. We appreciate and like people similar to ourselves, people […]
Click here to begin listening. Imagine leaving home and traveling by yourself to a new land where you don’t know the customs or the politics, on a trip that will take weeks to complete in what would now be considered a very small ship, on turbulent waters. Imagine making this voyage, never to return to […]
Click here to begin listening. Everyday Racism: A Book For All Americans Racism has too long been a part of the American experience. The Civil War and the Constitutional amendments that followed, the Supreme Court decisions ordering the desegregation of schools, and the Civil Rights movements did not end racism in America. Annie S. Barnes, holds a […]
Click here to begin listening. The Altar of My Soul Religious beliefs normally follow people as they migrate, including people who are forced to migrate. The people forced to migrate to the western Hemisphere during the slave-trading period carried their beliefs and belief systems to the diaspora of their new world. The Santeria religion, also know as […]
Click here to begin listening. Radio Curious revisits a conversation with Mary Catherine Bateson, author of ““Full Circles: Overlapping Lives, Culture and Generation in Transition.Do we really know the people around us? Our children? Our family? Our friends? Or are we strangers in our own community? Mary Catherine Bateson, the author of a book entitled, […]
Click here to begin listening to Part 1. Click here to begin listening to Part 2. Understanding Disease, How Your Heart, Lungs, Blood, and Blood Vessels Function and Respond to Treatment In this two-part series with Dr. Glenn Langer, former Professor of Medicine, specializing in Cardiology, at UCLA we discuss the Partnership Scholars Program […]
Click here to begin listening. Colors of the Mountain The Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, led by Mao Zedong, imposed a major change to the nation where one in every four people in the world live. Da Chen was born in 1962 in southern China to a once wealthy family, by that time despised for […]
Click here to begin listening. Radio Curious is a program of interviews with those we wonder about. I’ve often wondered about Woodstock of 1969. I’ve often wondered how it got going and what its ramifications were. Why does the recollection make some people puke? So, I thought I’d ask Wavy Gravy, a man with insight on the subject far […]
Click here to begin listening. Have you ever wanted to look at penguins while they look at you, or crawl past giant clams, or see eye to eye with tropical sharks? Well, you can do that at Monterey Bay Aquarium, in Monterey, California. Splash Zone was an exhibit featured in the summer of 2000. It was designed for […]
Click here to begin listening. Metaphysical Touch When someone dies, we have that person’s papers and things to look at and use to understand and create memories about the life that has left us. Sometimes, however, the person stays and the papers and tokens are lost, as in a fire. Then we have only memories without material […]
Click here to begin listening. 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans which are home to 99% of the life on earth. About 250,000 species of ocean life have been discovered so far, but the ocean is home to an estimated 10 million species. The Monterey Bay Aquarium on the central coast of California holds […]
Click here to begin listening. Bio-Hazard: The Chilling Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World — Told From Inside by the Man Who Ran it Biological warfare is the use of weapons that cause death by disease. The largest and most sophisticated biological weapons program in the world, which cultivated and […]
Click here to begin listening. Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior How much of our personalities are truly within our control? What is currently known about how the genes we inherit affect our behavior? The science that studies these questions is now called molecular biology. Looking at […]
Click here to begin listening. Revolutionary Heart, The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights The life of Clarina Nichols and her work in the early women’s rights movement of the United States has been greatly overlooked. As one of the country’s first female newspaper editors and stump speakers, Clarina […]
Click here to begin listening Spy World: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence Establishments The fact that governments spy on each other is no secret. The fact that they also collect data about lives of millions of innocent citizens worldwide may be unknown to many people. Mike Frost, the author of “Spy World: Inside the […]
Click here to begin listening Spy World: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence Establishments The fact that governments spy on each other is no secret. The fact that they also collect data about lives of millions of innocent citizens worldwide may be unknown to many people. Mike Frost, the author of “Spy World: Inside the […]
Click here to begin listening This program is about Matilda Joslyn Gage, who lived from 1826 to 1892 and was a vibrant and leading figure in the suffragist movement of that century. Matilda Joslyn Gage, an outspoken leader for women’s rights, and an advocate to abolish slavery and religious bigotry, became historically invisible in pursuit […]
Click here to begin listening When word that California had gold in its creeks and streams reached the United States of America in 1848, fortune seekers from all over the world soon began to arrive in California by boat, covered wagon, and on foot. Some people made their fortunes by selling provisions or services and […]
Click here to begin listening When word that California had gold in its creeks and streams reached the United States of America in 1848, fortune seekers from all over the world soon began to arrive in California by boat, covered wagon, and on foot. Some people made their fortunes by selling provisions or services and […]
Click here to begin listening Civil disobedience often precedes most social or political change. The American political tradition has deep roots in civil disobedience. The Boston Tea Party, the Underground Railroad of the Civil War period, the Suffrage Movement, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and the Vietnam War protests are well known examples. […]
Click here to begin listening Working on God Why are we the way we are? How should life be lived? When should we start living it that way and why? “Working on God” is a new book by Winifred Gallagher, a science writer who lives in New York City. When her early learning about Christianity […]
Click here to begin listening A Civil Action Water, a necessary element to our survival is expected to be pure, safe and clean when it comes into our home. When it is polluted, the results can be extreme. The people in the town of Woburn, Massachusetts, just west of Boston, had an unusually high rate […]
Click here to begin listening Imagine growing up in a tightly bound community of no more than 60 people who worked from dawn to dusk and who were subjected to unimaginable indignities and torture. Why? Because they were African Americans born into slavery in the United States prior in the first half of the 19th […]
Click here to begin listening Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part […]
Click here to begin listening Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part […]
Click here to begin listening The Virtues of Aging Considering the alternatives, growing older is really not all that bad. The frame of mind that we develop and carry with us as we age controls much of how we feel and behave. James Earl Carter Jr., more often known as Jimmy Carter, the 39th President […]
Click here to begin listening Once, fishes as big as turkeys and sheep swam the seas. Now, most of their few remaining descendants would fit into a frying pan. Dr. Elliot A. Norse, president of the Marine Biology Conservation Institute in Redmond, Washington, believes that this radical reduction in the size and number of the […]
Click here to begin listening Legal Notebook: How to Keep Open Meetings Open and Public Meetings Public The right of the public to know how our government acts is basic to our American system of democracy. Most states and the federal government have enacted laws requiring public meetings to be open, with minimal secrecy provisions. […]
Click here to begin listening We all know that people listen to radio and watch television. The difference between radio and television is in the image. When you listen to radio, your mind creates the image for you. When you watch television, a ready-made image is flashed before your eyes. The early days of television […]
Click here to begin listening Vladivostok, Russia, at the very eastern end of Siberia, is a city of about 800,000 people. It is the same distance north of the equator as is central Oregon and Rome, Italy. It’s close to the border of China and North Korea. This city was closed to everyone, including Russians, […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit Dennis del Castillo and Mercedes Lu, two environmental activists from Peru. I met with them in Lima, Peru on February 5th, 1998. Dennis del Castillo, who holds a Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in soil science and in this interview describes contemporary […]
Click here to begin listening Bill Zacha, the leading force behind the creation of the Mendocino Art justify was a person with vision and moxie and one who made a dream come true. In August 1957, Bill Zacha, was a young married teacher and lived near San Francisco. On a short trip to the village […]
Click here to begin listening John Sutter was an émigré from Switzerland who came to California to establish his New Helvicia in the land of opportunity, located in what is now close to Sacramento, California. A man with vision and organization, and a liking to drink, Sutter built an economically thriving Anglo-American settlement outpost in […]
Click here to begin listening In this program, we are going to go back into California history about 150 years, and visit with the last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico. Pio Pico was born at the San Gabriel Mission in 1801, of Spanish, Italian, Indian and African ancestry. Both as a politician and as […]
Click here to begin listening The Wonder of Boys & A Fine Young Man Boys do not have an easy time growing up and maturing in our complex world these days. The same standard of behavior is frequently expected of boys and girls, often without recognizing the special and different needs of boys. Testosterone is […]
Click here to begin listening The Wonder of Boys & A Fine Young Man Boys do not have an easy time growing up and maturing in our complex world these days. The same standard of behavior is frequently expected of boys and girls, often without recognizing the special and different needs of boys. Testosterone is […]
Click here to begin listening The governments of most countries in the world send an ambassador to other countries to talk about and promote what their country is like and carry on political affairs between the two countries. These ambassadors often have assistants that are called “cultural attaches”. They present the culture, the folklore and […]
Click here to begin listening The Eugene “Bear” Lincoln murder trial ended in the fall of 1997 in Ukiah, California, with an acquittal of the defendant, Mr. Lincoln, on charges of first degree and second-degree murder, and with the jury divided ten to two, on acquittal from manslaughter charges. Apart from the divisive nature of […]
Click here to begin listening The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls Advertising has had a major effect on how we view our bodies and on our individual self-image. The history of how this advertising has come to affect American girls as they pass through menarche and adolescence is presented in a book […]
Click here to begin listening The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls Advertising has had a major effect on how we view our bodies and on our individual self-image. The history of how this advertising has come to affect American girls as they pass through menarche and adolescence is presented in a book […]
Click here to begin listening Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain That Has Gone Wild In this Halloween, 1997, edition of Radio Curious, I spoke with Nicols Fox, the journalist who has written a terribly scary book called “Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain That Has Gone Wild.” It’s truly disgusting; […]
Click here to begin listening Terminal Velocity The concept of memoir versus fiction leads many authors to transform their personal experiences and life to fiction. Blanche Boyd is a native of South Carolina and a Professor of Literature at Connecticut College. She is also the author of the book entitled, “Terminal Velocity.” This is a […]
Click here to begin listening Blue Streak: Swearing, Free Speech and Sexual Harassment Certain words, said at the wrong time or place, may get a person into a heap of trouble. The laws surrounding freedom of speech do not permit us, for example, to shout out “fire” in a theater or advocate the immediate and […]
Click here to begin listening Some people’s memories of President Richard Nixon are negative due to his role in escalating the Vietnam War, the student demonstrations at Kent State University, and Nixon’s ultimate downfall in Watergate. But who was the man? And how could another individual get close to him? “Crazy Rhythm: My Journey from […]
Click here to begin listening The word millet is a term from the Ottoman Empire that ruled parts of Europe Central to the Near East from 1430 to 1921 and means “a recognized people or cultural group who have no homeland.” Millet now applies to the Kurdish people, who live in the Zagros Mountains, where […]
Click here to begin listening The Wisdom of the Body From developmental perspectives, both in individuals and in mankind as a whole, the brain, language, and civilization have separated our species from the rest of the animal kingdom. In May of 1997, I discussed these issues with Sherwin Nuland, a professor of Medical History at […]
Click here to begin listening Wayne Knight, an artist based in Mendocino County, California with over 40 years of experience, traveled very little before he found himself in Phnom Phen, Cambodia in 1995 and 1996. He spent just under a year there, looking, seeing, and painting scenes that previously were beyond his imagination. Wayne Knight […]
Click here to begin listening Stockton, CA, has been called the most diverse community in the world. Fourteen distinct and primary languages are spoken in the Stockton area elementary schools. This enormous cultural diversity has, in the past, resulted in automatic rifle fire at a Stockton elementary school. Scott Spears, a young man who grew […]
Click here to begin listening Few moments in American history have held the tension of the early 1970s. The nation was fundamentally divided between the jaded counter-culture and Nixon’s ‘silent majority,’ a rupture particularly connected to the still-escalating Vietnam War. The release to the public of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971 focused […]
Click here to begin listening Grace Carpenter Hudson was known as the painter-lady in her hometown of Ukiah, CA. She started her career as a painter when she was a teenager in the 1870s. By the time of her death in 1937, she had produced over 600 canvas paintings and numerous other works. Her skills […]
Click here to begin listening Attorney Linda Kremer, a Public Defender in Marin County, California, worked for thirteen months in Phnom Phen, Cambodia, in 1996 and 1997 as Director of the Cambodian Defenders’ Project. The Cambodian Defenders’ Project recruits and trains Khmer men and women to serve as Public Defenders in the criminal courts of […]
Click here to begin listening Spraying of herbicides to kill weeds and/or plants that are considered by some to be pests is a phenomenon of the 20th century. These sprays, in many cases, pollute the water we use in our homes; they destroy and sometimes permanently alter not only the growth cycle of what we […]
Click here to begin listening Love Invents Us Amy Bloom is a Connecticut-based author and psychotherapist and the author of a novel entitled “Love Invents Us.” This book, the enactment of psychological theory about human behavior, also traces the intimate details in the life of Elizabeth Howe from her childhood to middle age. I spoke […]
Click here to begin listening Newspapers were the primary means of mass communication in 19th Century America. They not only told the news, but they pervaded social and political ideas of the times. Horace Greeley was one of the most colorful and outspoken newspapermen of his day. “Read and judge yourself,” was a slogan of […]
Click here to begin listening Chaim Potok, the author of “The Chosen,” “The Gift of Asher Lev,”Davida’s Heart,” and many other novels, chronicled the life of a Russian Jewish family in the non-fictions story, “The Gates of November.” This true story of the Slapeck family, Solomon Slapek, his son Valodya, and daughter-in-law Masha, spans 100 […]
Click here to begin listening A generally accepted theory about human migration tells us that people crossed the landmass that once connected Siberia to Alaska. Some of those people continued walking south and many generations later settled on the western edge of the Amazon Basin in South America in what is now eastern Peru. One […]
Click here to begin listening Every year on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which falls four days before the new moon closest to the winter solstice, the eight day holiday of Chanukah, celebrated worldwide, begins. Before the days of radio and television a person called a magid traveled from town to […]
Click here to begin listening The Greening of America & Opposing the System The market economy often seems to have many inherent problems. Indeed, a Marxist historical view presupposes that the fundamental contradictions of capitalism will inevitably lead to socialism. Far from this extreme, Charles Reich, author of “The Greening of America” and, more recently, […]
Click here to begin listening There is strong historical and anthropological evidence that dogs came across the Bering land bridge with people migrating from Siberia to Alaska. These dogs worked hard to maintain their keep; they werent pets. Instead, they chased and ran down polar bears and located seals hiding beneath the Bering ice. One […]
Click here to begin listening Some of the most studied glaciers in the world are found in Glacier Bay National Park located in southeastern Alaska. These expansive ice sheets cover approximately ten percent of the earth’s surface and hold eighty percent of the world’s fresh water, ninety-nine percent of which can be found in Greenland […]
Click here to begin listening Democracy in America In 1831, a 25 year-old Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, trained as a lawyer, and preoccupied with democracy, came to the US to study this new political scheme. Alexis de Tocqueville and his traveling companion, Gustave de Beaumont, arrived at Newport, RI, in an America comprised, then, of […]
Click here to begin listening PT Barnum, sometimes known as the Prince of Humbug, was born in Connecticut in 1810. In many ways, he personified the American character that Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville described in his book, “Democracy in America.” Barnum delighted in making money and telling the truth, as he saw it. Some truths […]
Click here to begin listening Domingo Sarmiento, a teacher and later President of the Republic of Argentina, spent several years traveling in Europe and the United States in the mid-19th Century. He spent six weeks in the US in the fall of 1847 and later published his account of this visit, selectively interpreting what he […]
Click here to begin listening The Virus of the Mind The developing field of science called the science of memetics is based on evolution, studies memes: how they interact, replicate, and evolve. The biological definition of a meme is a basic unit of cultural transmission. The psychological definition of a meme is a unit of […]
Click here to begin listening People who crave space, freedom, adventure, and opportunities have long been attracted to Alaska. In June of 1996 I spoke with Niilo Kopanan, the son of Finnish immigrants who grew up in New York City and moved to a mountain ridge near Fairbanks, Alaska in 1952. At that time, land […]
Click here to begin listening FBI Secrets: An Agent’s Expose Agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have a history of illegal break-ins to homes and offices and conducting wiretaps without a search warrant. In the years when J. Edgar Hoover was the Director of the F.B.I., these warrantless break-ins came to be known as […]
Click here to begin listening A Civil Action Woburn, MA, is a small, blue-collar community just north and west of Boston. In the 1970s, some children in Woburn, MA, became sick and died from childhood leukemia. Some adults in that town developed rare forms of cancer. All of these people live very close to each […]
Click here to begin listening Genetically engineered food products are an issue that concerns many. In more recent years, Mendocino County has gone so far as to pass a resolution legally prohibiting their growth in the county. My guest in this program, recorded in the late summer of 1995, is Ron Epstein, a philosophy professor […]
Click here to begin listening On the eastern slope of the Continental Divide, about an hour’s drive east of San Jose, Costa Rica, is the Rain Forest Aerial Tram, a tramway that travels through, above and below the rain forest canopy. The rain forest canopy is home to more diverse forms of flora and fauna […]
Click here to begin listening Life Above the Jungle Floor In the middle of the Costa Rican rain forest, about an hour west of San Jose, Costa Rica, on the east side of the continental divide, you can find the Rain Forest Aerial Tram located on a private rain forest reserve. It’s a series of […]
Click here to begin listening Until the mid-1990s, the Redwood Industry dominated much of North Coast economy. In the mid-1990s, due to a number of circumstances particularly involving Pacific Lumber Company and Charles Hurwitz, industry advocates collided with environmentalists in a final hurrah. Few figures among the environmentalists carry as much name-recognition and power as […]
Click here to begin listening The Autobiography of a Face Lucy Grealy, a victim of Ewing’s Sarcoma, beginning when was nine years old suffered from a cancer of the jaw that is 90% fatal in the first few years. In Lucy’s case, it was not fatal. Rather it brought about many intense and emotional experiences […]
Click here to begin listening Understanding Comics, A Rather Colorful Display: The Invisible Art Comics have come to hold quite an important place in contemporary society. Satire, particularly political commentary, is perhaps closest to its essence when expressed in the visual comic. However, it also can be argued that comics have played a far greater […]
Click here to begin listening Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States of America, stands as one of the lead political theorists of American history. His ward republican theory required an agrarian population, a government originating in the individual household, and a consistently questioning and rebellious public.My guest in this edition of Radio […]
Click here to begin listening Prejudices exist in almost every human context, but how do we overcome them and act without stereotypes? This program’s guest is Dr. Jim Cole, who lives in Ellingsburg, Washington and is a psychologist. We discussed diversity training – the process of becoming more aware of the prejudices we have. This […]
Click here to begin listening My guest in this program was Dr. David Kiersey, the author of a book called “Presidential Temperament.” Dr. Kiersey took the Meyers-Briggs Temperament inventories and developed what has come to be known as the Kiersey Temperament Sorter. In so doing, he has established and identified several different types of character […]
Click here to begin listening Don Davis, a story-teller from Okracoke, North Carolina and joins us in this archive edition first broadcast in July 1993, when Radio Curious was called Government, Politics and Ideas. In our conversation, we discuss the role of story-telling in our modern technological society, the art and dance of story-telling in […]
Click here to begin listening The late Professor Alberto Kattan, a Professor of Law at Buenos Aires University and one of the foremost litigators of environmental issues in Argentina, is my guest on this archive edition of Radio Curious. In our conversation originally broadcast in March 1993, we discussed the future of the penguins that […]
Click here to begin listening America’s Future: Transition into the 21st Century William Boyer, a Professor Emeritus and the former Chairman of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaii, is the author of a book called “America’s Future: Transition into the 21st Century.” In this program, we discussed the rights of future […]
Click here to begin listening After the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention in 1992, Richard M. Alston, who was then chairman of the Economics Department at Webber State University in Ogden, Utah, sent a political survey to the delegates to that convention. This survey concerned the perceptions of convention delegates regarding economic […]
Click here to begin listening Between 1892 and 1956 about 12 million people immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island, in the harbor of New York City. Who were these immigrants? Where did they come from? What was the experience of getting to Ellis Island and what happened to them once they arrived? In […]
Click here to begin listening My guest in this program is Sam La Budde, a catalyst, if not the catalyst, in getting dolphins out of tuna nets. He has been an activist with the Earth Island Institute and a number of other organizations. In this conversation, we discussed the history of the dolphins, endangered species […]
Click here to begin listening This archive edition of Radio Curious was originally recorded and broadcast in January of 1992 when Radio Curious was called “Government, Politics and Ideas.” Our guest is Pete Seeger, a folk musician and a very special person in the lives of many people around the world. He brings songs of […]
Click here to begin listening If you like interview programs perhaps you have listened to Fresh Air, produced in Philadelphia and broadcast regularly many public radio stations. The host is Terry Gross, our guest on this edition of Radio Curious. I wanted to know who she is, and what she does to prepare for and […]
Click here to begin listening Maria W. Stewart, as characterized by professor and scholar Sandra Kamusakiri, was a free black woman who lived in Boston, MA, from the 1820s to the early 1840s. She was the first American born woman to lecture in public on political themes and likely the first African-American to speak out in […]
Click here to begin listening Mary Harris Jones, Mother Jones, was born in 1830. She lived a quiet, non-public life until she was approximately 47 years old and then, for almost the next fifty years, she was a fiery union organizer, strike leader, and fighter for safe and humane working conditions, the eight hour day, […]
Click here to begin listening In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” […]
Click here to begin listening In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” […]
Click here to begin listening Our guest in this program was the 1992 Peace and Freedom Party candidate for the 1st Congressional District in California, Phil Baldwin. We spoke about the differences between the Peace and Freedom Party and the Democratic and Republican parties. Particularly of interest in this discussion are the differences between Mr. […]
Click here to begin listening A Part of Speech, Less Than One, To Urania, Marbles, & Watermark Joseph Brodsky, a winner of the Noble Prize, was the United States National Poet Laureate in 1991. Born in what was then Leningrad, Soviet Union, he grew up in a communal apartment, and was very active in language […]
Click here to begin listening This program’s guest is Paul Coverdale, at the time the Director of the Peace Corps, appointed by the first President Bush. He later became a Senator from Georgia. Our discussion concerned the nature of the Peace Corps and Coverdale’s role as the agency’s director. Originally Broadcast: August 19, 1991
Click here to begin listening Our guest in this program was Dr. William Fry, a psychiatrist who has done extensive research in the field of humor. We discussed the psychology and genetics of humor. Much of Dr. Fry’s research has concentrated on Cocoa, the gorilla, and we discussed that as well. This program was originally […]
Click here to begin listening In June, 2002 I overheard an American woman now living in Israel passionately describe her belief that teaching children to be suicide bombers is the worst form of child abuse imaginable. I invited Elana Radley Rosenman, an organizer of the Women’s Interfaith Encounter, a group of Muslim, Christian and Jewish […]
Click here to begin listening “Listen to the Marriage” is a novel by John Jay Osborn, a retired lawyer and law professor. The story centers a marriage counselor and a recently separated couple with demanding jobs and two small children. All thirty-one short chapters take place in the therapist’s office and reveal the angst, anger, […]
Click here to begin listening Who was Charles Darwin and what led him to describe what we now call the theory of evolution? These curious questions are ones that I have been following since I was about ten years old. In 1978 I had the good fortune of visiting the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition of Radio Curious we would like to take you to the country of Bhutan, East of Mount Everest and bordered by India and Tibet. Bhutan is a mystical kingdom considered by many as The Last Shangri-La. We visit “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” an […]
Click here to begin listening Community Radio is one of the most personal forms of radio. It exists world-wide and provides basic information in times of crises and normalcy. Jim Ellinger, of Austin Airwaves (http://austinairwaves.blogspot.com/), is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. He is known for his lifelong fascination with the medium of radio. In […]
Click here to begin listening The personal journal is often not meant for the eyes of anyone but the writer. When a stranger’s journal is read, the reader often becomes a voyeur to the innermost secrets of another. And whether it is a true journal or one of fiction, who cares? Often, it remains a good story. Lynn Freed, […]
Click here to begin listening In the late summer of 2003 Radio Curious visited with Alexandra Fuller who, as a child lived in Rhodesia, Malawi and Zambia in southeast Africa between 1972 and 1990. After her father sided with the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, he was often away from home. Fuller’s resilient […]
Click here to begin listening The place of women in the world and in the American society has changed in many aspects in the recent past. Many people say this is due to the politics of feminism, and some inquire where it will lead. I spoke with Professor Estelle B. Freedman by phone in April 2002 and […]
Click here to begin listening Mushrooms-What they are, how to locate them and how to cook them is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Chef Chad Hyatt, who after leaving a ten year career as an engineer realized that cooking was this true passion, and became a classically trained chef. […]
Click here to begin listening The 2018 International Astronomical Conference held in Bremen, Germany, during the first week of October, 2018, was attended by approximately 2000 people from over 100 counties from the planet earth. One of the attendees is Dennis O’Brien, a retired Ukiah California, attorney. He was presenter at the International Astronomical Conference […]
Click here to begin listening American Taboo, A Murder in Peace Corps In this edition of Radio Curious, we take a look at murder and getting away with murder. In the small island kingdom of Tonga, an American Peace Corps Volunteer murdered another American Peace Corps volunteer in October 1976. “American Taboo, A Murder in […]
Click here to begin listening We all know that people listen to radio and watch television. The difference between radio and television is in the image. When you listen to radio, your mind creates the image for you. When you watch television, a ready-made image is flashed before your eyes. The early days of television […]
Click here to begin listening The economic and cultural changes that have occurred in North American society in the past fifty years have resulted in today’s children looking to their peers, instead of their parents, for direction; for a sense of right and wrong; and for values, identity and codes of behavior. This peer orientation works […]
Click here to begin listening I once had the good fortune of seeing “If Animals Could Talk,” a movie made by Jane Goodall. A segment was about The MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon. The boys incarcerated there have committed serious criminal offenses; some of them are given an opportunity to train dogs, develop […]
Click here to begin listening Where chickens thrive humans are nearby. Portable and good travelers, chickens have been carried by humans around the world. Currently there are three chickens alive at any one time for each individual person alive on earth. Descendants of dinosaurs, chickens are primarily cared for by women, they’re a never ending […]
Click here to begin listening How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less Making people like you is a skill that anybody can learn. By reading body language and synchronizing behavior, it is possible to make meaningful connections with almost anybody in almost any circumstance. We appreciate and like people similar to […]
Click here to begin listening Everybody thinks about love and many people say “I love you”, but how is love defined? The book “How To Love” written by psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Livingston grapples with these and many other questions about love, and how to find a compatible and pleasurable partnership. In this interview, we discuss […]
Click here to begin listening Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is Anthony Adams, Esq., is currently, among other things, a Deputy Public Defender in Mendocino County, California. He’s also poet, formerly a California State Parole Commissioner, and served in the California State Assembly. At a local Bar Association gathering, Adams recited his […]
Click here to begin listening Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona, is our guest in this second of a two part series about abrupt climate change. In part one, podcasted at radiocurious.org, we considered the existing circumstances likely to bring about abrupt climate change, […]
Click here to begin listening Drastic consequences to life as we know it, here on Mother Earth are the topics of this, the first of a two part series on abrupt climate change. Once again we visit with Guy McPherson, a Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona. […]
Click here to begin listening How to ignite sexual passion from a woman’s perspective is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, as we talk with Holly Hollenbeck, a former attorney from Omaha, Nebraska, and author of, “Sex Lives of Wives, Reigniting the Passion, True Confessions and Provocative Advice from Real Women.” Holly Hollenbeck […]
Click here to begin listening In this program we discuss cultivating beauty in the space between brilliance and madness with Ken Paul Rosenthal, an independent film maker based in San Francisco, California. Rosenthal says his “work explores the geography of madness through the regenerative power of nature, urban landscapes, home movies, and archival footage from […]
Click here to begin listening Between 1854 and 1930, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 children were involuntarily put on Orphan Trains, and “placed out” in the southern and western United States. Both protections for the health and safety of these children and record keeping of who they were, where they went and […]
Click here to begin listening Once again we focus on the continuing genocide in the northeast African countries of Sudan and South Sudan. When the nation of South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan on July 9, 2011, the hopes for peace and safety of its citizens were high. That reality however has not come […]
Click here to begin listening New Bedford, Massachusetts, a sea port located in the southeast corner of Massachusetts, at the base of Cape Cod is the locale of our program. Early in New Bedford’s history a group of Quakers from Boston moved there and “New Bedford became a safe haven for formerly enslaved African-Americans” who […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition of Radio Curious, our assistant producer Christina Aanestad is the guest host in a conversation about puberty rights for young women within the Winnemem-Wintu tribe in Northern California. This visit with Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Spiritual Leader and Chief of the Winnemem-Wintu was recorded near Mt. Shasta, California […]
Click here to begin listening Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is Indigo Funk, a 2018 graduate of Ukiah High School, here in Ukiah, California. Funk, who will begin his college career at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island, in the fall of 2018, caught my attention when I heard him speak, rather […]
Click here to begin listening Socrates of Athens, who lived before the Common Era, is respected as one of the greatest independent thinkers of all time. Socrates himself refused to be recognized as a teacher. Instead, Plato, his well-known student and reporter of Socrates’ dialogues, tells us he asked to be seen as a “midwife […]
Click here to begin listening The puckishly whimsical life and times of poet and film maker James Broughton is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious in a visit with Stephen Silha, the producer and director of “Big Joy,” a biographical film of the life and times of James Broughton. Broughton believed that in […]
Click here to begin listening In 1990 Earth First activists from Mendocino County were on a road trip to rally support for a summer effort to help protect old growth redwoods in northern California. For years prior logging practices took well over 90% of the original redwood growth in the area. Darryl Cherney and Judi […]
Click here to begin listening As we all know every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The reaction, however is not necessarily equal in time or unity. It’s often spread over time with serial impacts. In this edition of Radio Curious we focus on the treatment of workers in the automobile industry in the […]
Click here to begin listening Why do you buy what you buy? What do you hope to gain from it and will it make you a happier, sexier and more successful person? In these days of economic downturn many of us may be questioning whether we really need all this stuff and how it impacts […]
Click here to begin listening Radio Curious visits the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1929, the Heard Museum’s mission is dedicated to educating people about the arts, heritage and life ways of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with an emphasis on American Indian tribes of the Southwest. Committed to the sensitive and […]
Click here to begin listening Why some couples get along and others don’t, sometimes to the extent of terminating their relationship, is a curious question, the answer to which is likely to bring both pleasure and unhappiness to each of us. Michael Basta has been a licensed clinical social worker based in Sonoma, County California, […]
Click here to begin listening Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States of America, is respected by some as one of the leading political theorists of American history. He conceptualized a government originating in the households of the individual citizens, and stemming from a questioning and rebellious public, requiring, he believed a primarily […]
Click here to begin listening When word that California had gold in its creeks and streams reached the United States of America in 1848, fortune seekers from all over the world soon began to arrive by boat, covered wagon, and on foot. Some people made their fortunes by selling provisions or services and very few […]
Click here to begin listening When word that California had gold in its creeks and streams reached the United States of America in 1848, fortune seekers from all over the world soon began to arrive by boat, covered wagon, and on foot. Some people made their fortunes by selling provisions or services and very few […]
Click here to begin listening To create thought around Yom Hashoah, known in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day I offer you an archive interview with Ralph Appelbaum, the designer the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington D.C., which opened in April 1993, when this interview was recorded. When Ralph Appelbaum and I were Peace […]
Click here to begin listening History remembers poets of past eras as windows into the civilization of their time. A poet’s words reveal life and feelings we would otherwise never know. New England, in the mid-19th century, was the center of a renaissance of American poetry. Emily Dickinson, better known now than she was then, […]
Click here to begin listening The life of Clarina Nichols and her work in the early women’s rights movement in the United States has been greatly overlooked. As one of the country’s first female newspaper editors and stump speakers, Clarina Nichols spoke out for temperance, abolition and women’s rights at a time when doing so […]
Click here to begin listening This is the second of two interviews with civil rights Attorney Barbara Phillips. She is a contributor to the book “Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers: Reflections From the Deep South: 1964-1980,” whose editor Kent Spriggs we interviewed in December 2017. In part one Phillips shared stories and experiences from her […]
Click here to begin listening We continue our series on “Voices of Civil Rights Lawyers,” a book in which our guest Attorney Barbara Phillips is a contributor, and Attorney Kent Spriggs, our guest in December 2017, is the editor. Now retired, Barbara Phillips first worked as a community organizer in rural Mississippi. Later, as an […]
Click here to begin listening Children of incarcerated parents is topic of this edition of Radio Curious. The estimated 2.7 million children of prison inmates in the United States are losing their visitation rights . Sylvia A. Harvey, an investigative journalist, is our guest. Her story about the diminishing opportunities for children to visit their […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition we again visit with Dr. Terry Allen Kupers, a forensic psychiatrist and the author of “Solitary: The Inside Story of Supermax Isolation and How We Can Abolish It.” In our first visit, available on line at radiocurious.org, Dr. Kupers describes the abysmal conditions in which an estimated […]
Click here to begin listening An estimated 100,000 people are held in solitary confinement in the United States. The conditions in which they live are abysmal. They have little or no contact human contact. Often they are kept in dark, cold, wet cells eight feet by 10 feet in size. Many suffer from mental illness […]
Click here to begin listening Theatre as a commentary on the condition of society is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. The topic is the relationship of police and black men in America in 2015. Our guest is Michael Gene Sullivan, the resident playwright, director and a principal actor in “2015: Freedomland,” this […]
Click here to begin listening You may remember the Radio Curious interview with Bernard Offen, recorded in May 2005, and re-boradcast the end of May 2017. In telling the story of his youth in Poland during World War II, being forced into four different concentration camps established and controlled by the Nazis, Bernard Offen characterized […]
Click here to begin listening “The Post,” a movie released January 12, 2018, reveals the story of how the release of the “Pentagon Papers” (https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers) created a fundamental challenge of the freedom of the press and alleged issues of national security. Few moments in American history have held the tension of the Vietnam war, as […]
Click here to begin listening To assist in the consideration of the impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the United States, I invited my friend Orell Massey to join us again here at Radio Curious. In February 2014, when Massey first visited us he shared his experiences as the first and, so far, the […]
Click here to begin listening This program is presented in honor of my mother, Lillian Brown Vogel, whose vivacious 39,549 days finally caught up with her on December 29, 2017. She died at her home here in Ukiah, California at the age of 108. Smiling until she closed her eyes for the last time, she […]
Click here to begin listening Radio Curious discusses transracial adoptions with Jaciara Bayer, a 30 year old Brazilian born woman, who is currently studying for a master’s degree in social work at the California State University at Hayward. Jaciara Bayer was adopted and brought to the United States at age 11 months by her single, […]
Click here to begin listening Not such a long time ago, time was an arbitrary measure decided by each community without consideration of other localities. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Clark Blaise, author of “Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time.” In the mid 19th century, with […]
Click here to begin listening Is the concept of “mother blame” a method to control women? Is motherhood a really a fearsome job? Will a mother’s mistake or inattention damage a child? Is this different from the fear that fathers have about the safety of their children? These questions are answered by guest Jana Malamud […]
Click here to begin listening How many of us are lonely? What is loneliness and how does it affect us? Approximately 25 years ago, when asked the number of friends in whom we could confide, most people in the United States said “three.” When that question was asked recently most people said “none.” Inquires reveal […]
Click here to begin listening In all successful social and political changes in here in the the United States and elsewhere, civil disobedience plays a significant role. Bus boycotts, sit-ins and marches, coordinated with constitution based legal challenges to blatant racially based restrictions imposed by the white supremacy in the American south, were at the […]
Click here to begin listening This is the second in a two part series on why police in the United States kill more citizens than in any other developed nation. Our guest is Professor Franklin E. Zimring from the Law School at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the 2017 […]
Click here to begin listening This program is devoted to some of the reasons why police in the United States kill and who the dead are. Of the 1,100 killings by police in the United States in the year 2015, 85% were a result of a fatal shooting. 95% of those victims were male. The […]
Click here to begin listening The California coastal redwood trees are some of the oldest living things in the world. Other than cutting the tree down, the best way to determine their age, or the age of any tree is with an incremental borer. That’s a long narrow tube twisted into the tree from the […]
Click here to begin listening Harper’s Ferry National Park is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers in the easternmost corner of what is now West Virginia. This tiny national park, just over a square mile in size, is the location of the 1859 raid led by John Brown, a white abolitionist. […]
Click here to begin listening Whiskey: Scotch, Irish, Absinthe and Moonshine, among others, are the topics of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Crispin Cain, an artisan liqueur maker, distiller and co-owner of Greenway Distillers and American Craft Whiskey based in Redwood Valley, California, about 10 miles north of the Radio Curious studios. […]
Click here to begin listening This program is about some of the consequences of that small pocket size electronic device which, as of January, 2017, 95% of adult Americans own and carry. (www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile) This device is commonly called a cell phone. In May, 2017, estimates indicate the average American over age 18 spends 2 hours, […]
Click here to begin listening Radio Curious discusses the funeral industry in the United States with the owner of a mortuary in a rural northern California town. As professionals describe their work and philosophy, George Leinen, owner of Empire Mortuary in Ukiah, California since 2000, joins us in this edition of Radio Curious to share […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition of Radio Curious we re-visit our December 2006 interview with Dr. Arthur Janov, author of The Primal Scream, who died on October 1, 2017, at his home in Malibu, California. A detailed obituary may be found in the October 4, 2017, on line edition of the New […]
Click here to begin listening The ways different creatures, especially us humans, use our senses to guide ourselves through life has long attracted my curiosity. I’ve often wondered how blind people seem able to orient themselves, and also wondered about their dreams. From time to time, over the years, I would see an attentive woman […]
Click here to begin listening The creative imagination of playwright Don Samson is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. In May 2015, I had the good fortune of seeing a ten minute play entitled “Blind Date,” written by my long time friend, who lives in nearby Willits, California. For many years prior to […]
Click here to begin listening Are you jealous? Have you ever been? Do you know the origin of your jealousy? Jealousy often goes hand in hand with feelings of love, but where does this emotion come from, and how can we manage it? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with psychiatrist and psychoanalyst […]
Click here to begin listening When Donald Trump ran for president of the United States in 2016, he pejoratively pledged to “drain the swamp.” This metaphor, referencing the policies and politicians which he deplored, refers to the large portion of Washington, D.C., which lies as sea level, and was, in fact, a swamp, before it […]
Click here to begin listening Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass were good friends from the mid 19th century to the late 19th century, and were active leaders in the fight for the rights of women and blacks throughout their lives. From time to time they got together to visit and talk about America, as […]
Click here to begin listening “Alienable Rights: The Exclusion of African Americans in a White Man’s Land, 1619 to 2000” is a book in part written by Francis Adams, an independent scholar living in Los Angeles, California. The book posits that the drive for equal rights for black people in the United States has never […]
Click here to begin listening We continue with part two of “Stories Make the World,” with Stephen Most. He’s a playwright, documentary film maker, and author of the book “Stories Make the World: Reflections of Storytelling and the Art of the Documentary.” Most presents vignettes of his mentors and experiences, and employs his personal art of […]
Click here to begin listening Meaning, which comes from stories, is the topic of our two part series on how stories make the world. Our guest is Stephen Most, author of “Stories Make the World: Reflections on Storytelling and the Art of the Documentary.” In this book, Most shares his experience as a playwright, writer, […]
Click here to begin listening Gene expression: Psychosocial and cultural genomics–a healing process that connects the mind-body to emotional and physical healing is our topic. Our guest is Dr. Ernest Rossi, a practicing psychologist, hypnotherapist and an expert in dreams. Dr. Rossi describes how we humans can activate a specific gene within us to advance […]
Click here to begin listening How to get below the radar of your mind and what to do once you’re there is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. One goal is to reach the quantum of personal leaning in the sub-conscious mind and bring that experiential knowledge to the conscious mind of daily […]
Click here to begin listening In our continuing series on dementia we present two interviews with Dr. Betty J. Lacy, clinical psychiatrist, based in Ukiah, California, whose focus is the prevention, care and treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. This chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time, is the cause of […]
Click here to begin listening In our continuing series on dementia we visit with Dr. Betty J. Lacy, clinical psychiatrist, based in Ukiah, California, whose focus is the prevention, care and treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. This chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time is the cause of 60% to […]
Click here to begin listening Approximately twenty percent of the people who are motionless and locked into a deep coma, wholly unable to move or respond, have a conscious awareness. This conscious awareness may be determined with the use of Functional magnetic resonance imaging, commonly called fMRI. This imaging reveals the increased blood flow to […]
Click here to begin listening When a lapse in memory becomes several lapses, and then many, it becomes scary. It could possibly be the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It’s reportedly the cause of two-thirds of the cases of dementia, and is the topic […]
Click here to begin listening Eric Herm is a 4th generation farmer from Ackerly Texas and author of, “Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth: A Path to Agriculture’s Higher Consciousness.” Herm is transitioning his family farm into an organic farm. He recently returned from a march that began in Baltimore, Maryland and ended […]
Click here to begin listening How we each may develop a conscious connection with the individual vertebrae of the spine is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Conna-Lee Weinberg, author of “Mindful Spine: Movement from the Inside Out – Connecting the Brain and the Spinal Vertebrae.” Weinberg has over 30 […]
Click here to begin listening To many of us who live in California, oak woodlands may seem rather ordinary. In reality, that is not the case. Oak woodlands are home to more species of plants, fungi, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and mammals than any other terrestrial ecosystem in the California. In this edition of Radio Curious, […]
Click here to begin listening An artifact of Chinese-American heritage in the form of a long-lost film and the Asian American woman responsible for this film’s creation is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is documentary filmmaker Robin Lung, who made the film Finding Kukan. Finding Kukan tells the story of Li Ling-Ai, […]
Click here to begin listening To many of us who live along the coast of California, earthquakes are a living legend. Much of that legend is closely associated with the San Andreas Fault, a line that runs roughly 800 miles through California, forming the tectonic boundary between the Pacific and North American Plates. As you […]
Click here to begin listening This is the third conversation in our series on near-term human extinction, which Barry has called the most disturbing group of interviews he’s had in the history of Radio Curious. On today’s program, we’ll consider how we can each personally deal with this impossible problem, and how an understanding of […]
Click here to begin listening In this, part two of our series on near term human extinction, we continue our conversation with Dr. Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Dr. McPherson is co-author with Carolyn Baker of Extinction Dialogs: How to Live with Death in […]
Click here to begin listening In September of 2015, Barry visited with Dr. Guy R. McPherson (http://www.guymcpherson.net/), co-author with Carolyn Baker of “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live With Death in Mind.” McPherson is Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. This archive program is the first of a series […]
Click here to begin listening The internationally recognized date of Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar, a calendar based on the phases of the moon. That day also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. In year 2017 of […]
Click here to begin listening What animals think and how their thoughts might be understood is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. A certain amount of insight into this curious question may be obtained from the book “Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior,” by Professor Temple Grandin. […]
Click here to begin listening Two bold millennial adventurers, born in 1988 and 1989, serendipitously parked their Volkswagon Westfalia Camper Van in a campsite adjacent to the Radio Curious Mobile Studio–also a Westfalia Camper Van–near Lone Pine, California. Lone Pine is at the eastern base Mt. Whitney, about 90 miles west of Death Valley. Mary […]
Click here to begin listening Death Valley, the hottest place on earth and the driest and lowest place in North America is a spectacularly beautiful 3.4 million acre National Park. 91% of this outdoor “classroom,” has been designated as a Wilderness and protected by Congress. Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is Linda Slater, […]
Click here to begin listening This program is about President Trump’s connections to Russia, and in particular, Paul Manafort. Manafort was the manager of Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign until he abruptly quit two and a half months before the election. We ask: who is Paul Manafort, where did he come from, and how did he became […]
Click here t0 begin listening In PART TWO of our conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” we continue our discussion of the migration of almost six million black American citizens from the south to northern and western cities between the […]
Click here to begin listening In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson (http://isabelwilkerson.com/), author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great […]
Click here to begin listening This program is about Matilda Joslyn Gage, who lived from 1826 to 1892 and was a vibrant and leading figure in the suffragist movement of that century. Matilda Joslyn Gage, an outspoken leader for women’s rights, and an advocate to abolish slavery and religious bigotry, became historically invisible in pursuit […]
Click here to begin listening Edward Sorel, a satirical caricaturist, and cartoonist, whose first book is Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936, is our guest in this edition Radio Curious. Claiming to be daft about Mary Astor for about a half a century, Sorel describes Astor’s career as a Hollywood-based actress who seemingly […]
Click here to begin listening The power and success of local political action to meet the needs of a community is revealed in the book “Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money and the Remaking of an American City.” Written by Steve Early, with a Forward by Senator Bernie Sanders, “Refinery Town” describes the political change in […]
Click here to begin listening Are you or do you know someone who is tired of endlessly negotiating with a 5-year-old? How about taking a 3-year-old to a restaurant? Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, dressed as adults, and sometimes have their lives planned out for them to be as busy […]
Click here to begin listening Words: what they mean to the speaker and what they mean to the listener are the bedrock of human communication and cultural understanding. In this edition of Radio Curious, we talk with Susanna Janssen, the author of Wordstruck! The Fun and Fascination of Language. She discusses the multiple aspects of the […]
Click here to begin listening The economic and cultural changes that have occurred in North American society in the past fifty or so years have resulted in today’s children looking to and associating with their peers, instead of their parents, for direction; for a sense of right and wrong; and for values, identity, and codes […]
Click here to begin listening This week, we continue our discussion with ethnologist Dr. Victoria Patterson. We talk about how the United States treated the Native people of North America initially, and later during the westward expansion. We also discuss the consequences to the Native people when they entered into written treaties with the United […]
Click here to begin listening In the 56 years between 1774 and 1832, 368 Treaties were agreed upon between several sovereign nations of the native peoples of North America the United States. Our guest is Victoria Patterson, Ph.D., an ethnologist who has studied the Native People of North America for the past 40 years. The […]
Click here to begin listening Fast food is what many people eat in America, and increasingly in other countries. It is advertised to be fun, tasty, and easily available. Americans spend more money annually on fast food than is spent on higher education. Eric Schlosser is our guest in this archive edition. He’s the author of Fast […]
Click here to begin listening This program is devoted to the pending Senate hearings and possible confirmation of Rex Tillerson as the next Secretary of State of the United States. Tillerson, the Exxon Mobile Company Chief Executive Officer, chosen by Donald Trump to the head of the State Department, has a long history in the […]
Click here to begin listening The Wild Muir One of the greatest early conservationists of America was a Scottish immigrant named John Muir who, as a young boy, went first to Wisconsin and then later, as a young man in the 1860s, moved onward to California. A friend of President Theodore Roosevelt, he successfully sought […]
Click here to begin listening With the massive change in the government of the United States about to take place, I take this opportunity to share with you the views of Sam Farr, who is retiring after 23 ½ years as a member of Congress. He represented Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties of the central […]
Click here to begin listening Intelligence bears the precious gift of bringing into being the dream only imagination makes possible our seeing. And the dreams found deep within the chambers of our hearts are best expressed and brought to life by the creative arts. This poem presents the world view of Robert M. Axt, our […]
Click here to begin listening Story teller, writer, publicist and editor Roberta Werdinger is our guest once again. In the course of our November 21, 2016, visit when Roberta Werdinger when her personal story Barbwire and Flowers, it was clear that she had more to say. Werdinger is a woman of words, who studies the […]
Click here to begin listening Who was Charles Darwin and what led him to describe what we now call the theory of evolution? These curious questions are ones that I have been following since I was about ten years old. In 1978 I had the good fortune of visiting the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west […]
Click here to begin listening “Barbed Wire and Flowers”: A daughter’s story of her perception and relationship with her father. He, a survivor of the holocaust, and she, his adult child describes the strength of his life incumbent on her youth, and their visit to one of the two concentration camps where he was interned […]
Click here to begin listening The science of pride, authentic pride and hubristic pride is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest, Dr. Jessica Tracy, (http://ubc-emotionlab.ca/people/dr-jessica-tracy/) is the author of Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. She is a professor of psychology at the University of […]
Click here to begin listening The Virtues of Aging – Considering the alternatives, growing older is really not all that bad. The frame of mind that we develop and carry with us as we age controls much of how we feel and behave. James Earl Carter Jr., more often known as Jimmy Carter, the 39th […]
Click here to begin listening In 1995, James A. Getty, who appears in public as Abraham Lincoln, visited Ukiah, California and joined us in the studios of Radio Curious. In talking with President Lincoln about his life, the events of his time and about his presidency, the conversation focused upon the economics of the mid-19th […]
Click here to begin listening The lack of pure water was one of the several things that resulted in the development of wine as a source of potable liquid for human intake. Putting that aspect of human history in a time and place in relation to social and political events, and the tracing of the […]
Click here to begin listening Imagine growing up in a tightly bound community of no more than 60 people who worked from dawn to dusk and who were subjected to unimaginable indignities and torture. Why? Because they were African Americans born into slavery in the United States prior in the first half of the 19th […]
Click here to begin listening New Bedford, Massachusetts, a sea port located in the southeast corner of Massachusetts, at the base of Cape Cod is the locale of our program. Early in New Bedford’s history a group of Quakers from Boston moved there and “New Bedford became a safe haven for formerly enslaved African-Americans” who […]
Click here to begin listening Whaling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the home of Herman Melville, author of “Moby Dick,” is our topic today. Our guest is Michael Dyer, the senior historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The Whaling Museum reveals the lives of the largest mammals on earth. The museum’s social history collection shares […]
Click here to begin listening Whaling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the home of Herman Melville, author of “Moby Dick,” is our topic today. Our guest is Michael Dyer, the senior historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The Whaling Museum reveals the lives of the largest mammals on earth. The museum’s social history collection shares […]
Click here to begin listening Racism, as a part of the American religious culture, can be traced to the religious concepts of some of the earliest European settlers in North America. Professor Paul R. Griffin explores these roots in his book, “Seeds of Racism in the Soul of America,” linking the concepts in the Puritan […]
Click here to begin listening The concept of “I’m right and you’re wrong” is increasingly prevalent during governmental political struggles and those of local public radio stations. How to identify the narcissists in our lives is the topic of this archive edition of Radio Curious in our 2015 conversation with Joseph Burgo, Ph.D. He is […]
Click here to begin listening The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of “Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.” Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a […]
Click here to begin listening The transcendent experience of street basketball is the topic of two conversations with Onaje X. O. Woodbine, author of “Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball.” Woodbine grew up in the inner-city of Roxbury, Massachusetts, became a skilled street basketball player and attended Yale University on a […]
Click here to begin listening Police misconduct and accountability is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Out guest is Dr. Joseph Marshall, a member of the San Francisco Police Commission where he leads the Commissions efforts to reform policing policies at the San Francisco Police Department. In addition Dr. Marshall is the executive […]
Click here to begin listening Guns: Who has them, how are they obtained and what are they used for, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. In this two part series on guns, we visit with Sheriff Tom Allman, of Mendocino County, in rural northern California. Tom Allman has worked in law enforcement […]
Click here to begin listening Guns: Who has them, how are they obtained and what are they used for, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. In this, the first of a two part series on guns, we visit with Sheriff Tom Allman, of Mendocino County, in rural northern California. Tom Allman has […]
Click here to begin listening Radio Curious revisits a conversation with Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey who, for the past 20 years has been the only black law enforcement officer in the county’s history. A native of South Carolina, Deputy Massey was a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps assigned to the […]
Click here to begin listening Radio Curious revisits a conversation with Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey who, for the past 20 years has been the only black law enforcement officer in the county’s history. A native of South Carolina, Deputy Massey was a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps assigned to the […]
Click here to begin listening The silence of doctors, nurses and medics in cases of torture and physical abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Steven Miles, the author of “Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity and the War On Terror,” a book […]
Click here to begin listening History remembers poets of past eras as windows into the civilization of their time. A poet’s words reveal life and feelings we would otherwise never know. New England, in the mid-19th century, was the center of a renaissance of American poetry. Emily Dickinson, better known now than she was then, […]
Click here to begin listening Do people over a certain age necessarily loose mental acuity? According to Dr. Gene Cohen, the answer is “no.” Dr. Cohen, a psychiatrist and gerontologist has determined that certain genes are activated by experience as we age, allowing our personalities to grow and change. The brain has reserves of strength […]
Click here to begin listening Death is of the subject of this program. We all will experience it, hopefully without pain and with loved ones and friends near. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Robin Cottrell and Margy Henderson, of Ukiah, California, who describe their work as death midwives. This is part […]
Click here to begin listening Welcome to this special edition of Radio Curious with Congressman Sam Farr. We spoke with Congressman while he and approximately 150 other Democratic members of Congress were participating in an unprecedented sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives. The issue is gun control. These members of Congress are […]
Click here to begin listening We humans are a lot like the other primates on earth, but because we don’t associate with them, we often assume that our interpersonal behavior–how we make friends, work together, interact with strangers, relate to our spouse–is the product of our unique personalities and environment. In this edition of Radio […]
Click here to begin listening This conversation discusses the myth of when and how trauma from child sexual abuse occurs. Our guest, Susan A. Clancy, Ph.D., and author of “The Trauma Myth: The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children – and Its Aftermath” discusses how childhood sexual abuse abuse is perceived by the victim; […]
Click here to begin listening Most people are familiar with sex. Some like it. Some like it a lot and seek to engage in sex more than others. Some people are inclined to think that the desire for “too much sex,” however much that may be, is due to a mental disorder. In this edition […]
Click here to begin listening Most people are familiar with sex. Some like it. Some like it a lot and seek to engage in sex more than others. Some people are inclined to think that the desire for “too much sex,” however much that may be, is due to a mental disorder. In this edition […]
Click here to begin listening It is said that in the early part of World War II, it took 500,000 Italian soldiers to occupy Ethiopia, and one Ethiopian soldier to conquer Rome. 19 years later, this one Ethiopian solder, Abebe Bikila competed barefoot in the 1960 Olympiad marathon foot race in Rome, Italy, leaving all […]
Click here to begin listening Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii, is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. She visited Ukiah, California on May 7, 2016, to speak on behalf of Presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders and stopped by Radio Curious for a visit. Congresswoman Gabbard represents the 2nd Congressional District of Hawaii, the […]
Click here to begin listening As we all know every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The reaction, however is not necessarily equal in time or unity. It’s often spread over time with serial impacts. In this edition of Radio Curious we focus on the treatment of workers in the automobile industry in the […]
Click here to begin listening What would it be like for you if you were deaf? If you could not speak your first word until you were six? If you had three years of education, your first language was German, and you later emigrated to another country where they speak English? Ingelore is the first […]
Click here to begin listening Richard Nixon and the movies he watched while he was president is the topic of this archived edition of Radio Curious. On his third night in office, January 22, 1969 Nixon saw “The Shoes of the Fisherman” in the White House movie theater. From then until August 1973, when he […]
Click here to begin listening This program is about “passing,” a term sometimes used to define a person of color who passes as white. From the 2004 Radio Curious archives we revisit a conversation with film director Robert Benton, about his film “The Human Stain.” It’s a movie about the life of Coleman Silk, an […]
Click here to begin listening I once had the good fortune of seeing “If Animals Could Talk,” a movie made by Jane Goodall. A segment was about The MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon. The boys incarcerated there have committed serious criminal offenses; some of them are given an opportunity to train dogs, develop […]
Click here to begin listening This radio program is about reading. Learning to read is often confusing and frustrating. Parents and teachers sometimes create stress that flows from their personal angst to the frustration of the child trying to read. Reading to a nonjudgemental creature, who never comments and always appears to pay attention, often […]
Click here to begin listening Approximately 500,000 children in the United States between the ages of one and five suffer from lead poisoning as a result of lead in their blood above the level for which public health action is recommended. No safe blood lead level in children has been identified and lead exposure can […]
Click here to begin listening Who we are and where we come from is a crucial question that now we are more able to answer than ever before. The examination and analysis of our individual DNA, in addition to answering a myriad of medical and forensic secrets also reveals the mix of our individual ancestors […]
Click here to begin listening The place of women in the world and in the American society has changed in many aspects in the recent past. Many people say this is due to the politics of feminism, and some inquire where it will lead. I spoke with Professor Freedman by phone in April 2002 and […]
Click here to begin listening In this edition of Radio Curious, we’ll visit again with Dr. Elizabeth Allen, a Professor of nursing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As a high school student, Dr. Allen was one of the first African American students to integrate the West Virginia high schools in 1957. We […]
Click here to begin listening In May, 1954 the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared, ”segregation in public education is a denial of the equal protection of the laws.” Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, was a leader of many that gave strength and support to the initial struggles for equal civil […]
Click here to begin listening The exodus of approximately six million black people from the American South between 1915 and 1970 had a significant role in setting the stage of the civil rights movement of the early 1960s. Many of the children of those who left the south participated in desegregation efforts which included the […]
Click here to begin listening Maria W. Stewart, was a free black woman who lived in Boston, Massachusetts, from the early 1820s to the early 1840s. She was the first American born woman to lecture in public on political themes and likely the first African-American to speak out in defense of women’s rights. A forerunner […]
Click here to begin listening The sting of separation and the wearing of an uncomfortable truth is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. The 2.7 million children of prison inmates in the United States are losing their visitation rights. Sylvia A. Harvey, an investigative journalist, is our guest. Her story about the diminishing […]
Presidential Candidate, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders was a guest on Radio Curious in 1991, early in his first term in Congress. Over the course of his 25 years as an Independent member of the House of Representatives and the Senate he has consistently advocated for economic reform and social justice. When Bernie Sanders and […]
The true, but stranger than fiction life story of Paul Weidlinger, characterized as “The Restless Hungarian”, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. At age 25 Weidlinger , who hid his Jewish roots in plain view, fled to Bolivia to escape the Holocaust. Five years later he resettled in the United States and […]
The consequences of the control of reproduction and the reproduction of daily life that began about the time of the creation of the moveable type printing press, in approximately the year 1440 is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, the Founding Director of the Matilda Joslyn […]
Everybody thinks about love and many people say “I love you”, but how is love defined? The book “How To Love” written by psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Livingston grapples with these and many other questions about love, and how to find a compatible and pleasurable partnership. In this interview, we discuss how to choose more carefully, […]
Concussion injuries to our children is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious as we visit with Dr. Robert Cantu, the author of “Concussions and Our Kids”. Dr. Cantu’s medical career centers on neurosurgery and sports medicine and is dedicated to addressing the concussion crisis through research, treatment, education and prevention. Dr. Cantu writes […]
When we purchase and consume what we believe is necessary for our lives, do we obtain what we need or do we end up with what the forces of 21st century capitalism tell us what we need? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Benjamin Barber, author of “Consumed, How Markets Corrupt Children, […]
The effect of the voluntary climate change Accords adopted by 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the Parties, commonly known as the COP-21, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Those Accords, found on the United Nations website, have been severely criticized due to the time for compliance and the lack of […]
Peru is a county about which I’ve been curious for over 60 years, beginning when I first learned of the Inca Empire. Ten years later the Peace Corps sent me to Peru as volunteer for two years in 1964. Peru’s current societies are windows into a world in which many Andean people live in the […]
In this program we visit Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the effects of the November 13, 2015, Islamic extremist terrorist attacks in Paris, France. Our guest is Jean-Jacques Jespers, who recently retired as the anchor for the television news broadcast aired nightly in French on the Belgium National Television Network. While the terrorist attacks occurred in […]
In this 1997 edition of Radio Curious, we visited with Bob Blincoe, a Presbyterian minister, who lived and worked among the Kurds in the Zagros Mountains from 1990 to 1996. The Kurdish people have long been aptly referred to as a “millet.” This is a Turkish term that originated in the Ottoman Empire when […]
In this program we visit concepts of evolution and intelligence, some of which were raised after our series on near term human extinction. What is intelligence? What kind of intelligence do non human creatures have? What are the different levels of intelligence that can be found in single cells, or invertebrates, up to human beings? […]
Buzzy Martin began teaching music to at risk kids in Juvenille Hall. He then taught guitar in San Quentin Prison for three and a half years, where he gained a unique “insiders” perspective about prison life, prisoners, and the guards. His book, “Don’t Shoot! I’m the Guitar Man,” chronicles his experiences teaching prison inmates, including […]
When the polar ice caps melt, sea level will rise. That’s happened earlier in the history of the world, and it appears it will happen again. In this edition of Radio Curious, we bring you the second of a two part conversation about global warming and sea level rise, with Peter D. Ward, a paleontologist […]
When the polar ice caps melt, sea level will rise. That’s happened earlier in the history of the world, and it appears it will happen again. In this edition of Radio Curious, we bring you a two part series on global warming and sea level rise, with Peter D. Ward, a paleontologist and professor of […]
Racism has, for too long, been a part of the American experience: the Civil War and the constitutional amendments that followed, the Supreme Court decisions ordering the desegregation of schools, and the Civil Rights movements did not end racism in America. Annie S. Barnes, holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Virginia […]
With Republican John Boehner, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives having announced his resignation at the end of this month, and Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican majority in the House choosing not to be a candidate for Speaker in the election now set for October 29, the House is reportedly […]
How to identify the narcissists in our lives is the topic of our conversation with Joseph Burgo, Ph.D. He is the author of “The Narcissist You Know: Defending Yourself Against Extreme Narcissists in an All-About Me Age.” Dr. Burgo describes narcissism as a more-common-than-we think personality type, based on shame, that covers a wide spectrum […]
This is third conversation in our series on near term human extinction, the most disturbing group of interviews in the twenty-five year history of Radio Curious. In this program, faced with a grim future of the human species on earth, we consider the role of hospice for all of us and for our planet. Our […]
In this, part two of our series on near term human extinction, we continue our conversation with Dr. Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Professor McPherson is co-author with Carolyn Baker of “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live With Death in Mind.” McPherson presents what […]
Imagine the human habitat in which we all live changing so rapidly that life as we know it is extinguished. Temperatures that are getting hotter than ever, decades long droughts, catastrophic fires, melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and unprecedented winter storms are expected to radically limit food production and availability of potable water. In […]
Polygamy used to be a central aspect in Mormon beliefs. However, it has not been for over 100 years now, due partly to considerable effort by Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young’s many wives. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with David Ebershoff, author of “The 19th Wife,” the story of Ann […]
In this program we visit with David Ebershoff, author of “Pasadena,” a book about storytelling. “Pasadena” is the story of Linda Stamp, a young girl born and raised on a rural coastal area near San Diego, California, beginning when she was born in 1903. Linda learned the many different ways of the sea as she grew […]
Marriage, divorce and the role of women in the Catholic church are some of the topics of this edition of Radio Curious, the second of two visits with Father Tom Reese, a member of the Society of Jesus. In the first visit, we discussed his view of Pope Francis, the role of prayer, and the possibility […]
In recognition of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in September 2015, Radio Curious presents a series of visits with Father Tom Reese, a member of the Society of Jesus. In this first of two visits, we discuss his view of Pope Francis, the role of prayer, changes within the Catholic Church’s view of […]
Approximately one child in five suffers from dyslexia, a condition that makes learning to read difficult and in some cases seemingly impossible. In this archive edition of Radio Curious, originally broadcast in August of 2003, we visit with Dr. Sally Shaywitz, a Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale University Medical School and the co-director of […]
Our story this week is about Ellis Island and the people who arrived there when they first came to America. Between 1892 and 1956 about 12 million immigrants came to the United States and entered the country through Ellis Island, in the harbor of New York City. Who were these people? Where were they from? What […]
Radio Curious goes back into California history about 165 years, and visits with the last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico. Born at the San Gabriel Mission in 1801, Pico was of Spanish, Italian, Indian and African ancestry. Both as a politician and as an entrepreneur, he espoused the views of many native-born “Californarios” over […]
The financing of political campaigns is the subject of this, July 21, 2015, edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Ari Berman, a contributing writer for The Nation Magazine, who writes regularly on election and voting rights issues. His May 19, 2015 article is titled “How the Money Primary is Undermining Voting Rights.” Berman asks: […]
Theatre as a commentary on the condition of society is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. The topic is the relationship of police and black men in America in 2015. Our guest is Michael Gene Sullivan, the resident playwright, director and a principal actor in “2015: Freedomland,” this year’s production by the San […]
Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part of California, the coyote is […]
Cultures that have no written language pass on their histories through oral traditions. The stories are the way that social values and traditions are taught by one generation to the next. Animals often play a significant character role in these stories. In the Native American traditions of the northwest part of California, the coyote is […]
The creative imagination of playwright Don Samson is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. In May 2015, I had the good fortune of seeing a ten minute play entitled “Blind Date,” written by my long time friend, who lives in nearby Willits, California. For many years prior to becoming a playwright, Don Samson […]
In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Temple Grandin a person with autism and a Phd in animal science. Autism made school and social life difficult for Dr. Grandin, but it made working with and understanding animals easy. In her book “Animals Make Us Human” Dr. Grandin lays out the emotional needs that […]
In this edition of Radio Curious we honor and pay tribute to folk singer Ronnie Gilbert, who died on June 6, 2015 at the age of 88. She is well known for her powerful contralto voice as a member of the Weavers, the extraordinarily popular folk music quartet that in 1950s and 1960s. She also […]
We all know that there are various forms of air pollution that affect our health and the health of our environment, but what do we really breathe? What is in the air that we breathe? In this archive edition of Radio Curious, recorded in the Radio Curious studios on January 9, 2009 we visit with […]
Secrecy of and revelation about the trip to America to secure a new life during the Chinese Exclusion era is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Felicia Lowe, whose film “Chinese Couplets” tells her mother’s story. Felicia Lowe was met with refusals and silence when as a child she asked […]
Amei Wallach, producer and director of the documentary film “Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here,” about the lives of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. Amei Wallach met Ilya Kabakov in 1987, when she was in the Soviet Union investigating the effect of perestroika on the arts. Unavoidably […]
The secret revealed in the life of Lacey Schwartz, born in 1987 to a white Jewish family in rural upstate New York, where she grew up, is that her biological father was black. The few who knew her truth remained silent until after her first year of college when she asked her mother why she […]
Keeping young black men alive and free is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Joseph E. Marshall, who in 1987 co-founded the Omega Boys Club of San Francisco, now called “Alive and Free,” of which he is the executive director. Alive and Free is a community violence prevention effort for […]
The best spy system ever created, what the internet does and how it’s controlled by national forces are the topics of this edition of Radio Curious. We visit with Columbia Law Professor Eben Moglen, a developer of the Freedom Box, which prevents government, businesses and other intruders from obtaining your personal information and internet uses. […]
Few moments in American history have held the tension of the Vietnam war, especially in the early 1970′s. The nation was fundamentally divided between young people and their parents, who saw no reason for the United States to be in Vietnam, and President Richard Nixon’s “silent majority,” causing a rupture particularly connected to the still-escalating […]
In honor of Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day which falls on April 16, in 2015, we visit with Bernard Offen, a survivor of five concentration camps in Poland, when he was a young teenager during World War II. Bernard Offen leads tours of these concentration camps and says, “You don’t have to be a […]
Where chickens thrive humans are nearby. Portable and good travelers, chickens have been carried by humans around the world. Currently there are three chickens alive at any one time for each individual person alive on earth. Descendants of dinosaurs, chickens are primarily cared for by women, they’re a never ending source of slang and continue […]
We continue our discussion of racism and white privilege in Mendocino County, California, with a 30 year old Brazilian born woman, who is currently studying for a master’s degree in social work at the California State University at Hayward. Jaciara Bayer was adopted and brought to the United States at age 11 months by her […]
Imagine Darya, a twelve year old girl in a remote village of Afghanistan. Her father forces her to marry a drug lord as part payment for an opium drug trade. Her father is not home and she is about to be taken from her family. Desperately, her hands trembling, she implores you, a complete stranger: […]
Radio Curious continues our conversation about racial discrimination, cultural gender norms and expected behaviors. Our guest, Josanna Kiggins, is a parent, student, singer, singing and cultural education teacher, and a medical receptionist. A native of Salvador, Brazil Josanna has lived here in Ukiah, California, for 30 years. She’s someone I’ve known almost that long. […]
I presume that all of you have, at one time or another, noticed that within the greater animal kingdom, the female of our species has a curvaceous body shape visibly different from the shape of the male homo sapiens. Why women have curves and how these curves reflect on other aspects of our lives, is […]
The experience of immigrating, at age 13, to America from Nairobi, Kenya, and bringing the traditional roots of her ancestors’ lives from the remote village of the Meru people of northeast Kenya, are the stories told in this edition of Radio Curious by our guest Brenda Mbaabu. She shares her tribal legends, family background, and […]
Black history is acknowledged in the month of February in the United States and is lived every day in the African continent. The history of the continuing genocide by attrition within the nation of Sudan is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Sudan is located in northeast Africa, south of Egypt, and east […]
Radio Curious continues its series racism in a conversation with Bill Durham, a 59 year old black man, originally from Ohio who grew up in family of civil rights activists and now lives in Mendocino County, California. We explore the effects of racism in the United States and how to end it. Bill Durham, works […]
Radio Curious continues our series on racism in Mendocino County, California. Our guest is Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey who, for the past 20 years has been the only black law enforcement officer in the county’s history. A native of South Carolina, Deputy Massey was a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps […]
Our guest on this edition of Radio Curious is Deputy Sheriff Orell Massey—a black man, native of South Carolina and a 20 year veteran of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department. He is also a 21 year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps where he was assigned to the Embassy detail. When I asked Sheriff Massey […]
In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” Her book tells the untold […]
In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” Her book tells the untold […]
Psychosocial and cultural genomics is a healing process that connects the mind-body to emotional and physical healing and is our topic in this archived edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Ernest Rossi, a practicing psychologist, hypnotherapist and an expert in dreams. Dr. Rossi describes how we humans can activate a specific gene within […]
Bill Bracewell, a doctor of physical therapy practicing in Ukiah, California, for over 35 years, is our guest on this edition of Radio Curious. He and I visited in the Radio Curious studios on December 15, 2014. We begin with Dr. Bracewell’s description of physical therapy: maximize, restore and maintain range of movement. The book […]
For this edition of Radio Curious, broadcast at the beginning of our 25th year on the air, I invited my friend John Gravois to interview me about my experiences, reflections and thoughts over the past 24 years that I’ve been the host and producer of Radio Curious. John Gravois is the deputy editor of Pacific […]
Marcos Pereda, a native of Havana, Cuba, and a singer-songwriter who lives in Ukiah, California, is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. The background music in this weeks program is a song titled “Center” that he wrote and then performed on his guitar in our studios. Pereda returned from a two month visit […]
We continue our look into the Ferguson, Missouri, investigation of the August 9, 2014, shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year old black man, shot three times in the head by the now former Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson. The St. Louis County, Missouri, grand jury, convened by District Attorney and Prosecutor Robert […]
The shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18 year old black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9, 2014, by a since retired white Ferguson, Missouri, police office, Darren Wilson, is the subject of this, the first of two Radio Curious interviews devoted to this topic. Our guest is Law Professor James A. Cohen, who […]
Why do we eat some animals and not others? That is the topic of this conversation with Melanie Joy, Ph.D. She is the author of “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.” Carnism is the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals. Carnism is […]
The shooting and deaths at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington, on October 24, 2014, brought sadness, fear, unity and a special form of healing to the Tulalip and other Native people of the area. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Jerome Edge, a Native American of Swinomish and Upper Skagit heritage, […]
Hope is one of the most fundamental and powerful of human emotions, and also one of the least studied and understood. “The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness,” by Dr. Jerome Groopman, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard University and a writer for the New Yorker magazine, examines the role […]
John Steinbeck’s novel, “East of Eden” was published September 1952 and the movie-made soon thereafter-is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Bruce Levene, author of “James Dean in Mendocino: The Filming of East of Eden.” The Mendocino Film Festival will screen “East of Eden” on Friday, November 21 and Sunday, […]
To many of us who live along the coast of California, earthquakes are a living legend. That legend is closely associated with the San Andreas Fault, an earthquake line which runs roughly 800 miles through California forming the tectonic boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. More than just a legend, earthquakes […]
The level of lead in the blood of children is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Martha E. Richmond, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Director of Environmental Science, at Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Richmond’s current work centers on lead poisoning in children and involves assessment of environmental […]
The Oregon Caves, located about 70 miles northeast of Crescent City, California in the Oregon Caves National Monument, are a place full of interest, mystery, and history. The caves were located in 1874 when Elijah Davidson chased his dog into the caves. The Oregon Caves are very unique—possibly due to the fact that it is […]
Wind Cave National Park, the eighth National Park established in 1903 and located in the Black Hills of southwest South Dakota, is the subject this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Tom Farrell, Chief of Interpretation at Wind Cave National Park. Lakota stories speak of a hole in the Black Hills that blows air which […]
Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is located in southern Idaho in the middle of the Snake River Plane halfway between Yellowstone National Park and Boise, Idaho. It encompasses about 11,000 sq. miles, an area about the size of the State of Rhode Island. In this special and unique part of the earth, […]
California wildfires present a serious public safety concern, create fear of serious loss for many and cost millions of dollars to fight. In California each fire is given a name, as is done for hurricanes. We devote this edition of Radio Curious, to the Lodge Fire that occurred in Mendocino County, California in August 2014. […]
Around 60,000 years ago, a man – identical to us in all important genetic respects – lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. This is known because the secrets of human evolution are hidden in our genetic code. In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with geneticist Spencer Wells, author […]
In this edition of Radio Curious we revisit a conversation with Spencer Wells about his book, “Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization,” published in 2010. Our interview is a follow-up to a 2003 conversation about his book, “The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey,” in which Wells traces our routes as small bands of […]
September 11, 2014, marks the 105th birthday of a woman I know well: A woman who has played the piano for 98 years, and in my opinion is the best mother in the world. In 2009, her book “What’s My Secret? One Hundred Years of Memories and Reflections,” a memoir of her first ten decades […]
Until September 11, 2001, The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911 was the deadliest workplace disaster in the history of New York City. The fire shocked the nation and exposed the life-threatening conditions in America’s sweatshop industry. It gave energy to the labor movement and unions, and remade the Democratic Party of the time. […]
How to ignite sexual passion from a woman’s perspective is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, as we talk with Holly Hollenbeck, a former attorney from Omaha, Nebraska, and author of, “Sex Lives of Wives, Reigniting the Passion, True Confessions and Provocative Advice from Real Women.” Holly Hollenbeck says her book is not […]
Welcome to part two of our conversations about the erosion of gender equality in China with our guest Leta Hong Fincher, the author of “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China”. Her book is based in part on her research for the Ph.D. in sociology she received in 2014 from Tsinghua University in […]
The erosion of gender equality in China is the topic of this two part series with Leta Hong Fincher, the author of “Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.” This book is based in part on her research for the Ph.D. in sociology she received in 2014 from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. […]
What happens to the digital trails of our personal information and ideas that remain online when we research or upload data? Is this information accessible to others? Could it be used later to our potential detriment or character defamation? In this, the second of a two part archived conversation with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Professor of Internet […]
What is the importance that forgetting has played throughout human history? What will be the effects on society, relationships and humanity now that so many aspects of our lives are digitally preserved? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger author of “Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age,” and our guest in this archive edition of Radio Curious, […]
This radio program is about reading. Learning to read is often confusing and frustrating. Parents and teachers sometimes create stress that flows from their personal angst to the frustration of the child trying to read. Reading to a nonjudgemental creature, who never comments and always appears to pay attention, often helps to create reading fluency. […]
The “responsibility to protect,” established by the United Nations, is a governmental duty to respect and protect international human rights. This responsibility, its adoption, and how countries, especially the United States exercise it, is the topic of our second, 2014 conversation with Dr. Seyom Brown. Dr. Brown is currently an adjunct senior fellow at the […]
Contradictions in the United States’ nuclear weapons policy is the subject of this edition of Radio Curious. Our guest is Dr. Seyom Brown, who during the past 55 years has taught at major universities, been a special adviser to the Department of Defense and Department of State, and has written twelve books on the United […]
Songs of a political nature are not surprising given the similarities and parallel community structures of politics and religions, with each community promoting the behaviors and concepts it supports as being the most appropriate. The art of political song, which has been crafted and heard world wide since time immemorial, is the topic of this […]
In honor of LGBT Pride Month, this edition of Radio Curious discusses one man’s personal experience in recognizing his homosexuality. Until the mid 1970s many people considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder and/or a crime, as it is still in some personal and political belief systems. Homosexual people sometimes were housed in mental institutions, […]
This program is about honey. We visit with Keith Feigin, owner of Lovers Lane Farm, at his bee keeping center in Ukiah, California. We discuss bees on the loose, how they orient themselves to a new location, communicate with each other and how Keith harvests the “liquid gold.” Keith was just leaving to catch up […]
We continue with the second of two archive visits with Benjamin Franklin, as portrayed by Ralph Archbold. Archbold has made a career of interpreting Benjamin Franklin for over 30 years. In part one of this series we discussed Benjamin Franklin’s early life, his inventions, his role in the secession from England and in the […]
This is the first of two archived visits with Benjamin Franklin, as portrayed by Ralph Archbold. Benjamin Franklin arrived in Philadelphia as a young man and became an inventor, printer, scientist, author, governor, activist in the war for independence from England, an ambassador to France, and the first post master general in the United states, […]
In our last interview we visited with the producers and directors of the film “States of Grace,” about the life of a woman honored by The Dalai Lama for her medical work at the height of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco, Ca. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with that woman, Dr. […]
On May 21, 2008 Dr. Grace Damman was crushed in a head-on collision on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Her abdominal organs were shoved into her lung cavity and her bones and muscles were extensively injured. A practicing Buddhist, Dr. Grace engaged her spirituality to survive this crisis, heal and accept the new terms of […]
The puckishly whimsical life and times of poet and film maker James Broughton is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious in a visit with Stephen Silha, the producer and director of “Big Joy,” a biographical film of the life and times of James Broughton. Broughton believed that in order to live an […]
When Penny Rosenwasser, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, was a child in the suburbs of Virginia, people sometimes said, “You don’t look Jewish.” She replied, “Thank you.” Her book, “Hope into Practice: Jewish Women Choosing Justice Despite Our Fears,” delves into the Jewish experience and its rich yet tragic cultural history. She explores […]
Are you jealous? Have you ever been? Do you know the origin of your jealousy? Jealousy often goes hand in hand with feelings of love, but where does this emotion come from, and how can we manage it? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Marcianne Blevis, author of “Jealousy: True Stories of […]
Have you ever been curious about the difference between the male brain and the female brain? Well I have, for a long time. Dr. Louann Brizendine, founder of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco wrote two books about those differences. In 2006 she wrote a book called, […]
In this, the second of two Radio Curious interviews, we continue our discussion of human evolution with Gregory Cochran an aerospace physicist and professor of anthropology at the University of Utah; his expertise is in genetic anthropology. Gregory Cochran along with Henry Harpending, also a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah, are the […]
Have humans changed in the last 10,000 years? Are we biologically the same as we have been for the past 60,000 years? Recent evidence suggests that so called civilization has promoted rapid evolutionary change in our species in the last 10,000 years. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Gregory Cochran, a physicist […]
Lack of trust is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, the second of a two part series with Ron Arkin and John Kirchiro. Ron Arkin is a Family Empowerment Facilitator with Mendocino County, California, Child Protective Services. John Kirchiro spent 13 years working as a Crisis Counselor, Intervention Specialist and Substance Abuse Counselor […]
Lack of trust is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, the first of a two part series with Ron Arkin and John Kirchiro. Ron Arkin is a Family Empowerment Facilitator with Mendocino County, California, Child Protective Services. John Kirchiro spent 13 years working as a Crisis Counselor, Intervention Specialist and Substance Abuse Counselor […]
The ways different creatures, especially us humans, use our senses to guide ourselves through life has long attracted my curiosity. I’ve often wondered how blind people seem able to orient themselves, and also wondered about their dreams. From time to time, over the years, I would see an attentive woman walk past my office window […]
Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, our guest in this archive edition is the author of several books, including “How We Die,” and “The Wisdom of the Body.” He died on March 3, 2014, at his home in Connecticut, at the age of 83. Dr. Nuland and I visited, shortly after “The Wisdom of the Body” was […]
Political intimacy is closely related to personal intimacy, just as social change is related to personal change. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Bettina Aptheker, the author of “Tapestries of Life: Women’s Work, Women’s Consciousness, and the Meaning of Daily Experience.” At the time the program was recorded in 1997, Bettina was […]
In the second of two conversations about issues facing transgender people, we visit once again with Eli Erlick, a woman, who was born a male, and her mother Dr. Carla Longchamp. Eli Erlick is the Founder and Executive Director of Trans Student Equality Resources, based in San Francisco, California and a student at Pitzer College […]
This edition of Radio Curious is the first of two conversations with Eli Erlick, a woman, who was born a male, and her mother Dr. Carla Longchamp. Eli Erlick is the Founder and Executive Director of Trans Student Equality Resource, based in San Francisco, California and a student at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. […]
This is the second of two interviews about the nation-wide acceptance of the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana. Our guest is Tim Blake, founder of The Emerald Cup, California’s oldest competition among outdoor growers of organic cannabis. He shares his opinions about the future cultural and legal acceptance of marijuana. Tim Blake and I […]
With sadness and admiration we pay tribute to the life and times of Pete Seeger, America’s foremost folk singer and troubadour. Pete Seeger brought songs of hope, justice and equality wherever he went with his 5 string banjo, 6 string guitar, 12 string guitar and Chailil, a simple handmade bamboo flute. Pete Seeger died January […]
The growing nation-wide acceptance of marijuana for medical and recreational use and how it is grown and evaluated is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. We visit with Tim Blake, the founder of The Emerald Cup, California’s oldest competition among outdoor growers of organic cannabis. The Emerald Cup originated in an area known […]
Fears of interracial relationships, influenced over the centuries by racial biases and fantasies, still widely linger in American Society today. Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard University Law School is the author of “Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption,” in which he takes an in depth look at the issue of black and white […]
When the polar ice caps melt, sea level will rise. That’s happened earlier in the history of the world, and it appears it will happen again. In this edition of Radio Curious, we bring you a two part series on global warming and sea level rise, with Peter D. Ward, a paleontologist and professor of […]
When the polar ice caps melt, sea level will rise. That’s happened earlier in the history of the world, and it appears it will happen again. In this edition of Radio Curious, we bring you a two part series on global warming and sea level rise, with Peter D. Ward, a paleontologist and professor of […]
The rather fascinating tale of midwifery and murder in York, England set in the mid 1640s is the topic of our conversation with Sam Thomas, author of “The Midwife’s Tale,” and “The Harlot’s Tale.” While researching English history for his Ph.D. thesis, Thomas happened on to the Will of Bridget Hodgson, a midwife. A fictionalized […]
This is the second of two conversations with Jerry DeWitt author of “Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor’s Journey From Belief to Atheism.” In our first visit, Jerry DeWitt talks about his childhood experiences that led him to be a fundamentalist Pentecostal preacher. His website is an interesting source with links to the curious conundrums fomented by […]