Radio Curious

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) at a New York four-star restaurant. A graduate of Columbia University’s Barnard College, she shares surprising episodes and charm in a story relayed from the always-pleasant server’s point of view that some people spend several hundred dollars each to witness from the diner’s perspective. However, Phoebe sees things that the diners don’t. Phoebe Damrosch was born in a small rural mountaintop cabin next to a pure water lake several hours north of New York City, and grew up partly in Vermont and rural Haiti.

This conversation, recorded on July 15, 2008, began when I asked her to explain what a restaurant must do to receive the four-star nomination.

The book she recommends is “Drown,” by Junot Diaz.

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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 mix that may be found at www.undercurrentsradio.net and his personal website is www.radiocamp.com.  Gregg McVicar holds an MA degree from the Annenberg School for Communication, is an Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. On his visit to the studios of Radio Curious on August 11th, 2008 we began our conversation when I asked him to explain the difference between analog and digital.

The book Gregg McVicar recommends is, “The Earth Is Flat: A Brief History Of The 21st Century,” by Thomas L. Friedman.

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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 and current member of “The Kinsey Sicks,” the Dragapella Beautyshop acapella Quartet.  The name, “The Kinsey Sicks” comes from Alfred Kinsey’s sexual orientation scale of homosexual men, the measure of which Irwin Keller explains in our conversation. Blasphemy, one of the hallmarks of the Kinsey Sicks resounds in their work and in the echoes of this interview recorded in a Northern California synagogue on July 28, 2008. We began when I asked Irwin Keller to describe “Winnie,” the character he portrays and the origin of “The Kinsey Sicks,” but first lets listen to the remainder of “Trixie” the second song on their newest CD, “Sicks, Sicks, Sicks!”  You can learn more about the Kinsey Sicks by visiting their website, www.kinseysicks.com

The book Irwin Keller recommends is, “The Seventh Well,” by Fred Wander and Michael Hoffman

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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 chaplain for the Texas Department of Corrections from 1982 to 1995 and counseled 95 inmates on their way to death by lethal injection. “At the Death House Door: No Man Should Die Alone,” is a independent film documentary, directed and produced by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, that presents a personal and intimate look at the death penalty in Texas through the eyes of Pastor Pickett, a Presbyterian minister. Over the years, after each of the 95 executions, Pickett would record his experiences with that person on the tape he used to practice his sermons. Although he never listened to those tapes, they became the thread and primary source for the movie. I spoke with Pastor Carroll Pickett on May 23, 2008 from his home in Texas, after hearing him speak at a special hearing on capital punishment in San Francisco, CA, while he was on a break from a national publicity tour. We began when I asked him to explain what brought him to work with condemned men and be with them in their last hours. This program was originally broadcast on June 25, 2009.

The book Carroll Pickett recommends is “Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist,” by Mike Farrell and Martin Sheen.

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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 drawing participants and listeners from around the globe. Allan Pollack, who has worked as the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mendocino Music Festival for the past twenty-two years, is our guest in this edition of Radio Curious. In this conversation from his home in Northern California, recorded on July 1, 2008, we began when I asked him to tell us about the Mendocino Music Festival. This interview with Allan Pollack was recorded on July 1, 2008.

The book Allan Pollack recommends is, “The Complete Works of Shakespeare.“

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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 share their history with community members. Kate Magruder, a founder of Ukiah Players Theater and considered by many to be the soul and life force of the UPT, successfully strives to search out and tell historical stories of the Ukiah, the ancestral home of the Pomo people who called the area Yokayo, meaning long narrow valley. In this program Kate Magruder explains the importance of place, knowing where we come from and our history, and in the benefits of telling communities’ stories. This interview was recorded May 11, 2008.

The books Kate Magruder recommends are, “Our Land Ourselves, Readings on People and Place,” and “The Great Remembering: further Thoughts on Land, Soul, and Society,” both published by The Trust for Public Land.

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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 Listening,” shares some of his life experiences. In this conversation he explains how 30 years ago he could not have imagined that he would have become a quadriplegic, lose both his parents and his wife, and be a now happy and contented person. This interview was recorded May 14, 2008.

The book Dr. Dan Gottlieb recommends is, “The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness,” by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

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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 organizer, lives in his office in downtown Ukiah, CA, overlooking Courthouse Square; he claims among many other things to be the original organizer of California Certified Organic Farmers, the Recipient of Walking Stick Award from Mendocino Environment Center in 1992 for promoting Ocean Sanctuary off the Mendocino Coast, and the original proponent of Measure G on the 2000 ballot. When I invited him to visit Radio Curious he said he would like to discuss “the amazing but little understood and seldom appreciated Richard Johnson, his life and times.” We touched on those and a few other topics in this conversation, recorded in the studios of Radio Curious on February 19, 2008, and began when I asked him about some of the areas where he would like to be better understood.

Richard W. Johnson, Jr. said he does not have time to read, but you can read what he writes in his newspapers and at www.mendocinocountry.com.

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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 desirable relationships with friends and loved ones. This Program was recorded on March 19, 2008.

The book Amy Sutherland recommends is, “Demonic Males: Apes and the Origin of Human Violence,” by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson.

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