Radio Curious

Attorney Susan B. Jordan, a good friend and colleague, died in a plane crash on Friday, May 29, 2009. For me personally, Susan’s death is a big loss.  Susan and I first met in the summer of 1970 working for a legal services program dedicated to developing legal strategies to change unconstitutional and unfair laws. We met again and became friends when she moved to Mendocino County in the late 1980s. We worked together here on many projects, the last being strategies to defeat the proposed mall project on the Mendocino County ballot this fall, 2009.

In this edition of Radio Curious all the guests and I are or were lawyers. We’ll hear portions of a Radio Curious interview with Susan B. Jordan recorded April 25, 1996, and thoughts about her life from Attorneys Steve Antler and Ann Moorman, and Judge David Nelson.  The book Susan B. Jordan recommends is “Bird By Bird,” by Ann Lamont.

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Taboos associated with menstruation limit public discussion of a primary event in the lives of more than half of the human population of the world. And even more limited is the conversation about a young woman’s menarche, or first menstrual period. Rachel Nalebuff, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, is an eighteen year old woman passionate about breaking taboos associated with menstruation and the author of “My Little Red Book,” an anthology of stories about first periods, collected from women of all ages, around the world. She examines these very personal stories from the larger picture of gender politics and self image. In this conversation we discuss what brought a young woman (Rachel started collecting stories at 13 years old) to choose to publish such a book and how she believes we can bring periods from being taboo into the arena of acceptable discourse. Speaking with Rachel Nalebuff from her home in San Francisco, California on May 29, 2009, we began with her thoughts about why menstruation is seldom discussed.

Rachel Nalebuff, the author of “My Little Red Book,” will enter Yale University in the fall of 2009 . The book Rachel Nalebuff recommends is “A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius,” by Dave Eggers.

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As part of a series of Radio Curious on tour in Scotland,  we interview Jim Fairlie, the organizer of Farmers Markets in Scotland. Jim is a farmer by trade at Logie Almond Farm near Perth in the southern end of the Scottish Highlands. A decade ago, following the mad cow disease crisis, Jim Fairlie saw the need for farmers to market their own produce rather than rely on Government subsidies. After returning from a holiday in France, where he was blown away by the local markets, he set up Edinburgh’s much celebrated monthly farmers market, which now attract as many as 10,000 visitors. In our conversation we discuss how the farmers market movement gained momentum and the trials and tribulations of getting farmers and consumers to understand each other’s needs.

I spoke with Jim Fairlie at his farmhouse kitchen table near Perth, Scotland on May 17th 2009. We began with his story of how farmers markets in Scotland began.

The book Jim Fairlie recommends is “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” by Lionel Shriver

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Corporate development of an 800,000 square feet mega-mall in a small northern California community is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Guinness McFadden, a farmer and grape grower, who lives and works near Ukiah, California is a member of SOLE, a local grass-roots organization whose name is an acronym for Save Our Local Economy. In the conversation with Radio Curious host and producer, Barry Vogel, recorded on April 20, 2009, McFadden discusses the efforts and consequences of this mega-mall project, promoted by Developer’s Diversified Realty, the largest shopping mall builder in the nation, whose corporate stock fell from approximately $90.00 per share in 2007 to approximately $2.00 per share in April 2009.

The book Guinness McFadden recommends is the “John Adams,” by David McCullough.

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In this edition of Radio Curious we would like to take you to 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 will be visiting “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” an exhibit which is currently displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 10^th 2009.

We start in conversation with Therese Bartholomew, the curator of the exhibit who helps us to understand what inspired the exhibit and the trials and tribulations of transporting such valuable religious objects from monasteries at the top of Bhutanese mountains to the city of San Francisco.

Through todays edition we will also visit the exhibit itself and hear some of the ceremonies, meet the monks who have travelled with the exhibit and take a tour with museum docent Henny Tanugjaja.

We spoke with Therese Bartholomew from her home in San Francisco on the March 27, 2009 and began by asking her what makes Bhutan and Bhutanese arts so special?

Therese Bartholomew is the Curator Emeritus of Himalayan Arts at the Asian Art Museum San Francisco the book she recommends is “My Life and Lives, The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation” by Rato Khyongla Nawang Losang

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The laws around the control of marijuana and medical marijuana usage are many and complex. How we find our ways through this maze and understand the rules and regulations surrounding the marijuana plant, allegedly 1000′s of years old, used legally and illicitly worldwide and well known in Northern California by many as an economic base and/or a source of pleasure presents many curious questions.
In this edition of Radio Curious we visit again with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman in an attempt to clarify the laws and ordinances currently in effect in Mendocino County, California and how he as county Sheriff enforces them.
Sheriff Allman has been heard to say that he would “like to take marijuana off the front page.” We hear how he views the evolution of marijuana control and whether he can foresee a time when marijuana no longer is on the front page. We spoke with Sheriff Tom Allman in the studios of Radio Curious on April 13, 2009 and began by asking what changes he has witnessed with regard to marijuana beginning when he was a child growing up in Garberville at the southern end of our neighbor, Humboldt County.

The book he recommends is “Vet Tails” by Charlie Freed

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Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana has caused considerable debate and political discussion, but just what is in this plant which creates such controversy? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dr. William Courtney, a cannabis Medical Consultant based in Mendocino County, California.

Dr. Courtney has studied the compounds of the cannabis plant known as “cannabinoids,” their various health effects, and the United States government patents held on these compounds. Further details on the legal status and current research relating to cannabis may be found on Dr. Courtney’s website www.leavesofgrass.info

This conversation with Dr. Courtney was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious, Ukiah, California on March 23, 2009. We began when I asked him to describe the compounds in marijuana.

The book he recommends in “The Continuum Concept: In Search Of Happiness Lost” by Jean Liedloff

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Do you know how the food you eat is raised? In this conversation host and producer Attorney Barry Vogel visits with Gene Baur, author of  “Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts And Minds About Animals And Food.” Gene Baur is the president and cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, the nations leading farm animal protection organization, which advocates the fair treatment of farm animals, a return to the roots of agriculture and the end of animals suffering for our consumption.

I spoke with Gene Baur at our studio in Ukiah, California on March 22nd, 2009 and began by asking what brought him to be involved in food and it’s production.

The book Gene Baur recommends is “Calling All Radicals: How Grassroots Organizers Can Save Our Democracy,” by Gabriel Thompson

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Have humans changed in the last 10,000 years? Or are we biologically the same as the last 40-50,000 years. Some recently considered evidence suggests that so called civilization has promoted rapid evolutionary change in our species in the last 10,000 years. In this archive edition of Radio Curious we visit with Gregory Cochran, a physicist and anthropologist, who has co-authored the book “The 10,000 Year Explosion – How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution.” His book asserts that changes in human biology, lactose tolerance and resistance to malaria for example, represent human evolution accelerated by civilization.

Over the course of two Radio Curious conversations with Gregory Cochran we discuss what some of these evolutions  have been and why they occurred. We spoke with Gregory Cochran from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 23rd, 2009 and began by asking him what biological indications exist to show an increase in human evolution in the past 10,000 years.

The book Gregory Cochran recommends is “Twilight Of The Mammoths: Ice Age Extinctions And The Re-Wilding Of America,” by Paul S. Martin.

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