John Muir & Lee Stetson – An Early American Conservationist

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 to preserve the spectacular Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada range; it was joy in his lifetime. Yet the loss of the equally spectacular Hetch Hetch Valley to a dam to provide water for San Francisco was his greatest sorrow. John Muir founded the Sierra Club and is credited with founding the National Park System in the United States.

I visited with John Muir in the person of Lee Stetson in the studios of Radio Curious in October of 1995 and discussed his life and observations.

We begin with his comments on the effect that extinction of so many species during and since his lifetime has had on the Earth’s remaining species.

The book that Lee Stetson recommends is his own, “The Wild Muir,” by Lee Stetson

The book that John Muir recommends is “Sixty Miles From Contentment,” by M.H. Dunlop.

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Dewey Crockett – Living Language Fossil

Tangier Island is a remote community in North America in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Located twelve miles across the water from Crissfield, Maryland, the closest larger community, Tangier Island for a long time was isolated and insular. Some have called it a language fossil because many people speak with an accent close to that of Elizabethan England. Dewey Crockett was born and grew up on the island. In 1995, when this program was recorded, he was a social studies teacher, a Methodist minister, the Mayor, and the undertaker for Tangier Island. I spoke with Dewey Crockett about Tangier Island, its history, and some of the issues of the time.

Dewey Crockett recommends “The Parson of the Island,” by Adam Wallace.

Originally Broadcast: August 7, 1995

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Corporal Gabriel West & Sgt. Hugh Griffin – The First English Settlement in the New World

Please join me as we go back in history to the year 1584, to the East Coast of what is now the United States. In that year, Queen Elizabeth the First, then the Queen of England, sent Sir Walter Raleigh in command of three seafaring expeditions to what they called the New World. These expeditions landed on the central coast of what is now North Carolina and became the first English settlements in North America. They called the region Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth the First, the maiden Queen of England. The Cultural Resources Division of the North Carolina Division of History has recreated a model of the seafarers’ ship, called Elizabeth the Second, which carried these small groups of soldiers across the ocean in 1585. In-character actors, talking as real people living in 1585, are on site near Roanoke, North Carolina. I first spoke with a man who called himself Sgt. Hugh Griffin. He claimed to be in charge of the small outpost, one of several they established on their arrival a few days before.

Originally Broadcast: July 1, 1995

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Scott McCloud – The Invisible Art

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 role in the history of humanity, tracing back to all images depicting a sequential number of actions. My guest in this program is Scott McCloud, author of “Understanding Comics, A Rather Colorful Display: The Invisible Art,” a book about the history of comics.

Scott McCloud recommends “Jar of Fools,” by Jason Lutes.

Originally Broadcast: August 27, 1994

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Benjamin Franklin – Ralph Archbold – Visit with Benjamin Franklin

This conversation with Benjamin Franklin, as portrayed by Ralph Archibald who shares a birthday with Benjamin Franklin, was recorded in the summer of 1994 in two parts. The first was recorded on a walk to where Benjamin Franklin lived and worked, and the second was recorded at the City Tavern, both Philadelphia landmarks in Franklin’s life and now. Benjamin Franklin is, perhaps, the most noteworthy and animated of the Founding Fathers. His contributions to science, common sense, and, most importantly, this nation of ours set him apart from most other figures in American history.

Originally Broadcast: July 18, 1994 and July 25, 1994

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Jefferson, Thomas & Jenkinson, Clay – The Author of the Declaration of Independence

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 Curious is Mr. Jefferson, personified by Clay Jenkinson.We discussed what has gone wrong in the US since Mr. Jefferson was President and addressed some of his concepts of what are necessary for a democracy.

The book Thomas Jefferson recommends is “The History of the Peloponnesian War,” by Thuclydides.

The book C. Jenkinson recommends is “In the Absence of the Sacred,” by Jerry Mander.

Originally Broadcast: May 21, 1994

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Dr. David Kiersey – What is my Personality?

Presidential Temperaments & Please Understand Me

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 and temperament of people. In his book, “Please Understand Me,” the reader may use the Kiersey Temperament Sorter to get an idea of his or her personality and temperament traits. With his history and experience, Kiersey has examined the people who have become a President of the US and set out his analysis in “Presidential Temperaments.” In this program, originally broadcast in November of 1993 when Radio Curious was called Government, Politics and Ideas, we’ll be talking about the book and some of the temperaments of the various Presidents.

Dr. David Kiersey recommends “Killer Angels,” by Michael Shaara & The Hornblower Series, by Horatio Hormblower.

Originally Broadcast: November 19, 1993

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Don Davis – A Story Teller at Work

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 person and on tape, and story-telling workshops.

Originally Broadcast: July 19, 1993

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Andrew Weiss – Ellis Island: Who Arrived There, Why and What Was it Like

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 this archive edition of Radio Curious, we visited with Andrew Weiss, who I met in 1992 when he was a tour guide at Ellis Island, working for the City of New York. I spoke with Andrew Weiss in November of 1992, when he was a doctoral candidate at Columbia University and a teacher at Barnard College in New York City. I asked him to begin by telling us about the history of Ellis Island.

Originally Broadcast: November 23, 1992

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