Radio Curious

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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, tranquil, rural community. In this conversation Richard Shoemaker, a former member of the Board of Supervisors from the Ukiah district, and attorney and veteran board watcher Barry Vogel (host and producer of Radio Curious) discuss the unusual anomalies of this event. This program was originally broadcast on August 22, 2007.

The book Richard Shoemaker recommends is “Ripples From the Zambezi,” by Ernesto Sirolli. Barry Vogel recommends “Big Box Swindle,” by Stacy Mitchell.

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“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 the war, which at the outset failed to include President Bush – the Commander-in-Chief, with the leadership’s actions and grievous consequences that followed.  Charles Ferguson holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has extensive experience in foreign policy analysis, and lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area. When I spoke with him on July 20, 2007 we began with his explanation how the war and the occupation of Iraq were shaped by an extremely small group of people In Washington D.C., with limited foreign policy and post war occupation experience.

The film he recommends is “The Lives of Others,” a story about East Germany under the community regime.

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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 in San Francisco. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Attorney Kevin Zelig Golden, who, along with others from the Center for Food Safety, litigated this landmark case which banned the planting of genetically modified alfalfa as of May 3, 2007.

The book that Kevin Z. Golden recommends is “Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” by Michael Pollan.

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Originally Broadcast: March 21, 2007

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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 finding an abundance of food, have stayed. The main source of their food was salmon. The power of the myth of the salmon may derive from the fact that wild salmon spread out across the Pacific Northwest about the same time that human beings did, at the end of the last Ice Age. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Steve Most, author of “River of Renewal, Myth & History in the Klamath Basin,” a book that tells the story of the history of the Klamath River and the people who have continuously lived there for the past 12,000 years. Steve Most is a playwright and documentary storyteller. Among many other works, he wrote the texts of the audio voices and videos for the permanent exhibit of the Washington State History Museum. In this interview recorded in mid-March 2007, I spoke with Steve Most from his home in Berkeley, California. We began our conversation when I asked him to give a perspective of the geological and human aspects of the Klamath River and its place in history.

Stephen Most recommends the “Essays and Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson.”

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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 into Exceptional Men.” A tenth anniversary edition of, “The Wonder of Boys,” was released in 2006, and I spoke with Michael Gurian about his ideas and thoughts of what has occurred in the past ten years in relation to boys. The trend setting pressures of commercial advertising control the content distributed to boys and often are able to overwhelm the job of the parents to nurture the social development of children. In this interview with Michael Gurian, who lives in Spokane, Washington and recorded in mid-October 2006, we discuss the effects of media on the developing boy, content of what boys listen to when they have earphones on, the substitution of what comes from the earphones for what a boy would get in a relationship with parents, grandparents, or other meaningful people in a boys life.

www.gurianinstitute.com

Michael Gurian recommends, “The Collected Poems of Mary Oliver,” by Mary Oliver.

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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 1985. Her goal was to pour the raw material from her personal experiences as a lawyer into her story. The deeper level into which she fell during the ten year period it took her to complete, “Praise at Midnight,” was the importance of consciousness and self awareness in avoiding the projection of one’s own dark side on to other people and then killing them. She applies this to both local and international levels in her considerations. She and I have been associates, good friends and colleagues since 1969 when we met at the University of Santa Clara where I was a law student. When I spoke with Martha McCabe from her home in San Antonio, Texas on July 29, 2006, we began with her description of the culture of deep east Texas at the time she was living there, 1974 to 1985.

Martha McCabe recommends, “Reading Lolita in Teheran,” by Azar Nafisi and, “Caballero: A Historical Novel,” by Jovita Gonzalez and Eve Raleigh.

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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 live. Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, a French born psychologist brings together the concepts of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud in his development of the collective unconscious in the book, “The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do.” Dr. Rapaille thrives on new ideas, which is part of the reason he chose to become American. We visited by phone from his home in New York State, the last week of June 2006, and asked him to describe the development of his ideas.

Dr. Rapaille’s website is: www.archetypediscoveriesworldwide.com

The books Dr. Clotaire Rapaille recommends are, “The DiVinci Code,” by Dan Brown and “Straight From The Gut,” by Jack Welsh.

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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 live. Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, a French born psychologist brings together the concepts of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud in his development of the collective unconscious in the book, “The Culture Code, An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around The World Live and Buy As They Do.” Dr. Rapaille thrives on new ideas, which is part of the reason he chose to become American. We visited by phone from his home in New York State, the last week of June 2006, and asked him to describe the development of his ideas.

Dr. Rapaille’s website is: www.archetypediscoveriesworldwide.com

The books Dr. Clotaire Rapaille recommends are, “The DiVinci Code,” by Dan Brown and “Straight From The Gut,” by Jack Welsh.

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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 special, in addition to the sound images you can hear, here on the Radio Curious website. In preparation for creating those images, I found my way to an intriguing photography website called www.kenrockwell.com. This website has many references about cameras, how to choose and use them, and it also tells the story of a man who freely shares his knowledge and skills about photography. After reading his website, I invited Ken Rockwell to join us for a conversation about photography, cameras, websites and the use of the internet. Ken Rockwell and I visited by phone in early May, 2006, from his home near San Diego, California. For him, good photography narrows down to seeing better, which he describes to be more of a feeling than an actual momentary vision.

www.kenrockwell.com

Ken Rockwell recommends, “Ten-Thousand Miles of America,” by Richard A. Suleski, Jr.

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