Radio Curious

Sometimes in peoples lives, something happens that changes them, forever.  Especially when a child dies.  In this edition of Radio Curious, we visit with Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in the Iraq War shortly after he enlisted, about 7 years ago.  This event changed her life, dramatically.  She discusses her personal transformation from being an every-day working class mother, to becoming an outspoken peace activist, author and congressional candidate.

The conversation with Cindy Sheehan was recorded March 16^th, 2011.

Cindy Sheehan’s book, “Myth America” is available for free on her website: http://cindysheehanssoapbox.com.

The book she recommends is, “Hegemony and Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance,” by Noam Chomsky.

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The best spy system ever created and what the internet does and how it’s controlled by national forces is the topic 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. His blog is:  http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/blog.

For more information on the Freedom Box Foundation go here: http://freedomboxfoundation.org/.

The book that Eben Moglen recommends is, “Free Software, Free Society,” by Richard Stallman.

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Radio Curious hosts a conversation with Susan Crane, founder of plowshares who will be discussing her lifetime commitment to ending nuclear proliferation through non-violent direct action.  She’s awaiting sentencing,scheduled for March 2011, for pouring her blood on trident submarine machine bombs in the state of Washington.  A grandmother, in her 60s Susan Crane faces up to 10 years in federal prison for her actions.  In this edition of Radio Curious, Susan Crane discusses practicing a code of non-violence in every day life as well as using non-violent civil disobedience as a means to creating peace in the world.

The interview with Susan Crane was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious in Ukiah, California, on January 29th, 2011.

The articles Susan Crane recommends instead of a book, are by Judge C.J. Weeramantry and  be read on the links below:

http://www.jonahhouse.org/Disarm_Now_Plowshares/judge-weeramantry-trident.pdf

http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

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In 1988, rather than comply with an ecclesiastical summons issued by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to move to Chicago and give up his work on Creation Spirituality in Oakland California, Matthew Fox, a Dominican Priest, left the Dominican Order, remained in Oakland, and established the University of Creation Spirituality.   Matthew Fox is the author of 28 books and most recently published “The Hidden Spirituality of Men:  Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine,” and is our guest on this edition of Radio Curious.

Matthew Fox first visited Radio Curious in 1999 when his book “Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Lesson for Transforming Evil, in Soul and Society,” was published.  So, when we came across “The Hidden Spirituality Men,” the latent curiosity of Radio Curious about spirituality was awakened.

Fox and I spoke by visited again, by phone from his home in Oakland, California on January 11, 2011.  Our conversation, which explores male and female spirituality, began with Matthew Fox distinguishing spirituality, faith, religion and dogma.

The book Matthew Fox recommends is “Walt Whitman: Shamanism, Spiritual Democracy and the World Soul,” By Steven B. Herrmann.

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In this edition, we visit with Denis Dutton, author of ‘The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution.”  A quote from this book, at page 46, provides a good idea of who we are and what the book is about.  “As much as fighting wild animals or finding suitable environments our ancient ancestors faced social forces and family conflicts that became a part of evolved life.   Both of these force fields acting in concert, eventually produced the intensely social, robust, love making, murderous, convivial, organizing, technology using, show off, squabbling, game playing, friendly, status seeking, upright walking, lying, omnivorous, knowledge seeking, arguing, clubbing, language using, conspicuously wasteful, versatile species of primate that we became.  And along the way in developing all this, the arts were born.”

Denis Dutton was a professor of ‘Philosophy of Art’ at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. We visited by phone from his home in Christchurch, New Zealand on July 17th, 2009 and began our conversation by asking him to further explain the birth of the arts.

The books Denis Dutton recommends are “Before The Dawn: Recovering The Lost History Of Our Ancestors,” by Nicholas Wade and “The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution,” by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. You can listen to a radio curious interview with Gregory Cochran by visiting the 2009 Radio Curious archives on our website www.radiocurious.org.

Denis Dutton died on December 28, 2010.

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The power of any criminal prosecutor and especially a local district attorney, is immense.  The given job of the DA is to serve justice, and the on-going question is what process to employ in order to achieve justice.  Not all prosecutors have experience as a defense attorney and as a prosecutor.  In Mendocino County, California, David Eyster, an attorney with experience on both sides of criminal cases, was elected to the office of District Attorney and will assume the position of chief law enforcement officer of the county on January 3, 2011.  When he visited the studios of Radio Curious on December 27, 2010, we had a conversation about the role of a criminal defense attorney and how that will affect his new role as prosecutor; his attitude toward “overcharging” criminal violations, what he calls “leveraging the defendant;” the use of the grand jury in criminal cases; and his plans to prosecute unfair business practices.  We began when I asked him about the role of the criminal defense attorney.

The book David Eyster recommends in the “Autobiography of Mark Twain.”

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Buzzy Martin began teaching music to at risk kids in Juvenile 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 rapists, child molesters and murderers how to play the guitar.  Martin shares his experiences with incarcerated youth, to teach them that prison is not a “badge of honor,” and he reveals how music can be a universal language to open the hearts of people who may think they don’t have one.

Buzzy Martin’s memoir will be made into a movie.  His website is http://buzzymartin.com/

The interview with Buzzy Martin was recorded on October 11th, 2010.  The book he recommends is, “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book,” by don Miguel Ruiz.

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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.” It’s a detailed examination of how one event changed the course of the 20^th century politics and labor relations.

At the end of his book Von Drehle concludes that the workers who fought the management in 1909 and died in the fire of 1911, where they were locked in the building during the fire, did not die in vain.

This conversation with David Von Drehle, was recorded in September, 2003 from his office in New York.

The book David Von Drehle recommends is, “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,” by William Riordan.

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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 biology and earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of “The Flooded Earth:  Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps,” in which he describes expected condition in 2050, 2300 and 2500.

This series with Professor Peter D. Ward, was recorded on August 2, 2010, from his office in Seattle, Washington.  In part 1, Ward begins with a description of what will happen when the level of the sea rises. In part 2, we begin with a discussion of why, in the face of rather clear evidence, there continues to be a denial of global warming.

The books Peter Ward recommends are, “An Inconvenient Truth,”  by Al Gore and  “Weather Makers,” and any other book by Tim Flannery.

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