Whaling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the home of Herman Melville, author of “Moby Dick,” is our topic today. Our guest is Michael Dyer, the senior historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The Whaling Museum reveals the lives of the largest mammals on earth. The museum’s social history collection shares the monumental stories of those who spent their human lives whaling at sea between the New England coast and half way around the world, as well as their families who yearned for their return. It explains how the seamen lived at sea, who they were, as well as the captains and owners of the sailing vessels and all those in between. It also explains the economics of the whale oil that lit and lubricated the industrial revolution.
In part one of our series on whaling I met with Mike Dyer at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on September 2, 2016. To put matters it into perspective, we began with I asked him to describe the Sperm whale.
The book Mike Dyer recommends is Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America, by Charles Melville Scammon.
Presidential Candidate, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders was a guest on Radio Curious in 1991, early in his first term in Congress. Over the course of his 25 years as an Independent member of the House of Representatives and the Senate he has consistently advocated for economic reform and social justice.
When Bernie Sanders and I visited in 1991, we discussed what he would do if he were President. This interview, recorded by phone from his office in Washington, D.C., in 1991, began when I asked him to describe his experience in government.
Click here to listen or on the media player below.
The consequences of the control of reproduction and the reproduction of daily life that began about the time of the creation of the moveable type printing press, in approximately the year 1440 is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious.
Our guest is Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, the Founding Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, New York and member of the Adjunct Faculty at Syracuse University, in Syracuse, New York. Sally Roesch Wagner was one of the first two women to receive a doctorate for work in women’s studies, with a Ph.D. awarded to her in 1978 from the history of consciousness program by the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Wagner, a Radio Curious veteran guest is the author of “Survival Is Indigenous,” a book that describes the consequences of the societal control shortly after the development of the printing press, fomented by western religions, which she argues exists to the present time.
Sally Roesch Wagner and I visited in the Radio Curious studios on January 6, 2016, to discuss “Survival Is Indigenous,” and began our conversation when I asked her what is indigenous about survival.
The books Dr. Wagner recommends are “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants,” by Robin Will Kimmerer; and “My Life on The Road,” by Gloria Stienem.
The effect of the voluntary climate change Accords adopted by 195 nations at the 21st Conference of the Parties, commonly known as the COP-21, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Those Accords, found on the United Nations website, have been severely criticized due to the time for compliance and the lack of enforcement provisions, among other issues. A summary of the Accords was published in the New York Times on December 13, 2015.
In the opinion of Dr. Guy McPherson, a Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Evolutionary Biology and Conservation Biology from the University of Arizona, the Accords are smoke and mirrors, will have no effect on climate change and could well cause increase in carbon emissions. He agrees with James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who also criticized the Accords. Hansen is quoted in the December 12, 2015, issue of as saying the intention to reach a new global deal on cutting carbon emissions beyond 2020, is ‘no action, just promises.’
Professor McPherson is the author, along with Carolyn Baker, of “Extinction Dialogues: How To Live With Death In Mind,” both of whom were guests on Radio Curious in September 2015.
McPherson believes the way to respond to the peril of the climate crisis is for each person to go inward and consider who we are, reach out to our relatives and friends and foster the personal connections that are important to us before it is too late.
When Guy McPherson and I visited by phone from his home in rural New Mexico on December 13, 2015, we began when I asked him for his thought about the COP-21 Accords.
The books he recommends is, “Every Cradle Is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide,” by Sarah Perry, and “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul,” by Stephen Jenkenson.
Click here to listen or on the media player below.
In this program we visit concepts of evolution and intelligence, some of which were raised after our series on near term human extinction.
What is intelligence? What kind of intelligence do non human creatures have? What are the different levels of intelligence that can be found in single cells, or invertebrates, up to human beings?
Neurosurgeon Dr. Frank Vertosick, author of “The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing,” discusses these and other questions about learning among all species. He talks about the learning that occurs through evolution or alteration of the genetic structure and about the learning, of the way we commonly think of it, by studying or by experience.
When Dr. Frank Vertosick and I visited by phone from his office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early October 2002, we began when I asked him to describe the different levels of intelligence and the development of intelligence in invertebrates.
The book Dr. Frank Vertosick recommends is “Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What it Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life,” by Albert-Lasio Barabasi.
Click here to listen or on the media player below.
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 the second of a two part conversation about 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 conditions 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.
Click hereto listen to part two or on the media player below.
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 conditions 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.
Click hereto listen to part one or on the media player below.
This is third conversation in our series on near term human extinction, the most disturbing group of interviews in the twenty-five year history of Radio Curious. In this program, faced with a grim future of the human species on earth, we consider the role of hospice for all of us and for our planet.
Our guest is Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., co author with Dr. Guy McPherson of “Extinction Dialogues: How to Live With Death in Mind.” She is also the author of “Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse: Cultivating the Relationships We Need to Thrive.” As an author and psychotherapist, Carolyn Baker discusses the importance of emotional and spiritual preparedness for the cataclysmic changes that abrupt climate change will bring.
“Extinction Dialogues” presents credible scientific evidence that global warming is pushing our planet to a swift apocalyptic end, more rapidly that we comprehend. Dr. Guy McPherson discusses the scientific evidence that suggests a looming extinction of the human species in part one and part two of this series. In the second half of ”Extinction Dialogues,” Carolyn Baker encourages and recommends a hospice approach, which we present to you as part three in this series.
When Carolyn Baker and I spoke on September 20, 2015 from her home in Boulder, Colorado, we discussed ways to practice hospice as the earth’s temperature increases to a point at which humans cannot endure. We began our conversation when I asked her how hospice treatment can be applied to the dying planet.
The book Carolyn Baker recommends is “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul,” by Stephen Jenkinson.
Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.
In this, part two of our series on near term human extinction, we continue our conversation with Dr. Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Professor McPherson is co-author with Carolyn Baker of “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live With Death in Mind.” McPherson presents what appears to be overwhelming scientific evidence that our environment is headed for a swift apocalyptic collapse. This is the most disturbing conversation that I have had in past 25 years as host and producer of Radio Curious.
That said, imagine the human habitat in which we all live changing so rapidly that life as we know it is extinguished. Temperatures that are getting hotter than ever, decades long droughts, catastrophic fires, melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and unprecedented winter storms are expected to radically limit food production and availability of potable water. Not only is this extinction likely, it is occurring every day. “How to live with death in mind” is the goal; living with urgency is the practice.
In part one, Dr. Guy McPherson discusses the rise of global temperatureby more than 1 degree centigrade, the likelihood of a continued global warming trend in the future and some of its affects on our planet. In this, our second visit with Prof. McPherson he explains how this small rise in global temperature is leading to a large scale mass extinction on earth. Recorded on September 14, 2015, while he was traveling in New York state, we began I asked him what abrupt extinction will look like and what will occur that will end human life on earth.
The books Dr. Guy McPherson recommends are “Ms. Lady Bug and Mr. Honeybee: A Love Story at the End of Time,” by Pauline Panagiotou-Schneider and Guy McPherson. He also recommends the books by Edward Abbey.
Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.
Click here to listen to part one and here to listen to part three–a conversation with “Extinction Dialogues” coauthor Carolyn Baker.
Imagine the human habitat in which we all live changing so rapidly that life as we know it is extinguished. Temperatures that are getting hotter than ever, decades long droughts, catastrophic fires, melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and unprecedented winter storms are expected to radically limit food production and availability of potable water.
In this, the first of a series on near term extinction of the human species, we visit with Dr. Guy R. McPherson, Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. Professor McPherson is co-author with Carolyn Baker of “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live With Death in Mind.” Together they present what appears to be overwhelming scientific evidence that our environment is headed for swift apocalyptic collapse. Not only is this extinction likely, it is occurring every day. “How to live with death in mind” is the goal; living with urgency is the practice.
The point from which average global temperature rise is measured dates back to 1750, the beginning of the industrial revolution–the time at which the ever increasing use of fossil fuels began. Since 1750, the planet has warmed by more than 1 degree centigrade. McPherson’s book “Extinction Dialogs: How to Live With Death in Mind,” explains how this small global rise in temperature is leading to a large scale mass extinction on the planet.
When Guy McPherson and I visited by phone on September 14, 2015, while he was traveling near New York, we began our conversation when I asked him to describe the indicators that reveal we’re in an era of unstoppable climate change.
Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.
Click here to listen to part two and here to listen to part three–a conversation with “Extinction Dialogues” coauthor Carolyn Baker.