Radio Curious

Are you or do you know someone who is tired of endlessly negotiating with a 5 year old? How about taking a 3 year old to a restaurant? Children are too often seen and treated as small adults, dressed as adults, and sometimes have their lives planned out for them to be as busy as adults. Treating children as people older than they are — overlooks the child’s cognitive abilities. This can be a lead to unsatisfying and sometimes traumatic relationships between the child and the parents.

“Parents in Charge: Setting Healthy, Loving Boundaries for You and Your Child” was written by Dr. Dana Chidekel in 2002, She’s a child psychologist near Los Angeles, California. Dr. Chidekel argues that the developing brain of toddlers does not give them the capacity to respond to being placed on equal ground with their parents. She encourages parents to assume their rightful role of authority.

I spoke with Dr. Dana Chidekel in the winter of 2002 from her office in Southern California. We began our conversation by talking about the developing brain of young children. I asked her what the brain of a young child is able to assess and not able to assess.

The books that Dr. Chidekel recommends for young children are the Bernstein Bears series.  The book she recommends for older people is “Seabiscuit.”

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Storytelling, like radio, brings pictures to the mind of the listener and allows each one of us to imagine what we hear.   Our guest on Radio Curious is story teller Mark Binder, author of “A Hanukkah Present:  Twelve Tales to Give and Share,” who describes what happens when the storyteller vanishes.  Radio Curious spoke with Mark Binder from his home in Providence, Rhode Island on December 16, 2011.  We began when I asked to discuss the importance of story telling around Hanukkah and other holidays of the winter season.

The book Mark Binder recommends is “The Best of Myles,” by Flann O’Brien.  His website is www.markbinder.com

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New born babies have a wide range of behaviors used to communicate with the adults around them – the language of yawning, the varied and rich range of crying, sense of touch, their feeding and sleeping, listening to your voice and recognizing your face.

Kevin Nugent, Ph.D., author of “Your Baby Is Speaking to You:  A Visual guide to the Amazing Behaviors of Your Newborn and Growing Baby,” is the director of the Brazelton Institute at Children’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts, where he has studied newborn infants and early parent-child relations for thirty plus years.  This book reveals how infants are able to communicate with the adults around them.

We visited by phone with Dr. Nugent from his home near Boston, on January 14, 2011 and began with his description of the research that resulted in his book “Your Baby is Speaking to You.”

The books Dr. Kevin Nugent recommends are, “Touchpoints-Birth to Three,” by T. Berry Brazelton.

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If you have been sexually abused as a child, or know someone who was, listen to this edition of Radio Curious with host Barry Vogel and Susan A. Clancy, Ph.D, author of “The Trauma Myth:  The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children – and Its Aftermath.”  This conversation discuss’s the myth of when trauma of child sexual abuse takes place, how and the abuse is perceived by the victim, and the effects of denial, minimization and blame, and how this issue within the Catholic Church is not being resolved.  Susan A. Clancy, Ph.D. is currently the Research Director of the Center for Women’s Advancement, Development and Leadership at the Central American Institute for Business Administration in Nicaragua.  This interview was recorded on April 12, 2010, with Susan A. Clancy Ph.D. from her home in Managua, Nicaragua.

The books she recommends are “Happiness: A History” by Darrin M. McMahon, and “In The Woods,” by Tana French.

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For millennia when couples were not able to conceive and bear their own children their options were somewhat limited, and not at all available if the complication was on the females parts.  And, these matters still are not much discussed even among the couples themselves.  However in the past decades medical science has developed in vitro fertilization which can accommodate the egg for the intended mother, or from another woman, and the sperm from the intended father, or from another man, depending on what is needed. The fertilized egg can then be placed into a ‘surrogate’ mother who can take the pregnancy to term and deliver the baby for the parents. The many issues surrounding surrogacy form the conversation in this edition of Radio Curious.  We visit with Dr. Katie Dow, who has studied issues of surrogate parenthood in preparation of her doctorial dissertation in anthropology at the London School of Economics. Katie Dow joined us in the studios of Radio Curious in Ukiah, California on March 8th, 2010, and began by explaining what constitutes surrogacy.

The book Katie Dow recommends is “A Meaningful Life,” by L.J. Davis.

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Several weeks ago I had the good fortune of seeing “If Animals Could Talk,” a movie made by Jane Goodall.  A segment was about The MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon. The boys incarcerated there have committed serious criminal offenses, some of them are given an opportunity to train dogs, develop relationships with the dogs and in doing so learn  responsibility, patience and respect for other living creatures. There is a zero recidivism rate among the juvenile inmates who spend time training dogs at MacLaren.  Joan Dalton is the founder and executive director of Project Pooch, a non-profit corporation linked with MacLaren.  Joan Dalton and I visited by phone from her home near Portland, Oregon on February 15, 2010. We began our conversation when I asked her to tell us how Project Pooch came about and then about Project Pooch itself.

The books that Joan Dalton recommends are “Children And Animals: Exploring The Roots Of Kindness And Cruelty,” by Frank R. Ascione and “Rescue Ink: How Ten Guys Saved Countless Dogs and Cats, Twelve Horses, Five Pigs, One Duck,and a Few Turtles,” by Rescue Ink and Denise Flaim.  You may visit the Project Pooch website at www.pooch.org.

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In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Helen Menasian, director of the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project, located north of Ukiah, California. Ukiah is a small town in a long narrow valley that has been occupied by the Pomo People for about 11,000 years. About 150 years ago when Europeans and other foreign settlers arrived  the wilderness of the Ukiah valley was interrupted by pavement, waterworks and mechanical noise.

The book “The Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder,” by Richard Louv describes some of the central ethos behind outdoor education for children. The book reminds us that parents have the power to ensure that their son or daughter will not be “the last child in the woods,” and discusses the importance of the nature-child reunion. During this conversation we hear how the Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project seeks to regain that connection. We began by asking Helen Menasian to explain just what the project does. This interview was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious, Ukiah, California on February 8th 2010.

The book Helen Menasian recommends is “The Last Child In The Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder,” by Richard Louv.

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The fundamental human drive to procreate and reproduce our own kind is also a ticking clock. The female biological clock, though varying woman to woman, as we know, more often than not unwittingly controls root emotions and family life. As many women’s choices in life have widened and changed in the past half century their clocks still tick. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Jody Gehrman, writer of “The Ticking Clock,” and actress/researcher Deborah Edelman. Their play is based upon material collected in interviews and surveys with over 150 women; mothers, non-mothers, adoptive mothers, surrogates, pregnant teenage women and more, and queries how their clocks have shaped their lives.

This interview was recorded on January 29th 2010 in the studios of Radio Curious in Ukiah, California. I began by asking Jody Gehrman to explain the play and how the interviews were collected.

The book that Jody Gehrman recommends is “Nocturne,” by Diane Armstrong.

The book that Deborah Edelman recommends is “The Omnivore’s Dilema,” by Michael Pollan.

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Our animal friends and companions often fill important roles in our lives as we do in theirs. And when a beloved pet falls sick it is a veterinarian to whom we look to help make the lives of our pets, and ourselves, more healthy and happy.

Frank Grasse practiced veterinary medicine in Willits, California, and under the pen name, Charlie Freed, authored “Vet Tails: Small Stories, From A Small Town, Small Animal Veterinarian.” Freed described the daily emotional roller coaster of his 35 years of large and small animal medicine and shared what he  learned about the bond between us and our animals.

Hannah Bird, Assistant Producer at Radio Curious visited with ‘Charlie Freed’ on January 18th, 2010 and began by asking him to describe the special relationship between people and their animal pets.

Dr. Frank Grasse passed away in 2011.

The book that ‘Charlie Freed’ recommends is “Marnie,” by Winston Graham.

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