Radio Curious

As we all know every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  The reaction, however is not necessarily equal in time or unity.  It’s often spread over time with serial impacts.

In this edition of Radio Curious we focus on the treatment of workers in the automobile industry in the United States beginning in the early years of the 20^th century.  The story is portrayed in “Brothers on the Line,” a film about Walter, Ray and Victor Reuther, three brothers from West Virginia who organized the United Auto Workers Union beginning in the 1920s.  With access to the National Archives, the Wayne State University Labor History Library and family records, Sasha Reuther, Victor’s grandson, directed the film.  It chronicles the working conditions and the successful strikes at the big three auto plants in Michigan; the political power of the United Auto Workers Union, and its involvement in the civil rights movement.  It also explains why Detroit, Michigan became the richest city in the United States in the 1950s.

“Brothers On The Line” will be shown June 3, 2012 at the Mendocino Film Festival, in Mendocino, California.

Sasha Reuther and I visited by phone from his office in New York City on May 7, 2012.  We began when I asked him what happened once the automobile became a useful, if not necessary tool of life.

The book that Sasha Reuther recommends is “U.A.W. and the Heyday of American Liberalism, 1945 -1968,” by Kevin Boyle.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

Standing in the knee-high, flowing waters of Gibson Creek in Ukiah, California we visit with some of the 35 Volunteers from Watershed Stewards Project, The Friends of Gibson Creek and The California Department of Fish and Game, in this edition of Radio Curious.  The project, organized by Chelsea Neill, an Americorps Volunteer is meant to stop the erosion of a cliff at a bend in the creek that was ruptured by a falling tree.

We visited on April 14, 2012.  First I spoke with Chelsea Neill who describes the work being done, then with Linda Sanders of The Friends of Gibson Creek and finally with Chelsea’s mentor Dan Resnick of the California Department of Fish and Game.

You can hear the water running under our feet and the snapping sounds of volunteers working to build a barrier made of willow branches to retain the cliff.   We begin our conversation with Chelsea Neill explaining why this area was chosen for creek restoration.

The book Chelsea Neill recommends is “Deep Survival:  Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why,” by Laurence Gonzales.  You can listen to a Radio Curious interview with Gonzales about the book here.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

In 1990 Earth First! activists from Mendocino County were on a road trip to rally support for a summer effort to help protect old growth redwoods in Northern California. For years prior, logging practices took well over 90% of the original redwood growth in the area. Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari, the organizers, were in their car in Oakland, California, in May 1990 when a bomb exploded underneath the driver’s seat where Judi Bari sat.  She and Darryl Cherney were immediately arrested and suspected of bombing themselves. Although charges were never filed against the two, authorities have yet to locate the bombers.  Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari sued and won a jury award of four million dollars against the Oakland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for violating their 1st and 4th amendment rights.

The film, “Who Bombed Judi Bari?” produced by Darryl Cherney, attempts to answer the question posed in the title; it examines their struggle with law enforcement in finding the real bomber and chronicles the history of the local environmental movement here in Northern California.

Christina Aanestad, the Radio Curious assistant producer spoke with Darryl Cherney about the film he produced and his experiences resulting from the bombing. They visited on March 29, 2011, at the studios of KMEC radio, inside the Mendocino Environmental Center, which has a long history of supporting social and environmental movements, including Earth First! They began when Christina asked Darryl Cherney to describe the attempted assassination against him and Judi Bari.

The website for Darryl Cherney’s film is www.whobombedjudibari.com.

The book he recommends is, “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess” by Alan Shlain.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

Radio Curious Assistant Producer, Christina Aanestad speaks with performance artist and poet, La Tigresa about art and activism. La Tigresa made national headlines in 2000 for blockading a logging truck bare breasted while reciting poems of the Goddess, to save old growth redwood trees in Northern California.

The book La Tigresa recommends is “Pronoia is the Antidote to Paranoia,” by Rob Brezsny.

La Tigresa’s website is www.latigresa.net.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

Radio Curious brings you an archived interview with Maria Stewart, as portrayed by Sandra Kamusukiri.  Maria W. Stewart, was a free black woman who lived in Boston, MA, from the 1820s to the early 1840s. She was the first American born woman to lecture in public on political themes and likely the first African-American to speak out in defense of women’s rights.

Click here to visit and listen to our archived program.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

The decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Citizen’s United v. Federal Elections Commission in January 2010, substantially changed the political process in the United States. That decision held that corporations have the same constitutional rights as have individual people. Four of the nine Supreme Court Justices believe the Citizen’s United was wrong. So many other American’s share that belief that a nationwide grass roots effort called Move to Amend has been organized to promote the 29th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This new amendment would change the result of the Citizen’s United decide and declare:

“The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.”

An amendment to the Constitution requires a two thirds vote of approval in both the House of Representatives and in the United States Senate. It then must be adopted by three-fourths, or thirty-eight, of the fifty states to become the law of the land.

Many city councils including those of Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, Oregon, have passed resolutions urging their congressional representatives to support this amendment. Listeners in Mendocino County, the home of Radio Curious, may soon sign petitions to put a similar resolution on the November 2012 ballot.

Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is David Cobb, an attorney from Texas, on leave from his trial practice to promote the adoption of this constitutional amendment. David Cobb visited the studios of Radio Curious on February 13, 2012, to talk about Move To Amend. We began our conversation when I asked him to explain why the constitution should be amended to repeal the effect of the Citizen’s United decision.

The books David Cobb recommends are “Gangs of America, The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy,” by Ted Nace, and ”Corporations Are Not People: Why The Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About it,” by Jeff D. Clements.

The Move To Amend website is www.movetoamend.org.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

In response to the attempts to end “Occupy” movements in different parts of the United States beginning the November 2011, local people in and near west coast sea ports on Monday, December 12, 2011 gathered to occupy their local port.

Radio Curious Assistant Producer, Christina Aanestad, went to the Port of Oakland where she met with and interviewed organizers, participants and bystanders. Her journey began at 5:30 am on a cold Monday morning at the West Oakland Bart Station. The first person with whom she spoke was a woman cloaked in a bright blue tarp with the words “The People’s TARP” inscribed thereon.

Before we hear the voice of this woman it is important to remember that TARP is an acronym for the U.S. government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program established to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions purportedly to strengthen its financial sector to address the subprime mortgage crisis. TARP originally authorized $700 Billion Dollars in 2008 to cover unorthodox real estate loans. 50 year old Karen Mackley wore what she called the people’s tarp.

The books Christina Aanestad recommends are “Pronoia is the Antidote of Paranoia: How the Whole Workd is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings,” by Rob Brezsny, and “Angry Women” by Andrea Juno.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

The history of the Mendocino Environmental Center, as told by its co-founder Betty Ball, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Betty and her late husband Gary Ball, founded the Mendocino Environmental Center, based in Ukiah, California in early 1987, which soon became a central organizing hub for several environmental movements in Northern California.

The issues in those years included protection of the Northern California coast from off shore oil drilling, an effort which has remained successful; the Forests Forever initiate campaign in behalf of the Heritage Tree Preservation Act, which narrowly lost a state-wide California election in 2002; and Redwood Summer, a non violent civil disobedience effort to protect old growth redwood trees in northern California from being logged, modeled after the Mississippi Summer civil rights projects in 1964. Shortly before the planned beginning of Redwood Summer in June 2000, Judi Bari, a Redwood Summer organizer was severely injured in a car bomb explosion in Oakland, California. In a subsequent civil jury trial the F.B.I. and the Oakland Police Department were found liable for certain matters related to the bombing, and ordered to pay over $4,000,000.00 compensation. The bombers still remain at large.

These and other issues are discussed in this interview with Betty Ball, which was recorded for video and audio broadcast on November 7, 2011, at the studios of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California. We began when I asked Betty Ball what drew her and her late husband, Gary Ball into the environmental movement.

The books that Betty Ball recommends are any written by Arundhati Roy, Derrick Jensen or Chris Hedges.

This interview with Betty Ball was recorded for radio and television broadcast with the generous cooperation of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California, and the engineering assistance of Mikah Mate.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download the podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (0)

This program is about honey. We visit with Keith Feigin, owner of Lovers Lane Farm, at his bee keeping center in Ukiah, California. We discuss bees on the loose, how they orient themselves to a new location, communicate with each other and how Keith harvests the “liquid gold.”  Keith was just leaving to catch up with some bees on the loose when I arrived, and that’s when our conversation began in mid August 2011.

The book that Keith Feigin recommends is the “Secret Life of Bees,” by Sue Monk Kidd.  You may contact Keith Feigin via email at loverslanefarm@gmail.com.

This interview was recorded on the streets of Ukiah and at Lovers Lane Farm in Ukiah, California on August 15, 2011.

Click here to listen to the program or on the media player below.

Click here to download and subscribe to our podcast.

Podcast: Download

• » Comments (1)