Radio Curious

What would it be like for you if you were deaf? If you could not speak your first word until you were six? If you had three years of education, your first language was German, and you later emigrated to another country where they speak English?  Ingelore is the first name of a woman who was born in Germany in 1924, and came to America in 1940 at the beginning of the Third Reich, right after Kristallnacht. The film “Ingelore” was made by Inglelore’s son Frank Stiefel, and it tells his mother’s story.  This edition of Radio Curious begins with we a piece from the movie “Ingelore” in which she explains who she is and a little of her story. As we hear is her ability to articulate words in English it’s important to remember  she cannot hear.

This interview was recorded on May 29th, 2010 with Frank Stiefel from his home in Santa Monica, California.

The books that Frank Stiefel recommends are “Hand Of My Father,” by Myron Uhlberg, and “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy.

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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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What is the importance forgetting has played throughout human history? What will be the effects on society, relationships and humanity now that so many aspects of our lives are digitally preserved? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger author of “Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age,” and guest on this edition of Radio Curious has some insight into these questions. He argues that the capacity for eternal memory can have unanticipated and often unwanted consequences. The potentially humiliating content on Facebook forever enshrined in cyberspace and Google’s search memory of the content and time of all our on-line searches may in the future reveal portions of our past we have entirely forgotten and would everyone else did too.

In this two part edition of Radio Curious with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, we explore some of the ways in which our personal information, data, conversations and experiences are forgotten by us as individuals. We also consider the future potential effects on society of digitally preserved information, as well as the consequences of remembering what is sometimes best forgotten.

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is director of the Information and Innovation Policy Research Centre at the National University of Singapore and author of the book “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting In The Digital Age.” He spoke with us by phone from his home in Singapore on January 4th 2010. We began by asking what effect the imbalance of remembering and forgetting in the digital age has on our lives.

The search engine mentioned which allows a search history to be deleted is www.ask.com. The website which allows you to share information and attach a set expiration date after which the information will be deleted is www.drop.io

The book Viktor Mayer-Schönberger recommends is “Collected Fictions,” by Jorge Luis Borges. The film he recommends is “The Lives Of Others,” directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

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Modern life has become a constant stream of electronic devices demanding our attention. What are the consequences when we choose e-mail, Blackberries or Facebook over real person to person contact? Winifred Gallagher, our guest on this edition of Radio Curious suggests that we take charge of our own priorities, controlling electronic devices and not letting them control us. Winifred Gallagher is the author of “RAPT: Attention And The Focused Life,” a book which explores how we allow the limited and valuable resource that is our attention to be electronically squandered and thus not used to our needs or benefit.

I spoke with Winifred Gallagher by phone from her home in New York City on November 30th 2009 and began by asking her about how our focus shapes our lives.

The book Winifred Gallagher recommends is “Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age,” by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger.

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Why do you buy what you buy? What do you hope to gain from it and will it make you a happier, sexier and more successful person? In these days of economic downturn many of us may be questioning whether we really need all this “stuff” and how it impacts our lives?

In this edition of Radio Curious we meet Geoffrey Miller, a tenured professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of New Mexico, and the author of “Spent: Sex, Evolution and Comsumer Behaviour.” During our visit we discuss how our purchasing choices are driven by thousands of years of evolution, how marketers can take advantage of this and how we might try to better understand our consumer instincts.

I spoke with Geoffrey Miller from his home in Australia on May 29, 2009 and began by asking him to define his field of evolutionary psychology.

The book Geoffrey Miller recommends is “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now To End World Poverty,” by Peter Singer.

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Cannabis, commonly known as marijuana has caused considerable debate and political discussion, but just what is in this plant which creates such controversy? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dr. William Courtney, a cannabis Medical Consultant based in Mendocino County, California.

Dr. Courtney has studied the compounds of the cannabis plant known as “cannabinoids,” their various health effects, and the United States government patents held on these compounds. Further details on the legal status and current research relating to cannabis may be found on Dr. Courtney’s website www.leavesofgrass.info

This conversation with Dr. Courtney was recorded in the studios of Radio Curious, Ukiah, California on March 23, 2009. We began when I asked him to describe the compounds in marijuana.

The book he recommends in “The Continuum Concept: In Search Of Happiness Lost” by Jean Liedloff

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Are you jealous? Have you ever been? Do you know the origin of your jealousy? Jealousy often goes hand in hand with feelings of love, but where does this emotion come from, and how can we manage it? In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Marcianne Blevis, author of “Jealousy: True Stories of Love’s Favorite Decoy.” In this book, Marcianne Blevis, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who lives and works in Paris, France, reveals the different ways jealousy affects people and suggests methods to understand and manage what can be a very destructive yet elusive emotion. She examines the deeper consequences of jealousy and inquires if jealousy is useful to us, and is this extraordinary passion in reality a strategy for survival. In this conversation with Marcianne Blevis from her home in Paris, France recorded on February 2nd, 2009 we began by asking her to explain what jealousy is?

The book she recommends is “Aux Confins De L’Identite” by Michel d’Musan currently only available in french.

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Why do smart people do stupid things? This is the question asked by Laurence Gonzales, author of “Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why” and “Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things.” Gonzales examines the mental scripts we follow as we live our lives and how these scripts prescribe our response to a situation based upon our past experiences. The problem is that sometimes these scripts result in wrong and possibly dangerous actions based on insufficient evidence or memory in our past experience. Gonzales’ work demonstrates how these scripts can sometimes lead to us being our own worst enemy.

To break from this cycle and encourage full understanding of a situation and wise decision making, Gonzales encourages “curiosity, awareness, and attention.” He writes, “Those are the tools of our everyday survival… we must all be scientists at heart, or be victims of forces that we don’t understand.”

In a series of two Radio Curious visits with Laurence Gonzales we discuss how our mental scripts are created both genetically and from our personal experiences and how to keep them from getting us in trouble.

I spoke with Laurence Gonzales from his home near Chicago Illinois on January, 19 2009.  Our conversation began when I asked him how human behavior today has been shaped by that of our ancestors many thousands of years ago.

The book he recommends is “Survival in Auschwitz” by Primo Levi

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What is it about the words we speak that convey concepts, nuances, ideas and sometimes even start wars?  Where do they come from, what is their history and how do they shape our minds and ability to communicate?  These are just some of the questions we asked Professor John McWhorter, author of “Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue,” when we spoke with him from his home in New Jersey on December 1, 2008.

The book Professor McWhorter recommends is “Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business,” by Ethan Morddenn.

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