Radio Curious

Do we really know the people around us? Our children? Our family? Our friends? Or are we strangers in our own community? Mary Catherine Bateson, the author of a book entitled, “Full Circles: Overlapping Lives, Culture and Generation in Transition,” believes that we are strangers. She describes us as immigrants in time, rather than space.In this interview from the archives of Radio Curious, recorded in April 2000, we visit with Mary Catherine Bateson, the daughter of two distinguished anthropologists, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson.

Originally Broadcast: April 17, 2000.

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The history of women has existed as long as humans have, but it was not until the last half of the 20^th Century that women’s history received recognized academic attention.  Our guest, Professor Gerda Lerner was a pioneer in the movement to study and record the history of women.

Gerda Lerner led an extraordinary life from April 30, 1920 to January 2, 2013.  She was a historian, author and teacher, and ultimately a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin.  Her academic work was characterized by the attention she drew to the differences among women in class, race and sexual orientation.

Professor Lerner and I visited by phone in October 2002, began with her description why the distinctions among women of class, race and sexual orientation are important.

Originally Broadcast: October 1, 2002.

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass were good friends from the mid 19th century to the late 19th century, and were active leaders in the fight for the rights of women and blacks throughout their lives.  From time to time they got together to visit and talk about America, as they knew it. In this archive edition of Radio Curious recorded in May 1996, I met with Chautauqua scholars Sally Roesch Wagner and Charles Pace who portrayed Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass. We began our conversation when I asked them each to tell us what it was like to be an American during their life time.

Originally Broadcast: July 3, 1996.

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Few words in the English language have caused so much pain, hurt and emotion as the N-word. It is arguably the most consequential social insult in American history. The long history of the pejorative use of the N-word has given it an unusual power that extends to the judicial system, literature and social settings.

Randall Kennedy, a professor of Law at Harvard University Law School, is the author of “Nigger-the Strange Career of a Troublesome Word.”  His book chronicles the history of this word, in an effort to diffuse and neutralize it.

Originally Broadcast: March 19, 2002

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The people of the Nuba Mountains, located in northeast Africa, just north of the new nation of South Sudan, are in a crisis that may well threaten their very survival.  In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with retired Professor Sam Totten, author of “Genocide by Attrition:  Nuba Mountains, Sudan,” and “An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide.”  Sam Totten returned from a two week visit to the Nuba Mountains on January 11, 2013.
When he and I visited by phone from his home near Fayetteville, Arkansas, on January 13, 2013, we began with his description of the civil war there.

The book Professor Sam Totten recommends is “The World of Darfur: International Response to Crimes Against Humanity in Western Sudan,” by Amanda Grzuyb and Romeo Dallaire.

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Click here to listen to our June 2011 interview with Professor Sam Totten.

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We continue our conversation about sexuality with Eric Berkowitz, author, journalist and lawyer.  His book, “Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire” is a story of the struggle to regulate the most powerful engine of human behavior. This engine that drives the human species is substantially different in us than in other mammals. In our million years of evolution, physically and socially we have developed the ability to communicate ideas and the expected, if not “required” behaviors of women and men and children regarding sexual thought, expression and procreation. The history of these ever changing definitions and controls of this fundamental aspect of our lives are visited in this two part series of conversations with Eric Berkowitz, recorded in the Radio Curious studios on December 29, 2012.

Part One discusses the effect the topic of sex has on other people; the development of laws dealing with adultery and women as property; enjoyment of sex; and the way humans dress compared to other animals.

Part Two discusses the issues of young women having sexual relationships with considerably older men; the intention and effect of religion in relationship to sex; prostitution; and same sex intimacy.

The books Eric Berkowitz recommends are “Nemisis,” by Philip Roth, “Love and Exile: An Autobiographical Trilogy,” by Issac Bashevis Singer, and “Jerusalem: The Biography,” by Simon Sebag-Montefiore.

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Life, culture and racism is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, in conversation with attorney/novelist Martha McCabe, author of “Praise at Midnight.”

Martha McCabe worked as a civil rights and criminal trial lawyer in deep east Texas from 1974 to 1985.  Her goal was to pour the raw material from her personal experiences as a lawyer into her story.  It took Martha McCabe ten years to complete “Praise at Midnight,” her first novel.  The deeper level into which she fell during that ten year period was recognizing the importance of consciousness and self awareness in avoiding the projection of one’s own dark side onto other people and then killing them, not only on a local level, but an international level as well.

Martha McCabe and I have been associates, good friends and colleagues since 1969 when we met at the University of Santa Clara where I was a law student.

When I spoke with Martha McCabe from her home in San Antonio, Texas on July 29, 2006, we began with her description of the culture of deep east Texas when she lived there from 1974 to 1985.

The books she recommends are “Reading Lolita in Teheran” by Azar Nafisi and “Caballero: A Historical Novel” by Jovita Gonzalez and Eve Raleigh.

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We continue our conversation with Pulitzer winner Isabel Wilkerson, author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.”  In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life.

Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people for her book. She is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of the George Polk Award and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Her parents were part of the great migration, journeying from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington D.C.

In part 2 of our conversation, recorded from her home near Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2012, Isabel Wilkerson describes the inspiration behind her narrative non-fiction story of the six million African-Americans who migrated from the south between 1915 and 1970.

The books Isabel Wilkerson recommends are “The Ark of Justice,” by Kevin Boyle and “The Optimist’s Daughter,” by Eudora Welty.

Part one of our interview with Isabel Wilkerson is here.

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In the years between 1915 and 1970 almost six million black American citizens from the south migrated to northern and western cities seeking freedom and a better life. Our guest is Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson author of “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” Her book tells the untold experiences of the African-Americans who fled the south over three generations.

Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people for her book. She is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of the George Polk Award and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Her parents were part of the great migration, journeying from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington D.C.

In the first of two interviews recorded from Isabel Wilkerson’s home near Atlanta, Georgia, on September 28, 2012, she begins with a description of the “biggest untold story of the 20^th century.”

The book Isabel Wilkerson recommends is “The Ark of Justice,” by Kevin Boyle.

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