Radio Curious

We humans are a lot like the other primates on earth, but because we don’t associate with them, we often assume that our interpersonal behavior, how we make friends, work together, interact with strangers, relate to our spouse is the produce of our unique personalities and environment.

In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Dario Maestripieri, author of “Games Primate Play: An Undercover Investigation of the Evolution and Economics of Human Relationships.”  He’s a professor Comparative Human Development, Evolutionary Biology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry, and Behavior Neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

Professor Maestripieri and I visited by phone from his office in Chicago, Illinois on April 16, 2012 and began with a description of the close relationship human have with other primates.

The book he recommends is “Auto-Da-Fe,” by Elias Canetti.

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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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Who gets to be in the media and who doesn’t?  That’s the topic of this edition of Radio Curious in a conversation with Jeff Cohen, co-founder of FAIR-Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

A commentator on Fox news, CNN and MSNBC, Cohen offers an insider’s critique of mainstream media today.  He is the author of “Cable News Confidential, My Misadventures in Corporate Media,” published in 2006.  We spoke in the studios of Radio Curious March 13, 2012 and began our conversation when I asked Jeff to discuss the subterfuge that exists in media today.

Jeff Cohen’s website is www.jeffcohen.org.

The book he recommends is Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.”

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How to get below the radar of your mind and what to do once you’re there is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious.  One goal is to reach the quantum of personal leaning in the sub-conscious mind and bring that experiential knowledge to the conscious mind of daily life.  A trusted guide is often beneficial.

Our guest is Dr. Jeffrey Zeig, in another conversation about the Ericksonian approach to psychotherapy.  He is the founder and director of the Milton Erickson Foundation and a clinical psychologist based in Phoenix, Arizona.  Dr. Zeig has directed multiple conferences on the evolution of psychotherapy including the 11^th Milton Erickson Psychotherapy Conference where he and I met in December 2011, in Phoenix, Arizona.

We began our conversation when I asked him about the history of psychotherapy.

The books he recommends are “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery as well as the books written by Leo Tolstoy.

Jeff Zeig’s website is www.jeffzeig.com.  The Milton Erickson Foundation website is www.erickson-foundation.org.

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Are you interested in a social lubricant, perhaps social glue, or an antidote to depression, stay tuned, you’re in the right place here at Radio Curious.  In this edition we visit with Steven Sultanoff, who portrays himself as a mirthologist and humorologist with a Ph.D. in psychology.  Dr. Sultanoff frequently uses humor in his work, and regularly in his daily life.

Steven Sultanoff and I met when Radio Curious attended the 11^th Milton Erickson Psychotherapy Congress in Phoenix, Arizona in early December, 2011, where Steven Sultanoff presented a workshop about the importance of humor in psychotherapy and daily life.  I laughed at some of what I heard and asked him if we could visit in front of the Radio Curious microphone.  He agreed.  We began as he described the role of humor in society and his professional practice.

Steven Sultanoff, Ph.D. is a specialist in the use of humor in psychotherapy.  His website is www.mirthmatters.com.  The books Steven Sultanoff recommends are all by Malcolm Gladwell:  “Blink,” “Outliars,” and “The Tipping Point.”

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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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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.

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One man’s personal experience in recognizing his homosexuality, is the subject of this program.  Until the mid 1970s homosexuality was considered by many people to be a mental disorder and/or a crime, as it still is in some personal and political belief systems.  Homosexual people sometimes were housed in mental institutions, given medication and suffered an array of treatment methods, including shock therapy and other forms of behavior modification.

Professor Robert Dole, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, was one of many individuals subjected to behavior modification of that period in time. In his book, “How to Make a Success of Your Schizophrenia,” he explains how the “treatment” he endured as an attempt to alter his homosexual preference made him schizophrenic.  His personal memoir describes his experiences growing up in the 1960s as a gay man, his institutionalization at the McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, the schizophrenia that consumed him as a result of his treatment, his self-led recovery, partially based on a spiritual experience, and his subsequent extraordinary life in academia.

Professor Dole, who is fluent in seven languages, teaches English as a Foreign Language at the University of Chicoutimi in rural Quebec, Canada, where he has lived for 30 plus years.  He and I visited by phone from his office at the University of Chicoutimi on November 4, 2011 and began our conversation when I asked to describe the schizophrenia he experienced.

The books Professor Robert Dole recommends are: “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” by Leo Tolstoy and any book from Stefan Zweig.

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Racial Politics in America is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, in our third visit with author and Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy, whose latest book is “The Persistence of the Color Line:  Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency.”  Kennedy is also the author of  “Nigger:  The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word,” and “Interracial Intimacies:  Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption.”  We visited by phone from his home in Massachusetts on October 28, 2011, and began our conversation when I asked him to describe the current role of race in American politics.

The book Randall Kennedy recommends is “Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination,” by Alondra Nelson.

The interview with Professor Kennedy about his book “Nigger:  The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word,” may be heard here and the interview about his book, “Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption,” may be heard here.

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