Radio Curious

A former dump site at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Ft. Bragg, California, is part of the story in this edition of Radio Curious.

Captain Cass Forrington, creator and owner of the Glass Beach Museum, and the author of “Beaches Of Glass, a History & Tour of the Glass Beaches of Fort Bragg, California,” is our guest.   He is also a Master Mariner, holder of an unlimited Master’s Certificate, allowing him to be the captain of any size sea going vessel.  He has many stories to tell.

Captain Cass and I sat on Glass Beach No. Two in Ft. Bragg, on a windy afternoon, June 2, 2012, with the waves lapping ten feet away.  We began when I asked him to describe Glass Beach.  But keep listening to hear his story about putting his hands in acid 40 years ago.

Captain Cass Forrington’s website is: captcass.com

Capt. Cass Forrington recommends a movie and a book. The book is “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology,” by Ray Kurzweil.  And the movie is “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

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Imagine Darya, a twelve year old girl in a remote village of Afghanistan.  Her father forces her to marry a drug lord as part payment for an opium drug trade.  Her father is not home and she is about to be taken from her family.  Desperately, her hands trembling, she implores you, a complete stranger:  “Please don’t let him take me.”

In this edition of Radio Curious we visit Fariba Nawa, author of “Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan.”  Fariba Nawa was ten years old when her family fled Afghanistan shortly before the Soviet invasion in 1979.  Eighteen years later Fariba Nawa met twelve year old Darya when she returned to her native Afghanistan as an Afghan-American investigative journalist.  Her book tells Darya’s story, and reveals what the Afghan opium drug trade is doing to her native land in the midst of war.

Fariba Nawa and I visited by phone from her home near San Francisco, California on January 23, 2012. We began with her description of coming to the United States and flight from Afghanistan.

Fariba Nawa’s website is www.faribanawa.com. The book she recommends is “Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War,” by Annia Ciezaldo.

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One of the things I learned in law school about bankruptcy was that if you have to borrow money to take a trip and then go bankrupt, the judge can’t take the trip away from you. In this edition we have a travel report from Christina Aanestad the Associate Producer for Radio Curious. Christina recently returned from a 6 week exploratory, journalist visit from Ecuador, a favorite country of mine.

We visited at the Radio Curious studios on August 29, 2011, to discuss her adventures and what she learned about oil drilling, gold mining and dam construction, as well as what motivated her to take this trip.

The books that Christina Aanestad recommend are, “Now is the Time to Open Your Heart,” by Alice Walker and “Pronoia is the Antidote to Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings,” by Rob Brezney.

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Radio Curious host and producer Barry Vogel and associate producer Janet Mendell attended the 10th international congress of the World Association of Community Broadcasters, known as AMARC.  AMARC is a network of more than 4,000 community radio stations, in more than 100 countries.

Founded in 1983, its goal is to democratize the media sector. AMARC advocates for the right to communicate at the international, national, local and neighborhood levels. It defends and promotes the interests of the community radio movement through global solidarity, networking and cooperation. The 10th AMARC congress was held near Buenos Aires, Argentina the second week of November 2010, with 500 delegates from 86 countries present.

In addition to presenting a workshop on interviewing skills, Radio Curious interviewed conference delegates from several different countries. In this edition of Radio Curious, the first in a series about local community radio around the world, we visit with Fadi Abuzada, a community radio activist in Palestine and AHM Bazlur Rahman, the CEO of the Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication.

The interviews were recorded in November 2010, in La Plata, Argentina.

Fadi Abuzada recommends the movie, The Little Town of Bethlehem.

AHM Bazlur Rahman recommends visiting his organizations website, www.bnnrc.net, instead of reading a book.

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From interrogating Japanese prisoners of war to working as an anti-war activist, Ukiah, California resident Charles Fogg has led a varied and fascinating life. At 91 years of age he talks through his life’s journey. After studying Oriental studies at the University of California, Berkeley and traveling through Japan and China during those studies, he was drafted into the military and attended the Monterey Language School, where his proficiency in Asian languages grew. During World War Two he interrogated Japanese prisoners of war and Chinese prisoners of war in the Korean conflict. After retiring from the U.S. army in 1966 as a Lieutenant Colonel he became active in George McGovern’s presidential campaign and the anti Vietnam war movement. I spoke with Charles Fogg in the studios of Ukiah TV on December 11th 2009 and began by asking him about his early travels in Japan and China.

The book recommended by Charles Fogg is “The Raj Quartet,” by Paul Scott.

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Some of us may be curious about the vast diversity of plants around the world and might wonder who collects and identifies new species and where might we see them displayed? In this edition, the 2009 Radio Curious tour of Scotland continues as we visit with Alan Bennell, head of visitor services at the Royal Botanic Garden located in Edinburgh, Scotland. Alan Bennell guides us through this horticultural extravaganza and describes how the collection has grown since it opened in the 17th Century and how the research conducted there is used in conservation efforts around the world.

This interview with Alan Bennell was recorded on May 18th, 2009, a windy rainy day with birds singing in the background, in the Royal Botanic Garden located in Edinburgh, Scotland. We begin the conversation by asking him to introduce himself and the gardens. Please ignore the sounds of the wind and rain, but do enjoy the chirping of the birds.

The book recommended by Alan Bennell  is “The Chronicles of Bob Dylan,” by Bob Dylan.

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As part of a series of Radio Curious on tour in Scotland,  we interview Jim Fairlie, the organizer of Farmers Markets in Scotland. Jim is a farmer by trade at Logie Almond Farm near Perth in the southern end of the Scottish Highlands. A decade ago, following the mad cow disease crisis, Jim Fairlie saw the need for farmers to market their own produce rather than rely on Government subsidies. After returning from a holiday in France, where he was blown away by the local markets, he set up Edinburgh’s much celebrated monthly farmers market, which now attract as many as 10,000 visitors. In our conversation we discuss how the farmers market movement gained momentum and the trials and tribulations of getting farmers and consumers to understand each other’s needs.

I spoke with Jim Fairlie at his farmhouse kitchen table near Perth, Scotland on May 17th 2009. We began with his story of how farmers markets in Scotland began.

The book Jim Fairlie recommends is “We Need To Talk About Kevin,” by Lionel Shriver

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In this edition of Radio Curious we would like to take you to Bhutan! East of Mount Everest and bordered by India and Tibet, Bhutan is a mystical kingdom considered by many as The Last Shangri-La. We will be visiting “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” an exhibit which is currently displayed at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco until May 10^th 2009.

We start in conversation with Therese Bartholomew, the curator of the exhibit who helps us to understand what inspired the exhibit and the trials and tribulations of transporting such valuable religious objects from monasteries at the top of Bhutanese mountains to the city of San Francisco.

Through todays edition we will also visit the exhibit itself and hear some of the ceremonies, meet the monks who have travelled with the exhibit and take a tour with museum docent Henny Tanugjaja.

We spoke with Therese Bartholomew from her home in San Francisco on the March 27, 2009 and began by asking her what makes Bhutan and Bhutanese arts so special?

Therese Bartholomew is the Curator Emeritus of Himalayan Arts at the Asian Art Museum San Francisco the book she recommends is “My Life and Lives, The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation” by Rato Khyongla Nawang Losang

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In the story of Don Quixote, the author Miguel Cervantes tells, among other things, what Don Quixote ate for dinner every day of the week. This, in part became the inspiration for a book entitled, “Cooking from the Heart of Spain: Food of La Mancha,” written by Janet Mendel, an American woman who has lived in Spain for approximately 40 years. This book and the name of the author ignited my spontaneous curiosity, so when Janet Mendel and I visited by phone from her home on the southern coast of Spain in June 2007, I asked about her focus and inspiration to write a cookbook centered around Don Quixote de La Mancha.

The book she recommends, not surprisingly, is “Don Quixote,” by Miguel Cervantes, in the English translation by Edith Grossman.

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